Freight Architects models inward-facing Singapore home on traditional shophouses

The Japanese spatial concept of oku, or inwardness, informed an "unfolding" series of rooms and gardens at this home in Singapore, designed by local studio Freight Architects.

Aptly named Oku House, the home occupies a long, narrow plot in the Serangoon Gardens neighbourhood.

Both Freight Architects and its client were interested in drawing on Singapore's traditional shophouse typology – tall, narrow terraced buildings that typically feature a shop on the ground floor and living spaces above.

"The unusually deep site presented both a challenge and an opportunity," Freight Architects director Kee Jing Zhi told Dezeen.

"After learning that the client purchased the house because it reminded them of the long shophouses in Penang and Malacca, we decided to reimagine the concept of a shophouse."

"Inspired by the idea of 'oku', we aimed to unfold and reveal the spaces within the house," he added.

Set back from the street, the home is accessed via a small water lily garden and tiled entrance foyer, creating the first of several transitions between outdoors and indoors that have been introduced throughout the home's long, narrow form.

What would typically be a shop space has been reinterpreted as a triple-height courtyard at the heart of the ground floor, flanked by a living space to the north and a kitchen and dining area to the south and traversed via a concrete paved walkway.

Informed by the concept of oku, the majority of the home's spaces look inwards towards this courtyard – the living areas through glazed walls and the bedrooms above from a wooden balcony that connects either end of the home.

"We designed Oku House with the concept of 'open architecture' in mind, where the space is designed to 'breathe'," Zhi said.

"Upon entering the living room, an open courtyard gradually unfolds, revealing the core of the home. Spaces are progressively revealed through a series of thoughtfully placed staircases and bridges that span across the courtyard," he added.

Other areas of Oku House also benefit from access to smaller outdoor spaces, including a stack of terraces at the rear of the home, which provides the first-floor family room and attic studio with their own dedicated gardens.

For the material palette of the home, the studio referenced wabi-sabi, another Japanese concept, with grey bricks and rough plastered walls contrasted by pale wooden fittings.

Based in Singapore, Freight Architects was founded by Kee Jing Zhi, Chen Kian Khiong and Tan Kian Teck.

Other homes in Singapore recently featured on Dezeen include a dwelling by Wallflower Architecture + Design that is wrapped by a plant-filled timber lattice and a house organised around a central memorial garden.

The photography is courtesy of Freight Architects. 

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