The Apartment House is a three story modern home with an amazing indoor pool, the vision of Singapore-based studio Formwerkz Architects, located in Singapore. The 10,764 square foot (1,000 square meters) project was completed in 2009, with the scale and program of the house suggesting more of a communal dwelling for a multi-tier family. The family called for a design that can accommodate a long wish list of desires of every members and the flexibility for change and expansion of the household.

Strategy
The house is sited on 12,809 square feet (1,190 square meters) of land. It has been organized in two linear volumes, split by a common pool in the middle but connected on the upper floors by the family space. The 2-storey volume houses the parents’ master en-suite on the upper floors, floating above the main living space. A lawn garden sits above on the roof. The 3–storey block primarily, apart from the dining and kitchen on the ground floor, are tailored to the lifestyles of the 3 siblings yielding to their individual narratives.

Apart from this tall list of specificities, the house design has to accommodate for change. This incidentally explains its relatively simple form and raw finish. At the macro scale, the two volumes can be sub-divided into 2 separate bungalow plots with minor alteration to the existing structures. Internally, the spaces are organized to be easily re-configurable as the service spaces and circulation are arranged neatly to one side. This allows most of the room to have high ceiling spaces (to the slab) without the need for false ceiling.

The challenge brought us to engage the very traditional Asian Concept of Multi-generation. Living in our modern aging society and to address the differences in habits, desires, taste or even the potential tensions between individuals or sub-families.

Photos: Courtesy of Formwerkz Architects