A Family Home Immersed in Nature

Drawing inspiration from the surrounding nature reserve, Monocot Studio designed this home in Singapore’s Bukit Timah by taking a contemporary approach to bringing the outside in

Singapore is both a concrete jungle and a garden city, exemplified by the abundant lush greenery that has been incorporated into buildings and houses. This family home in Bukit Timah is yet another example of this dichotomy, surrounded as it is by the Bukit Timah forest reserve. The four-storey terrace house spans 280 square metres and features bedrooms with private terraces, an open kitchen, a living room wrapped in floor-to-ceiling windows and two striking bathrooms clad in mosaic and finger tiles.

Monocot Studio, the Singapore-based architecture and interiors firm behind the project, took safety as the top priority, consciously avoiding sharp edges and corners so as to make the home as child-friendly as possible. This led to the creation of a fluid and organic space characterised by curves and circles in the form of dome-shaped doors, rounded-edge tables, circular windows and disc-shaped sinks.

In response to the clients’ brief to bring the outdoors in, head designer Mikael Teh and his team used light, neutral colours to generate a sense of warmth and harmony, and plenty of muted greens and timber veneer cladding to echo the nature outside and situate the home within the context of its surroundings. ‘The green symbolises plants and the timber symbolises wood. The timber cladding actually looks almost like vertical tree trunks. This is our modern way of interpreting the concept of bringing the outdoors in,’ Teh explains.

The space is rounded out with a living and dining area that Teh designed to mimic a cafe setting, ideal for the couple to welcome guests, entertain friends and host family dinners, all the while surrounded by nature.

Text / Nicole Chim
Images / Studio Periphery