Resort-Style Living
Taking design inspiration from resort-style luxury hotels throughout Asia, the Langkawi is the perfect representation of a resort style home.
Returning from vacations spent in luxury resorts can often be jarring when we are thrust back into the noise and bustle of the city. Our client’s brief was to replicate resort-style living in an urban environment, evoking the tranquillity of an endless holiday spent in a private villa.
With a 20m frontage and 2 storey houses on either side, careful consideration needed to be given to the design to create a private garden sanctuary. The home needed to turn its back on the public realm, turning in on itself to focus on the internal features within and in the process blocking out the structures to either side. Yet it needed to maintain a strong presence to complement the existing streetscape and not be dwarfed by the surrounding houses “People often come to us feeling that they need to build a 2 storey home in order to stay in keeping with the street”, says Brook Leber, Principal Designer at Oswald Homes. “Working with the contours of the block, raising the entry statements and adding volume to ceiling heights and rooflines, a single storey house can be a voluminous and more impressive counterpart to its 2 storey neighbours.”
The Oswald Design Team created an “H” shaped design with a central water garden and alfresco upon which every room in the house focuses, creating an oasis of tranquillity and serenity.
The front garden is tiered with planter boxes and landscaping contoured to the existing landfall. Stone cladding to the entry statement anchors the home around the classically proportioned pavilion-style facade.
Double doors open onto a light-dappled entry and expansive glazing picture frames the view across the koi pond to the alfresco and into both wings of the home. Unexpectedly, the sightlines are from front to back and across the entire home, creating strong connections between indoor and outdoor spaces. In fact, the entire house is a series of seamlessly interconnected spaces, with pyramid and coffered ceilings throughout adding volume and airiness.
The “H” shape nature of the home creates a house of thirds – the left-hand side contains twin master suites each with additional private space, a lounge for him and a study for her. Both master suites open directly onto garden areas, providing direct indoor/outdoor interaction. The central third is entirely outdoor space, incorporating the koi pond and water garden, alfresco and lush rear garden. The final third contains the Great Room and a chef’s kitchen. A massive scullery directly behind the kitchen effectively doubles the size of the kitchen workspaces, allowing the ultimate flexibility for food preparation behind the scenes. Stepping up behind the Great Room, minor bedrooms and a gym are tucked discretely away.
Louvred windows are utilized thoughtfully throughout the home to allow cross ventilation and capture breezes across the central pond, creating natural low-tech air conditioning.
The interior palette is kept deliberately neutral with tones of white and grey so that the eye is drawn to the water and greenery of the ponds and gardens and the use of natural materials such as timber and stone. The result is deeply sensory and calming, truly an escape from modern city life, a place of sanctuary and retreat.
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