Many buildings in Singapore bear witness to China’s influence. This influence can also be seen in a new residential building for large families, a so-called Siheyuan. Not only are the principles of feng shui important here, but also those of family and community.
Many buildings in Singapore bear witness to China’s influence. This influence can also be seen in a new residential building for large families, a so-called Siheyuan. Not only are the principles of feng shui important here, but also those of family and community.
China’s influence can be found everywhere in the Asian metropolis of Singapore. Chinatown, temples, shophouses, gardens and landscape architecture tell of the former influence of China and its clans. The bridge between China and Singapore still exists today: the design and research office Neri&Hu from Shanghai has now built a siheyuan in the tropical financial metropolis, a modern residence modeled on Chinese residential courtyards. Not only the design of the House of Remembrance, its architecture, comes from Neri&Hu. The interior and design were also in the hands of the researching and innovative team from the design and research office in Shanghai. So there are new traces of Chinese building culture in the island and city state of Singapore.
Siheyuans
These residential courtyards have existed in China since the 3rd century and are one of the classic building typologies in the Middle Kingdom. Siheyuans are closed residential complexes, often on a rectangular floor plan. They are earth dwellings with compact, solid outer walls and a representative gabled roof. When designing a siheyuan, the choice of a suitable location, the carefully considered arrangement of the rooms and the use of natural elements are crucial. These guiding principles are derived from the general principles of Feng Shui with the aim of creating harmony between people and their environment. Siheyuans are designed for large families. In them, several generations live under one roof and the concept of community is fundamental. Their structural arrangement is characterized by the Chinese architectural principles of axial symmetry and spatially mediated social hierarchy: the main entrance, the family hall, the family temple and the rooms for the family elders are always located on the central axis. The height of individual rooms stands for the social significance of their users.
Multi-generational house
The private client of the House of Remembrance had special requirements and suggestions for the design. The house was to be built on the site of the existing Victorian building, the family’s former siheyuan. This old building had to make way for the new building. The new siheyuan was intended as a home for three siblings who had grown up together in the previous building. A memorial room was planned in memory of the siblings’ deceased mother, which was designed as a garden. A pitched roof, the characteristic feature of the previous building, was also to be added to the new building as a reminder of the three siblings’ childhood. Neri&Hu therefore had the task of giving a spatial structure to ideas of communal living and collective memory.
Center and axes in the Siheyuan
In the new two-storey building, all the communal areas are arranged around a central circular green courtyard. This is the memorial garden for the mother of the three siblings. All first floor areas are also accessed via this courtyard. The circular path that one walks around the greenery in the courtyard is intended to intensify the memory of the matriarch. It lends the memorial space a sacred aspect through the infinite character of the circular path. The garden is the actual center of the house and, reminiscent of the mother, also the common background for the collective coexistence of all residents.
The first floor is visually very transparent and is largely glazed except for the entrance area. There is an unobstructed view of the memorial garden from the rooms. There are floor-to-ceiling glass doors that can be opened to the courtyard and the garden side, so that the house can also take advantage of cross-ventilation under optimal climatic conditions. The garden with pool area can also be accessed from the memorial garden via the communal room. The building is shielded from the outside on the three sides facing away from the street by the old existing vegetation.
Open and closed system
The upper floor is housed in the high pitched roof, which is clearly visible from afar. Despite the window openings, it appears almost monolithic and reverses the transparency of the first floor, thus becoming a screen to the outside. The boundary between public and private areas is drawn. All the more intimate rooms are located on the upper floor, especially the private bedrooms. There, skylights and large glass walls connect with balconies and offer views of the surrounding garden areas or residential towers of Singapore. The material language is as reduced as the design in the sense of “sacred geometry”. It is an architecture of steel, glass and concrete and an interior of wood, steel, metal, ceramics, glass and subtly colored cement plaster.
