W39 House / ZLG Design

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Text description provided by the architects. We bought the house as a typical Malaysian link terrace typology of the 1980s as part of a bigger housing development, with clustered spaces and many enclosed rooms. Over the course of 27 years, we have done a few alterations. The latest transformation started in 2015 and was completed in 2018, when the kids moved out, leaving us parents behind. This provided the opportunity to reduce the area by one-third of its initial build-up, allowing landscape; we planted a tree inside, and a 3 storey open volume with a new skylight and link bridges.

The entire plan was ripped apart on all floors so that all internal walls are taken down including those for bathrooms which in effect were relocated mostly to one side. Having the kitchen island partially inside-out and using the existing retaining wall as the main feature of the house, with added slabs and creeping plants growing over time.

The 1st floor, in the middle, is the living space around the kitchen and retaining wall. The second floor has 2 sleeping areas only divided by curtains and the lower ground floor is another sleeping/living space designed to allow for independent and self-contained living for our visiting kids or friends with its own front garden and separate entrance. We threw the car out from the original front car porch.

Every space connects to the next flowing into each and becoming one larger space. The top half of the new facade is a series of openable marine plywood slatted windows with a six-bay paneled background. The lower half is all glazing using recycled metal angle frames and hinges salvaged from older houses. The single masonry type we use is from cheap lightweight cement bricks left bare without any plastering on either side. No plastered or lime-wash finished walls allow it to ‘breathe’ and don’t block the air.

The house faces east and sits across an elevated dead-end road facing a valley. There are no fixed dividing walls anywhere in the house and not one single door other than the entrance gate. There’s no need for air conditioning as it is fully open and naturally ventilated throughout all three levels. Using materials that weather well in the tropics, collaborating with the elements, and accepting the fact that patina and traces from weathering give the building the true essence of itself- if it needs replacement after some time we shall our it back together again – evolving and dynamic – climatic has a new meaning.

We continue to observe how nature helps to play its part in bringing the project to life. No anxiety or expectations – just letting go and seeing where this takes us. In truth, we use too much for wanting something we need so little of. We deplete the natural environment of its resources more than we have to. We have been too separate from the universe for too long.