The primary entrance is via a broad flight of stairs from the driveway.

Upon graduation from Princeton in 1990, René Tan worked for four years, from 1990 to 1994, with Ralph Lerner in the United States. Earlier, as a student, he had spent three years working as an intern in the office of Michael Graves. In 1996, he returned to Southeast Asia and worked for seven years with SCDA Architects (1996–2003) before setting up the architectural firm RT+Q, in 2003, with veteran Singapore practitioner Quek Tse Kwang.

The years between 1994 and 1996 were important ones for Tan as he taught architecture for the first time, initially at Berkeley and then at Syracuse. They were pivotal and formative years in other ways. At Syracuse he met the late Werner Seligmann, who was not only a close colleague but also an inspired interpreter of Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright.

It is evident from his designs that Tan wishes to put some stylistic and philosophical distance between his work and that of his contemporaries. RT+Q are developing what he terms an ‘alternative approach’ towards the making of architecture, treating it more as a ‘sculptural plastic art’ than as an ‘applied art’ or a ‘decorative art’. Tan believes that form, rather than materials, narrative or tectonics, is ‘the true progenitor of architecture’.

Tan believes that it is the clarity and simplicity of forms in his work and the rigour in the execution of the details that attract clients. He also believes that while there is consistency in the output of the office, there is also a fresh and unpredictable aspect to every project. Operating like a studio, Tan and his partner Quek Tse Kwang are very ‘hands on’ and are involved in every aspect of the work, from concept to execution. In the execution of the Bukit Timah House, Tan was assisted by Angeline Yoo. The intimate size of the office, with 12–15 employees, enables and encourages a strong work ethic. In the design process, Tan employs free-hand sketches, computer graphics and 3D modelling as well as the more traditional and tangible cardboard and plastic modelling.

An elegant circular stair descends from the entrance lobby to the carport.

A more private route to the central court.

The secondary entrance to the house from the rear of the carport.

Section through the pool court.

Rooftop louvres filter sunlight.

The deeply recessed verandah outside the east-facing living room.

Detail of the powder room.

The single-width living room permits excellent cross-ventilation.

The Bukit Timah House, designed for two bankers, is entered at street level, one floor below the mean site level. From the sub-basement there are three options for ascending to the upper floors. An external flight of stairs located immediately to the right of the entrance gateway emerges at the first-storey entrance porch, while in inclement weather entry can be obtained from the undercroft into a spacious glass-fronted hall that is connected via an exquisite veneered circular timber stair to the first-storey lobby. A third option is revealed at the rear of the car parking bays–a narrow staircase climbs steeply to emerge in the central courtyard alongside the swimming pool, in the process bypassing the reception area.

The first storey consists of three pavilions arranged around the swimming pool. The ‘public’ spaces in the house are located in a single-storey, pitched-roof pavilion facing the road. The pavilion includes a home office, the principal reception area, which contains a grand piano, and the upper level of a two-storey wine cellar.

Crossing a short bridge to a two-storey pavilion, access is obtained to the formal dining room surrounded by a narrow water channel, and thence, via a wide circulation corridor skirting the swimming pool, to the spacious kitchen. Adjacent to the dining room is a staircase giving access to the family room and two bedrooms at the upper level. Finally, a third pavilion, this also a two-storey structure, contains a sitting room that opens to a timber deck projecting out to the swimming pool, a guest bedroom and the master bedroom suite, accessed via a glass bridge at the upper level.

René Tan describes the design as ‘an exercise in abstraction and the plasticity of form’ where ‘the house examines the notion of architecture as a plastic event’. It nonetheless performs the functions of traditional architecture with its overhanging eaves and cantilevered roofs.

The success of RT+Q in the design of single dwellings has led to larger commissions in Singapore. The practice is also working on office buildings, resorts and condominiums in Malaysia and Indonesia.

First storey plan.

Careful attention is paid to the design of bathrooms and powder rooms.

The private route to the central water court.

The well-stocked two-storey wine cellar.

A broad flight of stairs ascends to the entrance lobby.

Evening view across the pool to the study and living room.