More Than Meets The Eye

IF YOU ARE unfamiliar with the works of Linghao Architects, the first thing you need to know is that they may not wow you on first sight. Such as the House between a Tree and a Drain - which is not only an unglamorous name, the tree isn't there anymore, either.

Rather, the magic is in what he does with simple materials and the use of space. If you have seen what Ling Hao has done with Satay by the Bay and T House - for which he won the President's Design Awards two years in a row - you will understand how he has applied his principles of allowing for natural air flow and penchant for a simple, people-centred environment to a house that looks simple from the outside but holds surprises and delights within.

For one, he has turned this intermediate terrace house just off Macpherson Road from a 1950s era two-story dwelling on land of just 2,070 sq ft, into a fascinating 3,641 sq ft, three-storey home that still keeps to the street scale and is non-descript from the outside.