Pacific house

Architectural Review, The, Sept, 1994 by Chris Abel

A house that draws freely on both local precedent and Modernist perceptions of space has a significance which is much more than local -- it expresses elements of a new sensibility emerging in many tropical Pacific countries.

One of the most potent architectural images of the Malaysian Peninsula is that of the kampong (village), with its loose cluster of steeply roofed, timber-framed houses on stilts, raised clear of flood waters and snakes alike, shuttered walls wide open to every slightest breeze. Similar traditional family dwellings, with regional variations, can be found throughout Southeast Asia in Thailand, Burma, Indo-China, the Indonesian archipelago and the Philippines. Th distribution of the type evidences not only such common factors as a hot-humid climate and the availability of building timber, but also the cross-cultural exchanges that characterise and define regional culture in Southeast Asia.

What is less commonly acknowledged is that other, more recent variations of the same tradition also appear elsewhere throughout the Pacific: further north in the contemporary reincarnations of the classical Japanese sukiya style; eastwards across the Pacific in the rambling, balloon-framed houses of California; southwards in the coastal houses of Chile; and in the raised bungalows of northern Australian suburbs. If there are any grounds for the notion of a Pacific-wide architectural culture concomitant with the much-heralded Pacific Age, they will be found here, in the living idea of The Pacific House.

No architect has done more to give tangible expression to this notion than the Malaysian, Jimmy Lim. He has built one of the firmest reputations in Southeast Asia entirely on the strength of his domestic architecture, which combines elements of timber-framed tradition drawn from around the Pacific. In his Australian training, Lim became exposed to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, an architect in whom East and West had already met, and to the influential Nuts an Berries school of Sydney architects. Lim's early ranch-style houses in Kuala Lumpur reflect both influences, skilfully adapted to the more extreme climate. Rediscovery of local building cultures, both indigenous and colonial, as well a encounters with the more distant work of new role models such as Geoffrey Bawa, soon led to a richer, hybrid regionalism that challenges hackneyed oppositions between modern and traditional architecture.

In this achievement, Lim's cross-cultural approach has undoubtedly been aided b the fact that both kampong and contemporary suburb feature clusters of free-standing single family dwellings, placed in varying degrees of relation to a natural landscape. Other recurring features characterise all his houses and may be summarised as: the Roof; the Permeable Wall; the Processional Route, and evidence of what Lim likes to call the t'ai chi of architecture.

The pitched roof with spreading eaves is the most immediately striking element in Lim's houses, as it is with the traditional model, and for good reason. The frequent, torrential rains and intense sun require maximum protection for the inhabitants it is designed to shelter. Usually broken up into overlapping segments, it gives comprehensible expression to the differentiated spaces below The permeable framed wall is designed for the same climatic reasons, except tha it must also provide for maximum through-ventilation as well as shelter and security. Hence the open frame and shuttered walls work together with the spreading eaves to solve both problems. They also allow an effortless visual an spatial transition from the inside to the outside that permits occupants to mak the most of both balmy climate and surrounding landscape. The processional rout has its origins in Lim's childhood experiences in Penang, when his grandfather would take him to wander through the complex sequence of linked hillside temple and living quarters of the Buddhist Kok Lok Si Monastery. Lim conceives of his interior spaces in like fashion, not from any static viewpoint typical of Western aesthetic traditions, but from the dynamic perspective of a moving person following a sequential route through alternating semi-public and private spaces.

In the martial art of t'ai chi, the aim is to turn your opponents' strength to your advantage. Lim similarly enjoys turning a problem into an asset. For example, he exploits the potential for recycled materials and designs exaggerated timber connections that allow for the crude workmanship with which he often has to contend. The result is a readable, rough-hewn architectonic which expresses his fondness for fabricating bold structures in a manner typica of Oriental traditions.

The Tang House (formerly the Peter Eu House) stands on a steeply sloping plot o land in an affluent suburb of Kuala Lumpur, and amply demonstrates all these features. Exploiting the difficult site, the bulk of accommodation steps down from the entrance at street level, so that all rooms face west toward the main view over the Damansara Valley below. Originally designed for a small family, the four-storey house is relatively compact for the area; a separate, one-room granny-flat-cum-guest house at the bottom of the site has been added to provide for visitors.