August 8, 2020
Designed by The Singapore-based architecture firm EHKA Studio led by husband and wife team Hsu Hsia Pin & Eunice Khoo, the Stiletto House as its namesake suggests, sexy, sinuous and stylish inside and out. Inspired by the beauty of free-flowing curves, Stiletto House is a fusion of sculpture and building, a blending of form and function to create living spaces that inspire. It embraces traditional concepts of tropical architecture while reinterpreting them in contemporary forms. The house strives to strike a delicate balance between the traditional masculinity of dramatic grand spaces and the sensuous, fluid nature of free-flowing curves.
Sensual curves are deployed throughout the house, from the building to the landscaping and grounds care, to the staircases and curved glass railings, to the edging soffit details and corrugated perforated metal sheets, and even to the interior cabinetries, furniture and fitting out accessories. At each scale of the project, from the building form to the details, there is a pursuit of the sensuality of form.
The house was to have a sense of drama, a “wow” factor
These curvaceous forms create a sense of drama, play well off the sunlight, and add a touch of “softness”. Yet each curve is defined logically by the spaces it contains – bedrooms, family room, etc, and is not employed whimsically. The owner, retired businessman Robin Yeo, confessed “I am fascinated by curves”.
“I told the architects I wanted undulating walls,” affirms Yeo. His love of curves is omnipresent, even down to the furniture that he selected; he quips that furnishings with right-angled legs are “forbidden” in this house”.
By the entrance, a spiral staircase twirls vertically through the house, sending natural light into the basement and providing a vertiginous thrill as you ascend the steps. “There is a lightness in the staircase design through the use of glass, open threads, and the color white,” says Hsu, highlighting similarly formed louvers above the steps. In the basement, offsetting the full-height glass windows from the boundary wall provides even more light, as well as the aural and visual spectacle of water flowing down from the 25-meter lap pool above into the guest room and entertainment den.
“I like iconic pieces; normal things don’t excite me. Every piece of furniture must have a wow factor. I collected a lot of antique furniture in my previous pre-war homes that were not entirely appropriate for this house, so I decided to have ultra-modern furniture here but with antiques on the walls for contrast,” said Yeo.
Despite being on a 4581-square-foot plot in a strictly two-story residential zone, with defiance and clever planning, EHKA Studio conjured four-and-a-half-stories of house, totaling 9300-square-foot. “We believe this project can redefine what tropical architecture can look like,” says the studio, a statement with which we’re inclined to agree.
Pics EHKA Studio
