Concrete Light: A Semi-Detached House with A Myriad of Construction Details of Concrete

Completed by HYLA Architects in 2018, Concrete Light is a residential project of a semi-detached house. This house is located in Greenleaf Drive, Singapore with two floors. The myriad of construction details in this house comes from the plasticity and structural capability of concrete.

Design

A powerful tool at the early stage of this project’s design process is model making, created to study the form geometry and structural function, porosity, and modularity. The shell of the model is designed with clarity structure in mind and crafted in horizontal and vertical balsa wood strips to represent the beams and concrete volume in a modular size.

Structure

Once again, the module is formulated based on the pine board‐form strip’s actual dimension for the building construction. It also follows the structural specification, creating a chamfer in‐between the panels. This chamfer can emphasize the modules’ division perfectly.

Details

The concrete lattice drapes over the swimming pool and the house, blurring the boundary between outdoor and indoor spaces. The swimming pool of this house extends into the house and it becomes the key focus in spaces’ planning around the triple volume “courtyard”.

The array of framed apertures to the exterior green can give a spatial experience. This exterior extends and becomes a part of the interior landscape.

Concrete Light Gallery

Photographer: Derek Swalwell