Entering the front gate, the car porch radiates hospitality, warmed by a burnt-orange timber look-alike aluminium trellis that casts a poetic play of light and shadow on the off-form concrete boundary wall. The materiality of the raw concrete enclosure is further softened by a lush cluster of philodendrons that mark the end of the driveway. 

The sense of arrival as you enter the house is stunning. Capitalising on the terrace house’s elongated nature, EHKA Studio composed an open-concept through plan. Looking past the living room in the foreground, with its contemporary furniture from BoConcept and Made & Make, the rest of the first-storey living spaces form a breathtaking backdrop with a vista that extends to the backyard. EHKA Studio has coloured each living space with its own material palette, allowing one to experience each zone as a world unto itself whilst being spatially interlaced with the overall experience of the first-storey. 

A sky-lit dining room occupies the base of a three-storey high lightwell where three orbed-shaped pendant lights from Flos float above a timber slab dining table accompanied by five leather upholstered dining chairs. 

The dry and wet kitchens are designed as a single entity, with a spacious countertop that flows seamlessly between both. A frameless pocket sliding glass door concealed between the powder room and maid’s room allows for the separation of the two should the need arise. The wet kitchen feels like a semi-outdoor space with the absence of an external wall. “The client was concerned about rain penetration, so what appears as an outdoor space is in fact roofed over with a glazed jack roof which allows light in and fumes and odours to ventilate out.” says Hsu. 

A sky-lit, open-riser staircase provides access to two spacious bedrooms on the second-storey, each with their own ensuite bathroom and study. Both are extensively glazed with carefully positioned windows that either frame views of the outdoors or open onto the internal lightwell.

The third-storey is an exclusive sanctuary for the owners. Located at the top of the stairs, you arrive at a landing drenched in daylight pouring in from a picture window that frames a view of the sky and a tall shrub growing outside on the balcony. A left turn and you enter the master bedroom, a spacious, double-volume space that’s illuminated with soft, dappled light filtered by the perforated aluminium screens facing the street. A dressing table is set to the side, accompanied by a slender window that faces the internal lightwell, tall enough to emit ample daylight and slim enough to maintain privacy. A ship’s ladder provides access to a cosy, timber-clad attic that overlooks the bedroom where the couple can either read or work in solitude.

A vista runs the full length of the third-storey, lending visual depth to the private haven whilst uniting the bedroom and bathroom as two halves of the same whole. The latter is conceived as a brightly lit cave lined in grey tiles reminiscent of lightly chiselled basalt. Twin skylights circumscribe its generously proportioned perimeter which flows into a shower cubicle large enough to accommodate a standing shower and a bathtub. This is a palatial bathroom you’d be happy to get out of bed for.

With the proliferation of Instagram-able interiors and AI-driven imagery, EHKA Studio’s Primrose Avenue house is a breath of fresh air that goes beyond good looks to showcase what is possible in a terrace house when architects apply a higher order of design thinking. 

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