Warren's Home

People who read this blog - yes all 3 of you, would remember that we introduced you to Warren Liu in an earlier post.

One may even remember that  we found him via the Straits Times in this article.

One month after our initial meeting, Warren was kind enough to show us the house mentioned in the article. His home.

The reason why he showed us the house, was because it was a relatively modest build costing him ~$250 per sq ft.

It was a beautiful home

in hot tropical Singapore, it was a pleasure to sit in his kitchen without the fan on, and enjoy the breeze.

I wasn't a fan of the eclectic furniture choice, but only because I'm quite conservative about furniture and furnishings... but really, everything was gorgeous, given the costs.

I think I would look for alternatives in some areas... instead of aluminium shutters, maybe I would go with wooden plantation shutters... but of course the point at which we delve into the details on architectural finishing is still miles away.

The couple of things I did love:

• The use of space - from a land area of ~1400 sq feet, he cleverly built a >3300 sq ft house
• He managed 3 bedrooms + 2 studies (1 convertible into a guest room) + 1 utility room + a gorgeous multi-tiered open plan living area
• a GREEN roof! like grass... on a roof!
• Gadgets galore (thank you Sonos)
• I was ambivalent about bringing the outdoors in, but my wife loved all the greenery
• oh and check out the pièce de résistance... a TV in the dining table.

View professional pics of his home here.

Meeting #3 - HYLA Architects

HYLA Architects was for us the most mind blowing of meetings. For one, this was the first meeting we had in a plush office in the most chic of wining & dining neighborhoods.

We were greeted in the board room by wooden models of some their more recent works. Light walls highlighted some of the glorious properties they've worked on, some of which are shown below.

If we were choosing an architect based on design alone (read "budgets not a priority") then these would be our guys. 

Also, they were very polished. They had a response for everyone of our requirements. Ventilation important to you? Please have a look at this project (shown on a large flatscreen TV built flush against the boardroom wall). Wow. 

They also shared something that I had never seen before. We got a copy of their portfolio and attached to that, a design questionnaire which sought our inputs on the use of the property and the requirements of each of the members of the household. Nice. I think that this should really be a best practice adopted by all architects. 

Did we mention beautifully bound too?

Han, the principal who spent the hour with us also promised to send across a budget plan for us to work off. This should help us understand the minutiae of costs involved in our rebuild. 

Han Loke Kwang

The principal of HYLA is an industry veteran. The Colombo plan scholar has won multiple architectural awards and most importantly specializes in rebuilds such as ours. 

I don't think that Han has made the job of architect picking an easy one for us. But he has given us plenty to think about. Primarily, if we should rush into this, or wait it out, consolidate our funds and spend the "right amount" only when we can afford it. 

Next stop, our friendly bankers. 

(Photos courtesy of HYLA Architects)

Meeting #2 - REGULATE

AD LAB

Anyone remember the 1995 hit "Regulate"? no? HOW DARE YOU!?!? Warren G is the step-brother of Dr. Dre. The Mayor of Long Beach, California dedicated the week of August 1 to 6, 2005 as the "Warren G Week," because of the time he's donated time to the community.

Now go refresh your memory with this. No man with an entire week named after him should ever be forgotten.

Ok where was I? building houses? right. Still reeling from our meeting with Lee May Ann a couple of nights ago, we really were hoping that Warren Liu, Principal of AD LAB wouldn't be right for us. This was afterall a boutique Architectural practice with over 15 people and they do some pretty kick-ass, cutting edge, forward looking kinda design stuff.

AND we found him via the Straits Times in this article. 

BUT, since we started this hunt 2 weeks ago, and we had committed to this meeting since, we went ahead and dragged our feet to this meeting.

DAMMIT! We were once again blown away. This guy is good.

Warren really put us at ease. We thought that we were better prepared than during our first meeting, so we were throwing all the hard questions with our newly acquired architectural vocabulary. He was unfazed and wowed us with solution after solution, option after option. MOST IMPORTANTLY, this guy excited us with the possibility of new building methods and materials rarely seen in Singapore. If we appoint him, we would be pushing quite a few firsts in this country. I like. #granddesigns #KevinMcCloud

PLUS, his designs were quite kick-ass.

Photos all courtesy of  http://www.a-dlab.com/

This design I didn't like because I thought it was too modern & angular for me - but I think that there are still design elements I could gladly incorporate.

http://www.habitusliving.com.sg/projects/house-with-a-spiralling-garden

About Warren Liu

Ok - I couldn't bring myself to stalk the guy, so I haven't yet started to dig up his CV. what I did find is a whole bunch of awards including one from URA pitching him as one of 20 under 45. sounds like an impressive enough title.

Oh and here's a video of him

Meeting #1 - Makk Daddy

Makk Architects

Ok - so maybe the title doesn't make any sense. Considering that Makk Architects is run by a wonderful lady - LEE May Ann (& therefore not a "daddy" of any sort). Also the word association that comes with a "Mac-daddy" often involves pink feather boas - not something that we want associated with our new home.

BUT I DIGRESS!

OK - May Ann.

I first learnt about her when scouring the internet looking for the difference between solo-practitioners and boutique architectural firms. This article came up. We quite fancied the idea of working with a solo architect who would be dedicated to one project at a time. there wouldn't be distractions, and there weren't overheads like staff and rentals that she needed to be concerned with...

She was an absolute joy to speak to. She tried to understand what our requirements were, talked about our wish list and then shared her design philosophy. We were floored. WE REALLY LIKE HER! more importantly, we really like her designs.

The words "organic", "tropical" and "comfy" come to mind

My wife asked if I reckoned we could be friends after this build... I wasn't sure if we really needed to see another architect... but oh no - I've learnt better than that. MUST. DO. DUE. DILIGENCE. (damn you public service training)

Courtesy of www.makk-pl.com

Courtesy of www.makk-pl.com

About May Ann

Having completed her formal architectural education in mid 1997 from National University of Singapore (NUS) with Honours, May Anne joined the then Housing and Development Board (HDB) in 1998 after doing almost half a year of back-packing and travelling to various countries. Her two and half years at HDB had built a firm and essential foundation on the reality of the professional practice. Moving from a large public sector architectural experience, she decided to join one of the largest architectural practices in the private sector - DP Architects in the year 2000, where she worked for about a year to gain an insight into how it differs from the public sector.

Argh - she even back-packs! what's not to like about an architect who has back-packed?

Photo courtesy of http://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/people/makk-architects-joys-of-a-solo-journey

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET US NOT LIKE THE OTHER ARCHITECTS!