Australia-based firm Marra +Yeh’s environmentally friendly Stiletto House in Ipoh is a wholly original design with historical and cultural references
In Ipoh, within a gated community inside a golf course development, lies a house which goes against expectations of an upmarket development. Nicknamed Stiletto House by its owners and designed by Australian firm Marra + Yeh, the house reinterprets the traditional Malay house and is built primarily of local materials with non-traditional construction methods.
An exploration of vernacular architecture, the project is a 250 sq m development on a 900 sq m plot of land comprising a larger main house and a smaller guest house. Surrounded by limestone hills, the main building is deliberately pushed to the edge of the slope, setting up a relationship of refuge within and prospect beyond. Creating buildings that are in tune with their environment are the speciality of these Sydney-based architects.
The practice was founded by Ipoh-born Ken Yeh and Carol Marra, an Argentinian from Buenos Aires, who started it in 2000 in Seattle, Washington, and relocated to Australia in 2005. They were finishing up a nearby project within the same development when the Stiletto House owners decided to enquire about their practice after having a look at that home.