Cover The main entrance of this off-form concrete house is set back from the street beneath a low, flat canopy, with the tower-like massing of the upper floors rising behind it
The main entrance of this off-form concrete house is set back from the street beneath a low, flat canopy, with the tower-like massing of the upper floors rising behind it
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Lateral Architects turned a near-unbuildable Sierramas plot into an off-form concrete house designed to hold three generations of one family
On paper, the lot in Sierramas looked like a poor bet. Just over 10 metres of frontage narrowed to roughly four buildable metres once setbacks were applied. A cliff ran along the rear. A municipal reservoir sat on one side, and an under-construction bungalow pressed close on the other. There was no real view in any direction.
“What attracted us was the site, because it looked unworkable,” said Keat Chuah, partner at Lateral Architects, which has offices in Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne and Phnom Penh. She believes a difficult plot leads to a stronger design than an open one does. “A difficult site is more decisive. It rules things out, and what’s left is nearly always better than what we’d have picked unprompted.”
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Seen from above, the concrete house sits between a hillside water tank and the surrounding Sierramas rooftops, its sloping upper storeys visible against the tree line
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Above The rear façade shows the house’s stacked balconies, each finished in timber and glass, above a ground-floor terrace opening onto the garden
Above A corner of the upper storey shows the sloped roofline meeting a full-height window bay finished in a ribbed cladding
The rear façade shows the house’s stacked balconies, each finished in timber and glass, above a ground-floor terrace opening onto the garden
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A conventional bungalow, spread wide with windows on every side, was never going to fit. The architects pulled the house back beyond the required setback so it could sit where the plot widens, and gave up on a horizontal layout entirely. The idea for what came next surfaced in early conversations with the clients, about how they wanted to live: close to one another, but independent. What resulted is what the practice calls three homes under one roof, with each level built almost as its own apartment, so the children could later grow into the house with families of their own.
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Above The long concrete side elevation features narrow punched windows and sloped skylights along the roof edge
Above The rear elevation shows the chamfered upper floors, derived from Sierramas’ height guidelines, alongside the roof-level terrace and skylights
The long concrete side elevation features narrow punched windows and sloped skylights along the roof edge
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Above Seen through surrounding trees, the folded concrete roofline and a balcony opening are visible at the top of the house
Seen through surrounding trees, the folded concrete roofline and a balcony opening are visible at the top of the house
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The building’s shape owes more to Sierramas’ guidelines than to the architects’ preferences. The rules cap wall height above a fixed datum and require the structure to fold back within a sloping plane past that point. Chuah’s team built the design around that requirement instead of fighting it. The chamfered upper floors trace the control line directly, and the same geometry squeezes the top floor down into a roof deck, garden, gym and washing yard, with windows angled up toward the sky where the walls slope away.
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Above A covered walkway along the side of the house, framed in black steel and timber, leads past full-height glazing.
Above The building’s solid concrete flank meets a lower timber-screened volume, with a covered walkway connecting the twox
A covered walkway along the side of the house, framed in black steel and timber, leads past full-height glazing.
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Above A slatted black screen wraps one corner of the house, overlooking the lawn at the rear of the property
Above A slender tree grows in a gravel-bedded corner courtyard, its shadow falling across the render wall and a glazed door beside it
A slatted black screen wraps one corner of the house, overlooking the lawn at the rear of the property
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With the reservoir on one side and the neighbouring house on the other, there was little reason to open the long walls, which also face east and west and would have needed heavy solar control anyway. So openings are placed carefully rather than generously: tall slots where privacy allows, small punched apertures where it doesn’t, and skyward glazing at the folds. Most of the light inside comes from above, through a courtyard, a stairwell and openings at roof level.
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Above A wood-panelled kitchen island with a bar counter and stools opens onto a dining area and glazed doors leading to the garden.
Above A pale kitchen with an oval marble-topped island, integrated appliances and a marble splashback opens onto a balcony through glazed doors
A wood-panelled kitchen island with a bar counter and stools opens onto a dining area and glazed doors leading to the garden.
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The concrete driving that solidity was a hard sell at first. “We initially proposed off-form concrete without expecting it to make it through the first discussion,” Chuah said. “The clients, however, liked it and backed it on the spot, and that decision pretty much set the character of the building.” The contractor built a proprietary formwork system to hold the tall, narrow structure true and keep its joints aligned, complicated further by a formliner that leaves a vertical grain across the shell and by a climate not especially forgiving of exposed concrete. A translucent, lightly pigmented coating went on afterwards to even out the tone and offer some protection from the weather.
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Above A seating area on the roof deck overlooks the neighbourhood toward the hills beyond
A seating area on the roof deck overlooks the neighbourhood toward the hills beyond
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Above A skylight set into an angled ceiling lights a small seating corner furnished with a leather chair and side table
Above A ceiling fan and timber-lined eave shelter a balcony on an upper floor, where the sloped concrete wall meets a punched window opening
A skylight set into an angled ceiling lights a small seating corner furnished with a leather chair and side table
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The route through the house was planned with as much care as the material. The front door sits away from the street, under a low canopy tucked into the setback. Chuah described the arrival as “discreet, gradual, and private, almost humbling.” Past the door, the foyer rises to a courtyard, a corridor carries visitors from public to private areas, and the sequence ends at a fully glazed dining room facing the garden behind. Low, then tall, then wide and green, as Chuah put it, a way of moving through a site that offered no other room to work with.
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Above A freestanding bathtub sits behind a screen of vertical timber louvres, which filter the view out to the garden and hills while preserving privacy
A freestanding bathtub sits behind a screen of vertical timber louvres, which filter the view out to the garden and hills while preserving privacy
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Chuah credits much of the outcome to the clients, who backed decisions that, by her own admission, were unconventional. “They worked alongside us throughout the project, researching construction methods, asking questions, testing possibilities,” she said. “In many ways, the house became a result of that shared process.”
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Photography: Pixelaw Photography
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Jennifer Choo is Regional Managing Editor of Tatler Homes, covering architecture, interior design, and art across Asia. Based in Malaysia, she oversees regional content on luxury residential design and contemporary art collections. Legally trained but choosing to pursue her passion for design, she previously led notable design publications and worked as an interior stylist and art consultant for property developers, design firms, and private clients.
