Your home is your castle – or at least
that’s how many homes are designed, with
four solid walls to protect inhabitants from
the ‘hostile’ environment outside. But that’s
not the approach taken by architect Chan
Chin Yeow for this award-winning home.
Instead, Chan refers to the house as a
bird cage house design, a term first used to
describe a Miami home designed by archi-
tect Igor B. Polevitzky back in 1951.
“In a bird cage house, the envelope
between the inside and outside is barely
distinguishable,” says Chan.
Previous pages: The raw, fair-face concrete wall
experienced on the approach to this home by
architect Chan Chin Yeow belies the openness and
transparency on the other side of the home.
Left: The 8000m 2 woodland site contained over 100
trees, but the design and positioning of the house
meant that only two of them had to be removed
during construction.
Above: A concrete box-like structure and steps
create an informal entrance into the home –
though without a proper physical front door.
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