Amazing Transformation to Urban Garden House

When we were passing through this quiet neighborhood along Old Klang Road, we were captivated by this intriguing green facade corner house. Just when we decided to turn around to get a closer look, the gates opened and there he was. Sebastian, the owner was right about to bring his fine-looking dogs for a walk.

Wanna know how it looks inside? Let us show you the many house renovations behind this stunning transformation. Today, we‘ ll be sharing the house renovation story behind this 40-year-old property that was transformed from a single story corner house with an effectual touch of design and architecture.

Before & After

Facade

I wasn’t caught by surprise when the owner mentioned the name Oscar. Oscar Tan, founder of OTCQ Architect is the architect behind these house renovations. His iconic design elements look familiar as they pepper across the interior and exterior of the house aptly named Awan Kuning.

“I love how they named this street as Awan Kuning. It somehow gives me a little bit of an image of how to create this building to be a bit brighter, a bit sunnier,” Oscar Tan told Design Seed. “Original building’s whole front is a car porch, that’s why internally is very dark and this entire facade was all blocked walls without openings and we realized if you don’t bring light and you don’t bring air, this house is meaningless.”

Interior Structure

The exterior of the house was unique though the interior was quite dark with few windows. But Sebastian saw potential in this house and decided to continue with the process. During the house renovation process, Sebastian didn’t want to have plaster ceiling inside. When the ceiling was removed, they discovered steel structures and decided to keep them after cleaning and repainting.

The outcome of the house renovations turned out much better than expected. With the architect’s ingenious design, the tiles are directly visible, bringing abundant light inside. The fans also bring plenty of airflow indoors so the air conditioning doesn’t need to be running during the day.

Balcony

A French balcony was curated for this home according to Sebastian’s lifestyle. A sun shield was incorporated to bring more green in the form of the garden to the house. The plants also provide added protection against the sun.

The way the balcony was designed, it allows ample airflow and rainwater to gush through and light to penetrate through. The balcony also provides a practical servicing platform for the owner to clean the panes of glass and attend to the green roof and green balcony.

Living & Dining

“This house is really about light and ventilation. We needed to create openings for air to flow through the building instead of just building blocks, that’s why you are seeing the balcony is actually permeable. Perforations and also a little of greens come into play to this facade. It shouldn’t be something that’s too harsh and too hard, so now it feels like internally is bright but it’s not too hot.” Oscar said.

“There’s a lot of contractors in the market. Some of the contractors just want to get the job done but I always work with the contractors who are willing to go the extra mile to get the job well done.” For the skilled craftsmanship in the house renovations, Oscar brought in a specialist from PJC Construction in doing the clay brick works, raw material and also the strengthening of the structure.

CY, a project manager from PJC Construction told us that, “Basically this project is quite challenging for us, like the rammed earth design for the island. Actually after we got the design, we did a lot of research. Since it’s an island countertop, we had to make it more water-resistant so we had to try our own formula. We did it layer by layer. After that, we cast the concrete top, polished it, and then did all the edging. Then we painted it with the PU coating.”

“Like nowadays, they got a lot of ready-made products in the market. So this kind of job I think, is quite special because it has its own identity. Every time you look at it, it’s different, it’s not a very constant design. What we did is like an art piece for us,” CY added.

If you are including living trees, there needs to be sufficient light coming into the house. So instead of creating big giant openings there, Oscar made use of the existing roof tiles by just changing certain tiles to create beautiful animations of light in the space.

Finding the right tree as the centerpiece is crucial. According to both architect and owner, the main design identity here was to remove the barrier between the outside and inside. If the windows are open, the flooring inside continues seamlessly outside to the nature and the plants.

Oscar explains that if you have such a big space, texture is very important to create a sense of warmth. So instead of putting a wall as a boundary, he implemented raised platforms to create that boundary between the dry kitchen and the living area in the house renovations.

For the dry kitchen, the space was extended externally to turn the whole space into a single floor. Reaching all the way to the boundary of the picturesque garden, this opens up the space significantly.

Garden

In the garden, we hear a constant flow of running water. The mini fountain is actually a water recycling feature, ensuring the water constantly circles and cycles.

The owner, Sebastian said, “The idea of the fountain was actually to have a certain noise in the background so I didn’t want to have an artificial fish pond. I wanted to have something that fits inside the garden which is maybe also natural, just there. So this was the idea behind this water feature.”

According to Oscar, when doing house renovations for old houses, a lot of alterations are always required to be made to the structures. Their principle is: always try to minimize the alterations. But for this staircase, a huge beam above the steps was in the way. They decided the space would be much better without this beam. Hence they added these columns to the space.

Staircase design

A subtle feature to the living space is the elegant stretch of staircase. With its wide design, it creates a pleasing experience for users to walk up and down. In its bare grey, the entire design almost seems to blend into the background of the entire space.

Open concept bedroom

During the house renovation process, Sebastian, the owner wanted to have an open concept bedroom. The idea behind this uniquely open concept for the bedroom is to utilize space efficiently and direct better airflow inside the house.

There is an interesting division of the shower area space in the master bedroom. An organic form that divides the spaces, gracefully creating a piece of art.

The most challenging part of building this design is the curvature of the shower area because it is a small curve. Additionally, the curvature forms from low to high, causing a gradient during the casting.

According to Oscar, there are always layers of hierarchy of privacy in the bathroom. A bathroom is not always something that you hide away. This was why he opened the bathtub out to the bedroom instead.

Another aspect of privacy is the shower. For the shower, the area of privacy starts from the head down, which is shielded by the strategic curve of the wall. For maximum privacy, the toilet was tucked to the back and given its own personal compartment.

Smarthome system

If you enter the house, you might miss one thing that you find in every Malaysian home, which is an abundance of switches. In this home, there are only a few switches. The owner’s idea behind it is that he didn’t want to come home after the end of a long day and “talk to Siri or Alexa”. He wanted a house that “thinks for itself” with automated lights, curtains and even an aircond that can turn themselves on whenever required.

The Loxone Smarthome System from Grapes Smart Tech Solution brings every corner of this home to life as lights, presence sensors, and smart switches work together in perfect harmony. Its smart presence sensors ensure lights are switched on only when needed, creating an energy-efficient environment without lifting a finger.

To Oscar, it’s about understanding your site down to the details, knowing the sun path and wind directions, before starting the house renovations. As the tropics are blessed with all this rain and sun, another underrated treasure of a tropic climate is the beautiful landscape. Landscapes are a big part of a tropical house as it cools down your house. That’s why Oscar always weaves the landscape into the buildings in his designs.

This is yet another inspiring house renovation episode of an amazingly crafted project by Oscar. When we first stepped into another property designed by him, The Concrete House, we asked ourselves: Is this a house within another house? If you have not watched that episode on our channel yet, click here to explore amazing philosophies behind the house that was mythically called ‘The Church’.