Residential | Case Study
Watten Residences
Type: Cluster House
Best Residential Design Private House in Interior Design Excellence Awards 2021
Watten Residences is a home that unites art, design and craft for two medical professionals and their teenage daughter. This project - a four-storey cluster house, is an architectural piece crafted by Ip:li Architects. Exhibiting the purity of design with simplicity in form, Watten Residences was awarded the 12th Singapore Institute of Architectural Design Awards, recognised for its unique expression and exemplary design.
The living space is intricately detailed, with emphasis placed on materiality and bespoke elements. Embracing a refined and restrained aesthetic in designing this home, serene Japanese aesthetics were combined with Scandinavian functionality and minimalism. The design explores the idea that art and design are separate disciplines but also that art can be fused with everyday life. Beyond its understated luxuriousness, however, is evident incorporation of design elements that reflect the homeowners’ penchant for the arts and is full of creative expression and individuality.
published in The Business Times
Step into Seah Tian Ee’s Watten Estate home, and you might wonder if you have stumbled into an art gallery by mistake. The oral and maxillofacial surgeon and his teenage daughter are both avid artists and their artworks.
Drawing light into the house was one of the main priorities when remodelling the space. We planned to knock down the wall between the living area and staircase to allow more natural light into the house. However, a structural beam was discovered during the renovation, which meant that the wall could not be removed entirely.
Wood Warmth
It functions as a space to paint and also to display completed works. A customised wall-to-wall bookcase serves as a display for the family collection’ of medical books. An organic shaped table next to a row of full-height glass doors is used for dining and reading purposes.
To ensure that the space would feel more like a home than a gallery, we used light wood accents coupled with a soft neutral colour palette, imbuing the home with warmth and a sense of cocooning comfort. The use of natural ash timber brightens up the otherwise cold and sterile look typical to that of an art gallery. The material is used extensively throughout the house, especially in the customised bookshelf as a sliding wood screen, adds a layered effect to the feature wall. In addition, a warm colour palette was paired with grey terrazzo and homogenous flooring for a sophisticated feel. Lighting and furniture are kept minimal, focusing on clean lines and silhouettes, so that they do not detract from the artworks.
Lighting Up
The house had a typical townhouse layout, with a basement, kitchen, dining and living rooms on the first floor, bedrooms on the second floor, while the third level is an entertainment and art studio, with plenty of light coming through the roof windows.
The natural elements in the estate when landscaping the home, bamboo is planted in one garden to create a Japanese Zen-like garden look. And in another part of the house, there’s a frangipani tree, symbolising new life, growth and strength.
Further Reading
Carmen Terrace
Size: 2000 sqft
Type: Inter-Terrace House
Inspired by the sleek minimalism of Scandinavian and Japanese designs, this home is a visual storyboard that represents the conscious layering of earthy colours and natural materials. Carmen Terrace is the result of carefully balancing fragments of the existing structure with modern living.
