Inside An Architect’s own house with a Hidden Garden | KAMI House | Architecture

We find the beauty in imperfection A lot of this house is not perfect but we love it the way it is Like when we order GRAB a lot of them when you open the door like "I can't find the main entrance!" Because sometimes at the comment we say "Just leave the item on the table at the main door" That's what they always call us and when we open the (door) They were surprise to see like there's a garden inside This young couple returned to Malaysia after seven years working in Australia and Scotland Started their lives in a 1,000 square feet apartment and in one and a half years their family grew and they realise they needed a bigger space After looking through the familiar grounds that they were already adapted to this property revealed itself My name is Alex Lee and today's episode on Design Seed we will be revealing a transformation of a two-storey terrace house that initially looks like this and with the influential impact of design and architecture the transformation turned out like this Hi I'm Winston I'm the co-designer of the house We're husband and wife We start the Paperspace together of course any architect or designer always have the dream to design their own house so we've been very fortunate to be able to do it So we actually had the apartment we bought way before We name our project with a pet name so there was "KABIN" and this is "KABIN 2.0" / "KAMI" "Kami" in Malay means "Us" and Winston and Amy named this project after the idea of building a house for themselves and named it "A House for Us" and that's where the name "KAMI" came from We live in KL (Kuala Lumpur) it's like a very busy city so obviously we always want a getaway so obviously there's a little irony that living in a farmhouse in the city The first impression you'll get when you arrive at the house is this dark exterior and when you enter through the secret door you are immediately greeted with a bright courtyard This gives a contrasting visual experience between the exterior and interior architecture of the house Unlike most home owners who would opt for rectangular and symmetrical layouts Winston and Amy the proud home owners and also designers are the "KAMI" House were captivated by this property because of it's non conventional land size So obviously we drove around while we're looking for a house and funnily enough this is actually the first house we actually drove by It's an abandoned house it's almost like 20 over years and we immediately saw potential because it's a very unique lot it's call end lot in Malaysia and so there's a little garden and facing a little pedestrian path next to us so we find it very private Because the lot is triangular that's why it gave us the potential to extend The clever space planning that the designers did to the existing floor plans was simple yet impactful Reorientating the staircase to allow for a more spacious living area and bringing down most of the walls to achieve an open floor plan that now enjoys the view of the site courtyard Basically the structure of the house is the old structure and there's always the challenge with designing a terrace house that's what makes it interesting as well because you work around the structure and then it comes up with something unique The unique aspect of the home office is the corner sliding doors which open up completely and converts the office into an outdoor pavilion-like space So we always work from home As you know designers and architects we are kind of workaholic in some ways So we work a lot and we want to spend time with our family as well so it makes sense for us to have a home office that is sort of like an annex to the existing House and that way we can have the clients walk through the courtyard before coming into the home office itself without actually interrupting the private lifestyle That's another factor that made us choose this house because the lot how it is it allowed us to plan the house such as the home office is split Attached to their home but yet segregated away from invading their privacy of their home Leaving sufficient setback base on the authority's guideline a lush garden of landscape cocoons the home office keeping the vibe in the office often refreshing and energizing The most interesting change they did to this floor plan is to transform this irregular shaped garden into a side courtyard that is now the central highlight of the property Hidden behind a high textured wall entrance Once the door opens it gives you an impression as though you have teleported to a different country I think it's a lot inspired by tropical architecture like example Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka You always come through a house where you you have high walls it's very private and when you walk in you always come to a little courtyard Where it serves like a barrier as well so you in case of any break-in you don't come into the house as well Inspired by many tropical resorts we transformed the garden into an internal courtyard which provides a safe haven for our kids to play in As you enter the premises a commodious courtyard with lush landscape greets your arrival A stretch of Chengal wood fencing with lighting keeps the courtyard private and enclosed So I think on the outer side we want something that's easy to maintain as well so if you see there's a lot of natural stones even the car porch it's granite stones and we want something that easy to maintain so we decided to go with dry garden a cactus garden we only need to like water it like maybe once every 4-5 days and then we want something totally different out there obviously cactus we have kids we don't want kids to be touching the cactus all that so for the internal garden we want something very green something that is very comfortable for them to step on Because the rain in Malaysia is pretty crazy so when the rain falls and there's always a little area where the rain falls the plants will not survive there it's always dead so we actually provide this barrier where there's actually drainage running below the little stones So first of all we get to prevent dead spots secondly we actually mask the drainage with a feature as well so it's like a "two birds with one stone" thing We didn't want to have the main door to be so conspicuous so that's why we planned it such that this main door will be hidden I think security is very important as well so they are just a number of security measure that we do we don't have an auto-gate the reason why is being we are socially conscious of having a gate outside for our car it actually contributes to congestion outside because then your guest will have to park outside so whereas by taking it off you have a natural tandem parking we actually allow up to 5 parkings without blocking the outside but the way we design like a hidden main door sort of supplement with the lost of the auto-gate From the upstairs when you walk out there's actually a natural barn door as well that we use as a night security door So these are the other measures we took to compensate for not having grills For those of you who are new to our channel here's a quick flashback of the terrace transformation projects we have featured in our channel in the past it still gives me the thrill of excitement every single time I glimpse through that playlist of our previous features so zoom in to those compelling episodes in our channel by slamming on that subscribe button and keep that notification bell on to be in the loop of more of our compelling episodes We have started our membership account please join our membership program with a minimum amount starting from two dollars fifty cents per month by clicking on that join button this would allow us to expand our team and create more contents and bring our channel to a whole new level He actually is a bit more playful in terms of designing There's still a little boy inside of every man I believe Like example the mailbox I want to do something funky something fun that reflects the house so there's one of the playful element We like to play with geometry and patterns like what we did with the triangular staircase handrail brackets Which is not common but is consistent with the architecture The "KAMI" house is a evolved intepretation of modern farmhouse that fits to our tropical climate I guess you can say that this entire architecture is very much a modernized "Rumah Kampung" (Village house) so literally the planning is very straightforward we kept it very practical we just express it in a more playful and funky way Yeah like in the round window it really gave a better touch to the facade and we try to incorporate a lot of recycle materials like the train tracks wood we call it "Sleeper Wood" if you look at the home office itself none of the furnitures there are like installed with nuts or screws everything is literally gravity Everything has to be carved out in precision so that everything is just slots in Yeah I would say that was the most tough design element in the house Something that has been abandoned and then brought back to life it's very poetic but at the same time it's just very satisfying to go through these all My favourite space in this project has to be the kitchen to not only allow natural lighting to come from the side of the home the kitchen was designed to have an interesting skylight feature Paired with a tranquil view of a private garden at the rear the kitchen area feels lively at all times Complimenting the rustic design concept of a modern farmhouse the black and white mosaic flooring creates an engrossing vibe that is also very practical to avoid slippery floorings for a kitchen For a house with 3 children I have to say this house is extremely organized behind every cabinet or door things are organized in an absolutely orderly fashion The windows along the side with the groove lines on the facade First of all you wanna have the groove line space nicely throughout the whole elevation and then wanted to plan such that windows are sized that it lines up with the grooves Such small detail some would think like nobody's gonna notice but it really does make a difference when you look from outside Most laundry areas are designed to be at the rear bottom of the house Why is that? Why can't we have laundry rooms on the upper levels where our laundry need not to be carried up and down In the "KAMI" house the laundry area is designed to be at the upper level and a skylight just above it As a matter of fact the entire first floor is designed with a stretch of skylight that spans across the entire roof from above the master bathtub going across the stairwell and all the way to above the laundry area That explains why the entire house doesn't require artificial lighting during the day at all Same with the skylight of the kitchen like you will notice that the skylight actually overhangs from the window It doesn't look as neat as having a frameless corner but it's more practical a lot of things actually practicality will triumph aesthetic So the way we do our plan it just invites in a lot of natural ventilation a lot of natural lighting We don't get much sunlight on this side of house that's why we place all our windows here For upstairs we used top hung windows because One, we rarely open the windows to its maximum angle anyway Secondly, it frames the greenery nicely because it has minimal frames As for downstairs we internalised the side garden into a courtyard so then the large sliding doors make sense because they allow us to extend our living space both visually and physically while maintaining privacy Most would often think that a bathroom in a terrace house could only forcefully fit a small bathtub but look at this transformation this is only possible because of open concept bathroom The master bedroom has an impressive view of the bathtub and a functional and large counter that functions as a dressing table and storage cabinet I like to be able to like easily have the flexibility to easily use the basin when someone's in the shower Even the shower and the WC are even separated now so we don't have to fight over who's using the toilet And everything just feel more spacious and bright and we actually added a skylight directly above the bathtub just to give you a very nice lighting and a feature Other than the master bathroom that's imposing the other bathrooms in the house has their own uniqueness too The upstairs bathroom especially for the kids we want something that's a bit bright and a bit more playful so we we went with the herringbone mosaic as well which sort of has a connection to the herringbone timber floor as well Like he said the kids bathroom yes we wanted it be more playful but also wanted it to be classic with neutral colors so is a dark brown not too childish because we know they're gonna grow older right The rooms as well we didn't bother designing or having any built-ins in the rooms because we want them to be able to design the rooms themselves when they're old enough Whereas for downstairs we know it's for guests obviously we wanted to be even more funky because these were all the guests will use the toilet so we have this green and beige sort of tiles and there we have this really cute door that reflects the architecture as well I mean a way this house embodies our entire life's work literally what we did for every client that we had it's literally everything is a learning process and it makes us who we are today so that's why we just love every second of it here Because we always designing for clients right there some things that we have in mind we want to explore but not everyone will be willing to try that that's the fun of being able to design your house as well as architects we can try this ourselves Malaysia is a country that is heavily exposed to extreme rain and strong winds and sunny weather throughout the year Leaves blocking the drains and water gutters would result to significant water leakages due to our countries cloudburst This project is an interesting example of innovative ways to improve modern architecture adapting to our tropical climate Are you facing similar issues with your current home? Share the challenges you're facing with your current home in the comments column below and we'll try to see how we could craft a video to assist in overcoming your problems with design My name is Alex Lee and I am from Design Seed If you enjoyed today's episode and have not subscribed to us yet please do it now and support us in our journey in creating more astonishing design episodes If you would like to support us with extra monetary support please join our membership program with a minimum amount of starting from two dollars fifty cents per month by clicking on the join button Thank you for watching I'll see you guys next week

Channel: Design Seed

Views: 1,170,857

Keywords: nu infinity, design seed, house transformation, house flip, house tour, home tour, architecture, interior design, modern, Malaysia, house renovation, home décor, house & home, 一条yit, studio mcgee, before and after, lifestyle, 室内设计, 旧屋翻新, 装修, makeover, space planning, interior design Malaysia, 品质, 设计, mr kate, house to home, house, extraordinary home, 建筑, house design, nature, architect, courtyard, Architectural Digest, the local project, paperspace, kami, kamihouse

Id: 1A25ecAZ9Bo

Length: 19min 0sec (1140 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2023