BT: PERSONAL SPACEWhere life's a breeze

A private sanctuary: (above) Mr Tan's contemporary house has four levels. The top floor has a roof terrace to take advantage of the sweeping views. The grounds outside boast a 30-metre long black-tiled swimming pool, fish ponds and reflection pools.

A wine cellar in the basement can hold about 10,000 bottles and an adjoining wine-tasting room has the walls, floor and ceiling made entirely of cork

Business Times - 17 May 2008

PERSONAL SPACEWhere life's a breeze

Tan Eng Sim's home on a hill is bright and airy with panoramic views of treetops and Nature at the doorstep, writes GEOFFREY EU

THERE are many things to admire about Tan Eng Sim's spacious modern home near the top of a small, secluded hill in a prime residential district in central Singapore. Among them are the sense of being in a private sanctuary, with verdant surroundings and unobstructed views over the treetops to the Botanical Gardens and beyond. Nature is not only at your doorstep but also a welcoming presence indoors.

Most precious of all, perhaps, are the gentle breezes that drift lazily through the many well-placed openings - both large and small - in the house, which was designed to harness the wind and make the most of even the most oppressive days when the tropical sun scorches everything beneath it. Not for no reason is this home known as the Wind House.

According to Mr Tan, the primary brief he gave to the architect of the house - Richard Hassell of WoHa Architects - was that he wanted a bright and airy home, with plenty of natural ventilation and no particular need for air-conditioning during the day. The architectural team conducted extensive research on local wind patterns, also noting the arc of the sun through the sky at various times of the day. It took about 11 months of design work before a tender for contractors was called - an unusually long period that Mr Tan says was time well spent in order to get everything just right.

The result is something that Hassell has termed a 'wind machine' - a comfortable and contemporary five-bedroom house on four levels with additional specific-purpose rooms, strategically placed glass roofs and panels, fish ponds and reflection pools, outdoor terraces, suspended walkways and rooms with high ceilings and full-height doors. Given the various cross-ventilation features throughout the house and the fact that it sits on a generous 29,000 sq ft plot of land, there is a strong sense of space and not much chance of feeling that the walls are closing in on you.

Mr. Tan's retirement in 2006 - he was managing director of Jurong Cement - after more than 40 years in the cement business coincided roughly with the completion of the house, which replaced a 1970s building he purchased more than 20 years ago. He now spends much of his time visiting his daughter in San Francisco, and friends and relatives in other parts of the world while also indulging in a passion for premium wines. He enjoys going to wine regions on a frequent basis.

If the size of the allocated storage space is any indication of his interest in wine, then Mr Tan is a very serious collector indeed. In the basement level of the house, there is an impressive showcase cellar built to accommodate about 10,000 bottles, and an adjoining wine-tasting room where the floor, walls and ceiling are made entirely of cork. A series of wine-related paintings, including a tell-tale one depicting a bottle of 1943 Bordeaux, lines one wall. Just for good measure, there is also an unfinished cellar in an adjacent space, capable of storing another 20,000 bottles.

Not surprisingly perhaps, Mr Tan says the cellar, with the abundant liquid joy it holds, is his favourite space in the house. He spends a considerable amount of quality time in there, either alone or with friends from his regular wine group - but it isn't the only place in the house where it's possible to unwind.

A quick visit to the attic floor - via a glass-backed elevator, naturally - leads to the gym, with glass panels along one wall and art-storage cupboards on the opposite side (his wife is an enthusiastic collector of Southeast Asian art). Outside, there is a roof terrace to take advantage of the views, and also a jacuzzi is heated to a constant 36 degrees C. A small herb garden anchors the opposite end of the attic floor.

The panoramic views from this top floor are certainly tremendous, but there is an additional feature - a narrow steel walkway that juts out from the main house and looks out over the 30-metre long, black-tiled swimming pool below. Its purpose is to serve as an outdoor link between the pool and the jacuzzi.

The house is designed so there is a central atrium between two main blocks where a series of internal staircases links the various levels of the building together. Some sections of the roof are finished in glass, so even the basement is bathed in natural light.

Most of the bedrooms are on the second floor, while the main living area on the ground level holds a large study and adjoining rooms for Western and Chinese dining, which have views out to the garden and pool. There is also a wet kitchen and a dry kitchen, equipped with restaurant quality appliances. At the far corner of the garden there is a casual covered area where the residents can relax or have breakfast by the pool.

By day, barring inclement weather, all the ground-floor doors to the house are open, extending the boundaries of the living and dining rooms to the outdoors. 'The old house we used to live in was air-conditioned all the time,' says Mr. Tan. 'I'm a lot happier with this house, and I seldom use the air-conditioning, even when it's warm outside. The individual rooms are not big, but they can all be opened up to give that sense of space.'

The Wind House is Mr Tan's fourth go at building a bungalow in recent years, and all of them were designed by well-known Singapore-based architects. He has turned his interest in developing individual properties into a lucrative hobby, and he says he is not done yet - can Earth and Water houses be too far behind?

BT: In the hills, yet in town

In and out: (Above) A Khmer bust, the outdoor pavilion furnished with a sofa, the dining room and study room as seen from across the 17-m-long pool clad in slick, shimmering black Italian glass mosaic tiles, and the dining area with Khmer art pieces

Business Times - 09 Feb 2008

In the hills, yet in town

Swiss Nicole Cavalli, who is in wine business, and her husband 'enjoy every minute' in their bungalow near the crest of a hill overlooking a residential estate in Braddell Heights, reports GEOFFREY EU

THERE are many things that Nicole Cavalli likes about being Swiss, but after a dozen years in Asia - seven of them in Singapore - she's fallen in love with the tropical lifestyle. It's certainly different from her hometown outside Zurich, but now that it's deep into the winter months in Europe she readily appreciates the simpler things in life, such as walking about barefoot in her garden or leaving open the doors and windows to her house and letting a warm tropical breeze flow through.

Since moving into her new home, a distinctive-looking, wonderfully proportioned modern bungalow perched near the crest of a hill overlooking a residential estate in Braddell Heights, Ms Cavalli has had daily opportunities to enjoy the panoramic view and the assorted joys of living in

this part of the world.

Prior to building their own home, she and her husband had spent a significant amount of time looking at other houses, searching for a suitable plot of land to build on and selecting an architect to help create their two-storey, glass-and-granite encased vision of the ideal tropical habitat. Being Swiss, they had a pretty precise idea of what they wanted and now, after 18 months of construction and eight months after moving in, she says she couldn't be happier.

'I love it, we really enjoy every minute here,' says Ms Cavalli, who actually rented a house within walking distance of the site so that she could have daily access during the construction period.

She adds that it was worth taking the time to go through every painstaking detail with her builders. 'The Swiss are very meticulous,' she says. 'After being a supervisor at a construction site for 18 months, I said to my contractor: 'There is a reason why we are so good at making watches'.'

Ms Cavalli has also turned her ability to communicate with people into a fledgling business - she is the local distributor for Quinta do Zambujeiro, a line of fine Portuguese wines. The winery is located in south-east Portugal and is owned by a Swiss wine enthusiast who has been resident in Singapore for the past 30 years. Its prestige label - Zambujeiro - was recently given a rating of 95 points by wine guru Robert Parker.

'People here are very receptive to wines, and Portuguese wine is something different,' notes Ms Cavalli, who has lived in Vietnam and Hong Kong and makes it a point to start a business and keep herself occupied wherever she lives. She was also a competitive swimmer during her high school years, representing Switzerland at events like the 50m and 100m sprints. 'Then I realised that studying was more important than swimming,' she says. She studied law but never practised.

As might be expected, however, water still plays a significant part in Ms Cavalli's life. She worked closely with Rene Tan of RT + Q Architects on the design, and specified the importance of a lap pool. The architect drew up a plan that includes a 17-m-long swimming pool that runs along the length of the living room then wraps itself in an 'L' shape next to the dining area. The pool, clad in slick, shimmering black Italian glass mosaic tiles, has also been integrated into other parts of the house, most notably near the front entrance and in the guest powder room, which has a cool indoor-outdoor quality to it.

The environment outside - in the form of clear overhead panels that allow natural light to stream in and strategically placed openings in the roof - has also been incorporated into the other bathrooms in the four-bedroom house. Between the living and dining areas is a cozy study 'cube', lined with bookshelves and finished from floor to ceiling in wood. Meanwhile, a large water-feature wall finished in black slate runs alongside one of the boundary walls.

The main design features include an aluminium roof, matte surfaces finished in fair-faced concrete, and large sliding and folding glass doors throughout that allow natural light to stream in and open up to allow for natural ventilation. 'We wanted to have it as open as possible,' says Ms Cavalli. 'You can't have this in Switzerland. We wanted to have a proper garden and to have an open concept because we enjoy sitting in the outdoors.'

In the far corner of the garden, there is a pretty modern pavilion furnished with an outdoor sofa to lounge in and great views of the valley spread out in the near distance below. From the pavilion, it is also possible to enjoy views of the main house, especially during the evenings when it glimmers like an outsized light box.

Ms Cavalli employed the services of an Australian lighting consultant to ensure the house shines in more ways than one. In addition, all the rooms in the house, the kitchen as well as the outdoor pavilion are wired for sound, with high-tech Bang & Olufsen speakers throughout. There are more than half a kilometre of speaker cables running through the house, she says.

Perhaps the most commendable feature of Ms Cavalli's house on the hill is the fact that although the plot size is only about 8,300 square feet, there is a great sense of open space throughout, thanks in part to the unobstructed views and glass doors, but also to the fact that the building area occupies less than 30 per cent of the total plot. 'We realised that people like to build to the maximum allowable limit, but we were able to meet our space requirements and still have enough left for a nice garden,' she says.

'You hear birds and crickets - we are surrounded by nature, yet we are only seven minutes from the city centre,' she points outs. Ms Cavalli adds that because she and her husband didn't rush the construction stage, focused on getting the details right and insisted on using high-quality materials throughout, they are now reaping the benefits. 'It has been a very pleasant experience all the way,' she adds.