The Tebar Layar House

The client, a family of three (husband, wife, and daughter) approached us to design their dream house on a 6000 plus sq ft site at Section 12, Petaling Jaya. An existing old dilapidated bungalow stood on the original site which was to be demolished to make way for the new house. What was intriguing was the shape of the land. Although it looked perfectly rectangular, the actual title indicated that the site was actually trapezium shaped as if a triangular wedge was cut out of the property. After the surveyor checked with the land office this turned out to be an error and the land should have been actually rectangular. However to get this corrected would take years so we decided to design the house based on the trapezium shaped land. This lent the idea of interesting staggered plan layout which later was expressed in the building form as well.

 

Their brief was to accommodate the living spaces, including the kitchen, dining, a guest room and utilities at the ground floor, and 3 bedrooms with a family space and a gym on the upper level and lift for convenience when climbing up the stairs became difficult in their twilight years.

 

The husband was a member of the Hash-house Harriers and hence wanted a bar to entertain his hashing buddies which could be accessed externally in order to still maintain some privacy within the house. The bar was designed as a double volume space which large folding doors that opened up to the water-feature and garden creating a garden type setting.

 

Equally important was the living room and we decided to create a double volume height space that opened up to the garden via large sliding glass doors that slide out of the way when needed. An open plan concept was adopted so the living, dining and kitchen were all connected. The client also wanted a tv which could be viewed from both the living and dining area. We therefore decided to create a tv screen that could rotate to either direction to face the living or dining when needed and also act as a privacy screen between the two spaces.

 

Unlike conventional kitchens we decided that it should be able to open up to the garden to allow natural light and ventilation into the space. This was achieved by creating large folding glass windows that could completely open up when needed.

 

A feature ‘ floating stair’ stair was designed as a focal point leading up to the upper level that wrapped around a wall clad in a Spanish-designer black relief tile. A large circular opening punches through the wall to allow some visibility from the staircase when walking up.

 

On the upper level, the pitched roofed ceilings are expressed creating an airy space with natural lighting. Mechanical ventilated fans were fixed at the apex of the roof to allow hot air to be extracted from the space during hot days and to encourage air movement within the house.

 

The house was designed from an eclological perspective and the plans, building orientation etc took into consideration the sun’s path, neighbouring properties, landscape and vegetation as a basis for the design. Although contemporary design language was used, and ode to the ubiquitous Kampung house was used on the roof gable and sunshade louvres. In the traditional Kampung house the roof gable were fitted with decorative timber ventilated louvers called ‘Tebar Layar’, to allow for ventilation and keep the sun out. This borrowed idea was implemented in the building façade. Chengal strips of timber with punched holes acted as the ‘Tebar Layar’ that surrounded the house to protect it from the sun as well to offer privacy from the neighbours. This feature can be seen from almost all parts of the house.

Other sustainable features included rain-water harvesting tank, ? KV solar panels, large HVLS fan in the living room to reduce the need for air conditioning, cross ventilation details in the windows and roof and energy efficient LED light fittings.

 

As mentioned earlier the staggered plans lent the idea of creating three extruded stepped gable roof forms which can be seen from inside the house as well. Standing seam profile metal roof was used as the preferred material to create a clean A-shaped staggered roofs.