5 Jalan Gapis | PSYCHE STATION

This was my very first labour of love and building literally. i recycled as much i could with the building materials. Graduated in Dec 2001 and with no experience at all, decided to embark on my first home buidling project in 2002. I spent 8 months on site working with craftsman and tradesmen, carried and mixed buckets of cement, moved pellets of bricks, etc. i was the contractor, labourer, project manager, interior designer and architect. i had a really tight budget, but managed to pull it all together in the end. Extensive remodellng to this exisiting house and situated in a cul-de sac, verandahs were added and full height timber frame and windows allow visual connections to the landscape. this borrowed external boundary allows visual extension of space, made the small house felt bigger. The bamboo grove surrounded the back and east of the house also provided a cooler mirco climate, as well as the serenity of the hustling of bamboo leaves carressed by the winds. The home was remodelled to encourage as much cross ventillation as possible and allow as much as the outdoors into the house, without destroying its contents. one of the most memoriable moments leaving in the house was looking through the bedroom window on the 2nd floor and watching weaver birds built their hanging nests, chicks appearing and fed by their parents and finally flying away. the bamaboo grove literally supported a micro web of life and it was wonderful to have experienced that so close by. in 2006, a timber screend, steel frame deck was added in the east to shield the western sun.