CONSTRUCTING GROUND: APARTMENT AT PANDAN VALLEY, SINGAPORE
“The Illusion that there can be secret spaces must be sustained…”
Fumihiko Maki
"Gardens are among our privileged, often sacred, sites. The secret gardens of our childhood guard our most private fantasies, outside all family restrictions, beyond all regulated play. Those special trees that we climbed to observe and ultimately conquer the world (as in Italo Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees); those disquieting rocks that we never managed to lift off the ground, knowing the crawling terrors concealed underneath; those magic springs or wells whose waters were as sacred and mysterious as the Ganges or the Euphrates; those mushrooms that spouted instantaneously in the hidden corner, evoking elves and devils- such were the sites of our first creations, the other scenes of our childhood imaginations”
Mirrors of Infinity- Allen S. Weiss
The garden is traditionally associated with the ground. The Oxford dictionary defines the garden as “a private ground”; ground being the “solid surface of the earth as contrasted with the air above”. It is the surface having the closest contact with the human body. That sense of contact is lost with high-rise building.
The construction of ground in the form of a secret garden and a sanctuary in the apartment at Pandan Valley offers an opportunity to recover our connection with the earth and to reconcile the differences between the two planes. The parti is organised around a series of walls, which define the ordinary and enclosure of the roof terrace. Unlike conventional garden design where foliage forms the primary texture, here the tactility of the garden is achieved through the use of materials in varying textures, scales and colours.
The approach to this geometricised garden is intensified by a vermilion wall through a narrow passage. In the evenings, the wall is transformed into a glowing plane, drawing one through the space and into the garden. A ribbed stone wall terminates the passage. At the far end, the terrace is filled with water to form a reflective pool. Water, as a horizontal plane, becomes another ‘ground’, drawing the sky above into the realm of the garden.
The construction of ground is extended into the apartment’s interior, which is conceived as a sanctuary from the disparate and dense developments around it. Within the apartment, windows that look in the housing estate are cloaked with full-height sliding timber screens. The function is two-fold: first, the screens change the scale of the existing windows into that of doors, creating the perception of a ground beyond. Second, the screens filter the morning sun and imbue the interior with a soft golden hue. The sense of a private sanctuary is further reinforced by the creation of an intermediary space between the windows and the apartment’s interior through careful placement of sandblasted glass screens. Together, the garden and the sanctuary form a silent dialogue of privacy, light and space. Their complementary relationship of function and experience provides a meaningful and enduring environment that speaks as much of its character as its place in time.
“The Illusion that there can be secret spaces must be sustained…”
Fumihiko Maki
"Gardens are among our privileged, often sacred, sites. The secret gardens of our childhood guard our most private fantasies, outside all family restrictions, beyond all regulated play. Those special trees that we climbed to observe and ultimately conquer the world (as in Italo Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees); those disquieting rocks that we never managed to lift off the ground, knowing the crawling terrors concealed underneath; those magic springs or wells whose waters were as sacred and mysterious as the Ganges or the Euphrates; those mushrooms that spouted instantaneously in the hidden corner, evoking elves and devils- such were the sites of our first creations, the other scenes of our childhood imaginations”
Mirrors of Infinity- Allen S. Weiss
The garden is traditionally associated with the ground. The Oxford dictionary defines the garden as “a private ground”; ground being the “solid surface of the earth as contrasted with the air above”. It is the surface having the closest contact with the human body. That sense of contact is lost with high-rise building.
The construction of ground in the form of a secret garden and a sanctuary in the apartment at Pandan Valley offers an opportunity to recover our connection with the earth and to reconcile the differences between the two planes. The parti is organised around a series of walls, which define the ordinary and enclosure of the roof terrace. Unlike conventional garden design where foliage forms the primary texture, here the tactility of the garden is achieved through the use of materials in varying textures, scales and colours.
The approach to this geometricised garden is intensified by a vermilion wall through a narrow passage. In the evenings, the wall is transformed into a glowing plane, drawing one through the space and into the garden. A ribbed stone wall terminates the passage. At the far end, the terrace is filled with water to form a reflective pool. Water, as a horizontal plane, becomes another ‘ground’, drawing the sky above into the realm of the garden.
The construction of ground is extended into the apartment’s interior, which is conceived as a sanctuary from the disparate and dense developments around it. Within the apartment, windows that look in the housing estate are cloaked with full-height sliding timber screens. The function is two-fold: first, the screens change the scale of the existing windows into that of doors, creating the perception of a ground beyond. Second, the screens filter the morning sun and imbue the interior with a soft golden hue. The sense of a private sanctuary is further reinforced by the creation of an intermediary space between the windows and the apartment’s interior through careful placement of sandblasted glass screens. Together, the garden and the sanctuary form a silent dialogue of privacy, light and space. Their complementary relationship of function and experience provides a meaningful and enduring environment that speaks as much of its character as its place in time.