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The metaphors, colours and textures used in contemporary home interiors in Singapore.

1   Introducing metaphors, colours and textures in relationship to interiors

The meanings of metaphors, colours and textures in interior spaces >>>

There are various types of metaphors being identified in “Metaphors for Inspiration“. A metaphor carries an idea from one area to another and it has an essential creative role in literature and the arts, in planning, architecture and design. They also provide a system of thought that can supplement or bypass logic. A creative fusion of two entities takes place in a metaphor and it constructs meaning of an essential part of creativity.

Metaphors can be identified under three broad categories, namely, intangible, tangible and combined. Intangible metaphors are those which are created with particular individuality such as a concept, an idea, a human condition or a particular quality. Tangible metaphors are those which can be visualized such as a castle or the roof of a temple as the sky. Lastly, combined metaphors are a mixture of both intangible and tangible metaphors. [1]

No doubt, some types of metaphors are more relevant to interiors than others, such as

• a compound or loose metaphor which catches the mind with several points of similarity
• an absolute or para-logical metaphor (sometimes called an anti-metaphor) which has no discernible point of resemblance between the tenor and the vehicle
• a submerged metaphor which the vehicle is implied or indicated by one aspect
• a root metaphor which associates shapes to an individual’s understanding of a situation [2]

The word “colour” may refer to a hand full of things. It may refer to “colour” as a visible property of light and of objects and substances under the colour category or “political colour” as colours used to represent a political stance, ideology or a position on the political spectrum under society and religion category and various other meanings of “colour” under the television and movies category and the music category. [3]

Here, I am more interested in the meaning of “colour” as a visible property of light and of objects and substances.

Colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, white, etc. Colour derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors. Colour categories and physical specifications of colour are also associated with objects, materials, light sources, etc. based on their physical properties such as light absorption, reflection or emission spectra.

The science of colour is sometimes called chromatics. It includes the perception of colour by the human eye and brain, the origin of colour in materials, colour theory in art and the physics of electromagnetic radiation in the visible range. [4]

“COLOUR is literally the ‘wavelength’ medicine of the future. It calls to us and asks us to recognize its value as an alternative medicine that the environment can provide.”

The Power of Color [5]

The most interesting part of “colour” is “colour therapy”. Colour Therapy aims to balance and enhance our body’s energy centres/chakras by using the seven colours of the light spectrum, which can help to stimulate our body’s own healing process. Each of the seven colours resonates with one of the main seven chakras.

Each of the spectrum colours is simply light of varying wavelengths, thus each colour has its own particular energy.

The energy relating to each of these spectrum colours resonates with the energy of each of the seven main chakras of the body.

 violet - crown

 indigo - brow

 blue - throat

 green - heart

 yellow - solar plexus

 orange - sacral

 red - base

Lastly, a short introduction of the word “texture”. Texture refers to the properties held and sensations caused by the external surface of objects received through the sense of touch. Texture is sometimes used to describe the feel of non-tactile sensations. Texture can also be termed as a pattern that has been scaled down where the individual elements that go on to make the pattern not distinguishable.

Texture can be found in music in terms of the way we describe the overall sound of a piece of music, painting in terms of the feel of the canvas based on the paint used and its method of application, crystalline in terms of the property of a material’s individual crystallites sharing some degree of orientation, geology in terms of the physical appearance or character of a rock, such as grain size, shape, and arrangement, at both the megascopic or microscopic surface feature level and mapping in terms of the application of a bitmap image to the surface computer 3D models. [6]

2   Contemporary home interiors in Singapore

The word “contemporary” means current and modern. In other words, “contemporary home interiors in Singapore” can also mean “modern home interiors in Singapore”? Let us look at two very different modern homes in Singapore as an appetizer of how a contemporary home in Singapore looks like.

The two following interiors namely Garlick Road House by Kerry Hill Architects and No63 & No 65 Emerald Hill Residence by Teh Joo Heng Architects shows some distinctive contrasts in terms of metaphors, colours and textures used. Although there might be similarities with both as both architects uses mostly natural tones but the metaphor, typography and language used are noticeably different. There are also slight difference in the palette of natural tones both architects have chosen. Hand in hand, these two homes gave us a totally different touch and ambiance walking through the spaces.

GARLICK ROAD HOUSE by Kerry Hill Architects [7]

Kerry Hill Architects is based in Singapore. From this island city state, they create many projects in various other countries. A project in Singapore is somehow a rarity which is also quite ironic and so, it is a treat to find a work in Singapore.

 Upstairs gallery

  

View from guest bedroom terrace & view from rear garden

  

Entrance & view from master bedroom terrace

The Garlick Road House is in a pleasant, quite neighbourhood. The house is a carefully sculpted composition of boxes, it asserts its presence yet harmonizes with its surroundings. The careful modulation of volumes creates a scale that sits harmoniously on the site. The deft modulation of materials and textures creates a pleasant harmonizing atmosphere instead of an imposing and jarring intrusion into the landscape. The house welcomes you grandly. A sequence of experience emphasizes the different layers of the spaces. The layers are an interesting discovery in this house. The layering allows an unfolding of views, of spatial qualities, of spatial scale and textural impressions. The layering also allows blurring of distinction of spaces while firmly defining spatial boundaries and qualities.

NO 63 & 65 EMERALD HILL RESIDENCES by Teh Joo Heng Architects [8]

No 63 and No 65 is a pair of identical, original terraces nestled in and amongst a row of about ten others in the same series. Interesting enough, the houses, located side-by-side are owned and inhabited by two brothers and their families.

 

No 63 Walls speak a strange language with the light it catches here

  

No 63 The suspended family area sandwiched between two lightwells & gazing up through the delicately positioned perch towards the top rim of the lightcatcher

There is not much to prepare you for the spectacle that awaits in No 63. You enter through a typical forecourt, slightly deeper than those you would find along Cairnhill. It leads you to the home’s threshold, as is typical, by the requisite six-feet-deep veranda. At this point, your eye is drawn towards the back of the hall - to the ceiling in particular, where a continuous section of it seems to have been deliberately removed. Through what you now realize is a glazed floor, you glimpse the back of something large, seemingly floating. You are naturally drawn towards this strange structure by the copious amount of light that fills the space which contains it.

 

No 65 One’s attention is deflected and focused on the living room’s “gallery wall” shown here sans glass installation

  

No 65 The language of the right angle pervades & the loft like master bedroom connects into the main living spaces beyond and below

A simple, unassuming door is all that separates this reality from that which exists on the other side of the divide. In many ways, this door and the party wall which contains it, mark a line of symmetry between both homes. Rear accommodation are almost carbon copies of each other. Both homes utilize an identical palette of finishes (natural timber, which painted perforated steel sheets and a proliferation of clear glass) and the two share common construction details.

3   The use of each element in contemporary home interiors in Singapore I have combined my understandings of metaphors, colours and textures under one roof - I call them the “design elements” and here, I will be exploring the essential use of these elements in contemporary home interiors in Singapore. Why are these elements important in interiors? How can these elements affect an interior space? and perhaps, how can each of these elements change a space and its space within? 

I have chosen three works done by the SCDA Architects in Singapore to further discuss these design elements and the questions above. Following are the works of Soo Chan I have chosen to discuss, namely

• East Coast House - 1996
• Coronation Road West House - 1998
• Andrew Road House - 2000

“Working within the framework of a given vernacular presents opportunities to study and reinterpret inherent spatial typologies and their relationship to the climate and place. Construction, craft and material are integrated through careful assemblage of the various components. The inherent beauty of the natural materials used easily appreciated through the clarity in construction details. Spaces are often characterised by their relationship to courts, pools and landscape - engaging the elements and grounding the project in the climate nuances of place”

Soo Chan, January 2002 [9]

EAST COAST HOUSE

The East Coast House is in essence a narrow three-storey box sharing a party wall with an adjoining house. There were no external views that could be exploited and consequently the house is focused inwards.

Other familiar elements in SCDA’s architectural vocabulary are evident in the East Coast House. These include the detached gable wall, the louvred screen as part of a layered facade, the sheltered patio and the reflecting pool

 

The expression of planes, surfaces and voids is immediately apparent upon entry

  

Cantilevered stair treads lead to a steel and glass bridge that spans the central lightwell and connects the two bedrooms at second storey level & detail of glazed timber trellis skylight over spiral staircase

 

Various elements in planes forming an abstract composition

 

The prayer room at second storey level

 

An exhilarating view of the pool at the foot of the central atrium, from the glass bridge at second storey level which daylight enters through the narrow glazed rooflight between the house and the detached gable wall & sunlight filters through louvres located below the glazed roof of the central atrium

 

View of kitchen and dining from yard at the rear

 

A sensuous top lit bathroom

The study at the third storey level is a steel and glass box surrounded by timber louvres. Seen at night from the surrounding area it has the appearance of a rooftop lantern

Detail of the master bathroom and dressing room

A small palm court contributes to the overwhelming sense of calmness in the internalized world

CORONATION ROAD WEST HOUSE

This house has a wide frontage and a shallow depth and it is arranged parallel to the across road. The form is a balanced composition of planes and boxes, more specifically, a reinforced concrete wall inscribes a heavy line across the site. The wall is anchored at one end by the house - a heavy box - yet balanced by a smaller, lightweight and more transparent box that sits atop and cantilevers out from the other end of the wall. The fulcrum of this asymmetrical composition is the entrance lobby which is centrally located on the site.

There is a duality evident between the front and rear of the house. The former is solid and exclusive, the latter open and embracing. A motorised timber screen moves across the west facing windows at the second storey

 

The view from the living room to the external paved court and the swimming pool that is terminated by a granite wall

 

Detail of the staircase wall at powder room

 

View of master bath

The elegant main staircase features a steel and glass balustrade and diffused lighting reveals the tactile surface of the off-form concrete wall

 

A lightweight louvred box sits atop the concrete wall that defines the front setback line. It functions as a study and provides shade to the open-to-sky court below & the view across the swimming pool towards the paved courtyard and the sliding louvred screen beyond

View out from the studio. The horizontal timber louvred panels swivel to catch the breeze and to reveal diverse vistas while simultaneously maintaining privacy

ANDREW ROAD HOUSE

The house consists of three flat-roofed rectangular blocks on a rectangular site that slopes approximately four metres from east to west. The three blocks respectively: a long, rectangular, timber-clad block; a simple block enveloped in a light metal screen and the third block in the form of an open-sided pavilion. All have flat roofs of zinc titanium.

The view from the vehicular entrance drive. Pedestrians are directed from the gateway to an opening in the granite wall

    

A textured granite wall shields the house from the road and conceals the entrance court & SCDA’s familiar strategy of choreographing a route is again evident. The visitor turns instinctively from the reception pavilion towards the principle living areas

  

View from the reception pavilion towards the dining terrace & view from the entrance pavilion towards the swimming pool and the upper floor of the guest suite beyond 

At the eastern end of the entrance pavilion is a circular arrangement of timber blocks that houses hi-fi equipment and acts as a giant lantern when lit

The principle living space overlooks the entrance courtyard and the landscaped garden

Daylight filters into the linear space that provides access to the bedrooms at the second storey level

4   Concluding “Design Elements for Contemporary Home Interiors in Singapore”

These three design elements have played an essential role in designing contemporary homes in Singapore today. Without them, a space is just an empty shell without “soul” in it. From the above works of Soo Chan, simple materials such as timber has been used in various ways, creating different spatial experiences. And of course, a careful mix of colours found in his interiors enhances itself. Colours and textures found in an interior space not only refer its structure, to me, it also means its furnishings. Colours of furniture and decorations complete the theme and brings ”life” to the space and the space within.

Together with examples of Garlick Road House by Kerry Hill Architects and No63 & No 65 Emerald Hill Residence by Teh Joo Heng Architects and the three works of Soo Chan, the metaphors, colours and textures used in contemporary home interiors in Singapore are extending its meanings. Extending its meanings in interior spaces and I believe these three design elements will and can be explored to the next level in the near future.

Footnotes and References

[1] Quoting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphors

[2] Reference from POETICS OF ARCHITECTURE: Theory of Design, Anthony C. Antoniades, Van Nostrand Reinhold, United States of America (1992)

[3] Reference from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color

[4] Quoting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color

[5] Quoting from The Power of Color: Creating Healthy Interior Spaces, Sara O. Marberry, Laurie Zagon, Wiley (1995)

[6] Reference from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textures

[7] Reference from SINGAPORE ARCHITECTURE 231: Homing Instincts, February/March 2006

[8] Reference from SINGAPORE ARCHITECTURE 231: Homing Instincts, February/March 2006

[9] Quoting from SCDA ARCHITECTS: The Master Architect Series VI, Selected and Current Works, Images Publishing, Australia, 2004