Persatuan Arkitek Malaysia’s decision to not award gold medals for any projects submitted for its annual awards as of 2016 sent an unequivocal message to the profession. The judges noted that they had “looked not only at the design of the buildings, but also how the architecture responded to the surrounding environment and Malaysian climate” – and none of them met their expectations.
The stalemate was broken the next year by CY Chan Architect, with a private residence called Twinkle Villa in Tanarimba, Janda Baik, Pahang. This is the second time the villa has been named Building of the Year, Malaysia’s highest award for architecture. The jury gave it high marks for “conversing eloquently with the idyllic forest and responding to the setting in a climatic way”. It went on to say: “Hard on the external appearance, it transforms and opens up dramatically towards the woodlands while unravelling the charming and delightful ambience of a retreat within”.
This residence, which sits on a large plot of land in the green enclave Tanarimba in Janda Baik, was initially conceived by CY Chan Architect as a retirement home offering a retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city. Even from the initial meeting, the main request was to keep the site as intact as possible. “The client’s design brief was to preserve the original surroundings, so construction methodology had to be kept to a minimum. This aligned with our thoughts from our first site visit back in 2014, when we were stung by bees while exploring the topography of the site! This inspired us to design a house that would blend with nature without chasing it away,” says Lim Kee Yen, lead architect on Twinkle Villa.
Both the client’s brief and the context are reflected in the final design. “Within the site boundary, we selected the flattest land to avoid cutting too much of the earth and felling large trees. There were 115 trees with a width greater than 1.6m, and only two were sacrificed for the building’s layout. This led to the building’s elongated rectangular shape,” explains Lim.
The highest point of Tanarimba offers spectacular views of the various homesteads that have been built, from the unapologetically modern to Balinese timber fantasies. Although impressive, these structures reflect the owners’ tastes more than a response to the majestic pine trees and old tropical hardwood forests around them. In contrast, Twinkle Villa is hidden from the street, and can only be accessed through a tree-lined path.
With its striated, gravity-defying C-shaped volume perched lightly on top of natural slopes, the building has two faces. A solid raw concrete wall rises dramatically above the roof on one side, while a carefully chosen palette of materials emphasises materiality and modularity on the other, where clay brick walls, fair-faced concrete, and bamboo railings embrace the forest.
“Fair-faced concrete was cast on-site for main building components such as facade walls, concrete roofs, columns, and beams, while clay brick walls divided internal spaces. There was no plastering or painting. This is a way to minimise environmental damage, and they will require minimal maintenance in the long run,” Lim extols. “Furthermore, the natural appearance of the materials coordinates with the original forest palette, such as the bamboo we found on-site that was used as railings and now enhances the aesthetics of the building.
“Following the client’s initial brief, the original plan was to house all of the client’s needs– living room, dining room, kitchen, and five bedrooms – in a rectangular enclosure. As the focal point of the house, a double-volume Living Platform would serve as a circulation space tucked into one corner. During construction, the owner, however, changed his mind and decided he only needed a room, a library, and a bathroom for his private use. The other rooms would be used as guest rooms.
To embrace the external surroundings, the architects opened up the rectangular enclosure and the Living Platform. “The entrance doesn’t have a physical door. We created an entrance statement rather than an entrance itself. This enhances the layering of spaces by opening up the enclosure. “We created a variation of spaces through spatial layering, and you can clearly see the layering of solid and void spaces,” Lim explains.
In a project with such a high green agenda, it was only natural that environmental design strategies would be thoroughly considered. First of all, having an open plan concept from the entrance to the Living Platform takes advantage of the lower temperatures at this altitude (between 457m and 1,372m above sea level), not to mention that the existence of an entrance without a physical door or barrier maximises cross ventilation. By confining the circulation area to the fair-faced concrete wall, additional cross ventilation is achieved. Additionally, the concrete wall also acts as a thermal mass to absorb, store, and then release the heat.
The spaces are all double-shaded by a concrete roof and tree shade, resulting in very low solar penetration. In addition to providing privacy, the balcony spaces also reduce sunlight penetration. By channelling natural mountain water into the fish pond adjacent to the entrance, a natural habitat was created.
As a way of keeping termites away from the building footprint, a termite habitat was created and preserved at a few spots throughout the construction site since no chemical products were used during construction. Materials salvaged from existing trees, bamboo and rattan repurposed into railings, or broadleaf applied as patterns to the concrete pathway, were used whenever possible.
Despite how impressive the house looks in pictures, Kee Yen remarks that one can only truly appreciate it in person: “I love the spatial layering of the house. The client enjoys the Living Platform, which can be used as a stage, an art gallery, or for gatherings whenever he has visiting guests. It feels very close to the landscape and nature because it is open.”
Twinkle Villa is currently listed on Airbnb, so a stay might not be far-fetched after all.