Design Anthology - Asia Pacific Edition
Mind, Heart & Soul
Off the coast of Singapore on Sentosa Island stands a stirring house designed by Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan. The owner had admired Kogan since seeing his works in person, and in 2012, he asked the architect and founder of São Paulo-based Studio MK27 to design his family home in Delhi. But before building commenced, the family was uprooted to Singapore. When the client purchased a property in his new home city, he called on Kogan once again.
Minute changes to the existing structure snowballed into major architectural surgery. ‘The intervention became increasingly obtrusive — opening walls, lowering ceiling heights, eliminating staircases, dividing spaces and closing passageways,' explains Pedro Ribeiro, the project's interior design manager. ‘Our objective was to correct proportions and alignments in order to make the internal spaces special.'
The project was an exercise in reduction and focus. Past the entrance, rooms line one side of the corridor, while a courtyard along the other, planted with hurricane palms bunched like flowers, slows the pace. Carlo Scarpa-designed Murano glass chandeliers bounce light onto a staircase, which leads up to four bedrooms on the second storey before reaching a study, spa, gym and playroom in the attic.
Basalt flooring throughout — even in the bathrooms — lends continuity and visual calm (it also feels good underfoot), and walnut-veneered walls and slatted ceilings provide the warmth that has become a signature of the studio. At the entrance, the family room is a timber box anchored by a deep, puffy sofa designed by Patricia Urquiola, perfect for relaxed gatherings.
Capping the corridor is a more formal dining and living room that looks out onto trees lining a golf course.
The living room's five-metre-high space certainly provides drama. Towering bookshelves back timeless, tasteful furniture and light fixtures that fill the vast floor, a collection of design treasures. ‘There's a mixture of pieces from great mid-century designers such as George Nakashima and Finn Juhl, as well as current pieces by Rodolfo Dordoni and Piero Lissoni,' says Ribeiro.
These pieces were amassed from auctions, travels and antique stores. ‘I love the simplicity, minimalism and functionality of mid-century modern design,' says the homeowner. ‘The attention to detail in the manufacturing is incredible. We don't see such finesse today because of mass production techniques.'
Vastu principles — a traditional architectural system from India based on Hindu and Buddhist beliefs — guide the placement of certain spaces, as well as the neat forms of elements like the swimming pool. Designed by landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic, it's a simple rectangle made sublime with Palissandro marble, the same stone that holds up monumental structures like the Milan Cathedral.
It is rare to encounter spaces that affect the soul and senses with their ability to arrest the elemental and metaphysical: soft sunlight mollified by sheer drapes; swaying, leafy silhouettes behind the drapes signalling the presence of wind; the comforting feel of timber that skins surfaces like wallpaper and puckers like fabric on a bench — but here is such a place.