HOUSE OF PASSING LIGHT

COMPLETED

FUNCTION: Single Family Detached Dwelling

SITE AREA: 438.30 sqm

FLOOR AREA: 510.91 sqm

House of Passing Light is an addition and alteration project that reimagines an existing residential structure through light, void, and material continuity. Rather than replacing the original building, the project retains its structural framework, allowing the intervention to focus on spatial reorganisation and experiential transformation.

Externally, the building is unified with a continuous skin of Accoya timber cladding. Chosen for its durability and refined grain, the timber lends warmth and tactility to the otherwise restrained form. This material language extends beyond the main volume to the entrance gate, reinforcing a cohesive architectural identity from street to interior. Over time, the timber is intended to weather gently, further embedding the house within its context.

The design treats light as a primary building material. At the heart of the house is a central triple-volume void carved through the interior, acting as both a spatial anchor and a light mediator. This vertical opening anchors the home as an apparatus for capturing diurnal shifts, translating them into a spatial narrative. As daylight moves through the void, the house becomes a register of time—soft and diffused in the morning, sharper and more directional at midday, and warm and subdued as evening approaches

The void is not treated as a singular architectural gesture, but as an active spatial condition. Light slips across walls, floors, and stair edges, animating the interior and subtly redefining the atmosphere throughout the day. The interplay between solid and void allows the house to breathe, balancing enclosure with openness while maintaining privacy.

A new staircase is reorganised as a backdrop to the atrium, reinforcing the clarity of the section. Clad in matte stainless steel, it reflects soft gradients of daylight as one moves through the space. Ascending or descending the stair reveals subtle environmental shifts, making time and light directly perceptible through circulation.

The Accoya timber trellis extends seamlessly from exterior to interior, dissolving the threshold between envelope and space. Outside, it articulates a series of awnings that temper light and weather at the entrance, balcony, and terraces; within, it reappears as light oak veneers, washing the interiors in a continuous material register. At the front of the house, a newly introduced balcony is set low beneath the canopy of an existing roadside tree, borrowing its shade and framing it as the primary outlook from the master bedroom. This chromatic and material continuity imbues the house with warmth, calm, and a quiet cohesion.

By day, the architectural interventions operate as calibrated apertures—receiving, filtering, and shaping daylight as it is drawn into the depth of the house. As evening settles, the relationship reverses: the building turns inward and becomes a lantern, softly emitting a warm, ambient glow that permeates both interior and exterior.

House of Passing Light is ultimately a project about restraint and continuity—preserving what exists, reshaping what is necessary, and allowing light to become the primary architectural narrator.