Malaysia is a South-east Asian country which consists of multi-cultural society (Malay, Chinese & others). The tropical climate here is warm and humid all year long, the heat island phenomenon is very common in urban and suburban areas. Individual houses in urban area are mostly fully air-conditioned and sealed from the external environment.
Project Name: The Skywalker House
Studio Name: S.PIN ARCHITECT
Location: Malaysia
Site Area: 0.2 Acre
Built Up Area: 9030 Sq. ft.
Status: Built
The house, for a medium size family, is located at Bangsar, a hilly posh suburb near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The site is at the least developed section of the suburb surrounded by green. The brief called for a 3-level modern house which has to sit comfortably on a steep 0.2 acre site overlooking the skyline of Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur’s satellite city. The only access is from the slope toe, 19 meter lower than the rear boundary. The only gentle profile at the hilltop is merely 15% of the site area. This has prompted the architect to seek a new prototype design for this challenging condition.
’SKYWALKING-ON-THE-SLOPE’ CONCEPT
Borrowing idea from the local Malay vernacular architecture with building on stilts, the house was lifted off the ground, ‘skywalks’ on the steep slope, to minimise impact on the existing terrain & trees. Quarter of it has also been cantilevered to minimise the stilts intrusion, with only retaining wall at the slope toe to house car park.
Lift connects the car park to the building. The challenge was to aesthetically tie the 18 meter high lift core onto the facade.
One makes a dramatic arrival at the elevated entrance porch at Level 2 via lift from the car park at the slope toe. When ascending to the entrance level, the outdoor glass jacuzzi greets one midway thru, heightens one’s anticipation of what to come next. At the end, the lift door open to a panoramic skyline on one side & an elevated pool courtyard on the other side.
The common spaces are concentrated at Level 2 with the elevated pool courtyard as the centre feature. All these indoor spaces are interwoven with semi-enclosed family social spaces.
FORM, ELEVATED COURTYARD, WIND CHANNEL & BINNOLI EFFECT
The house basic geometric form enables efficient floor plan. It helps to save enough space to enable the ‘missing’ flat garden land to be brought up to the elevated building via an elevated pool courtyard.
The form also enables efficient structure design and help to cut the steel & concrete usage.
Deriving idea from local old Straits Chinese courtyard home, the linear courtyard was designed to form wind channel punching thru patio and out at the rear garden. The Binnoli Effect of narrowing wind channel increases the wind velocity when the house captures the high level wind from the front, creating cool microclimate around the house (Kindly refer Level 2 plan).
CAISSON FOUNDATION – MINIMISING DISTURBANCE TO THE EARTH
The core of the building is reinforced concrete frame. The manually built Caisson foundation system was selected to eliminate the need to flatten the slope to mobilise pile rigs & equipment, minimising disturbance to the existing earth & plants.
The absent of extensive retaining walls to support the earth & building has substantially reduced the use of concrete.
