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Sundridge House, Nassim Road House and Ocean Drive House.

A framed view of the garden precedes a sharp left turn to the entrance door.

René Tan was born in Malaysia and attended Penang Free School (1977–83), the alma mater of two other notable Southeast Asian architects, Ken Yeang and Chan Soo Khian. He then studied at Yale University (1983–7), where he began as a music major intending to be a concert pianist but eventually graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in music and architecture. He went on to pursue graduate studies at Princeton (1987–90), where he received his Master of Architecture.

Amongst the notable teachers he encountered at Princeton were Ralph Lerner, the Dean, and Michael Graves. From Ralph Lerner he learnt about ‘attitude’, ‘rigour’, ‘discipline’ and ‘commitment’, while Michael Graves taught him the value of history, plan-making and the ‘necessity of drawing’.

Asked to single out practitioners who have influenced his architecture, he identifies Oscar Niemeyer (who he admires for the boldness of his forms), Louis Kahn (for the rigour of his forms) and Le Corbusier (for the fearlessness of his forms). But the Sundridge House appears to pay homage to yet another master, for it is Miesien in appearance, its elegant, orthogonal, ‘L’-shaped dwelling embracing a narrow, rectangular swimming pool.

The owners of the Sundridge House are a young expatriate couple. The house was commissioned in 2005 and the building completed in 2007. It was one of the first dwellings designed by the nascent practice, RT+Q, and Tan admits it was given an extraordinary amount of attention; the detailing is exemplary. He is quick to acknowledge the contribution of his partner, Quek Tse Kwang, and associate, Chua Z-Chian.

The Sundridge House is one of two built on the site of a larger house now demolished. It is not visible from the public road and is approached via a narrow side lane. Entry is from a carport into an entrance porch with a right-angle turn through a tall, pivoted entrance door that leads directly into a linear living room that forms the longer leg of the ‘L’-shaped plan and looks north over a swimming pool. A narrow, vertical window looks back towards the entrance. Along the south side of the living room is a linear courtyard with palm trees that block the view of the adjoining house. At the far end of the living room is an off-form reinforced concrete wall and a dog-leg staircase leading to the second storey. Beyond is the kitchen and maid’s room. Terminating the entrance axis is an exquisite open-to-sky powder room.

The shorter leg of the ‘L’-shaped plan is a transparent glass dining pavilion beneath a flat roof terrace with a glass balustrade. A timber terrace extends north from the dining pavilion, terminating in a head-height timber-clad wall that contains a cut-out ‘picture window’.

Beyond the swimming pool, the lawn extends to the boundary wall, and in the northeast corner of the garden is a delightful pavilion that looks back towards the house.

At second-storey level, the master bedroom and three other bedrooms, including a nursery for the owners’ first child, look north and are linked by a wide, north-facing corridor. Details such as the recessed lights in the timber floor attest to the architect’s and the lighting consultant’s attention to nuances.

This is first and foremost a superbly detailed house. Tan’s design methodology involves working with numerous scale models, testing form and spatial relationships and refining junctions. The Sundridge House, he asserts, ‘is about details, materials and construction; it is rich in texture and surface composition. It is a rigorous exploration of tectonics and construction where every corner and angle is thought through.’¹

The house owners have lived in Singapore for eight years and previously worked in Vietnam. Artefacts acquired from their previous postings in Asia are a counterpoint to the clean modernist lines of the house. The lasting impression is of a superbly detailed house crafted with exceptional care.