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nature. The house does more than "blur
the lines" between indoors and out; it
blunts one's ability to see where the actual
construction stops, and nature begins. As
a response to life in the tropics, which is
a hot, sultry affair, prone to bursts of rain
followed by a steaming heat, the project
prioritizes cross-ventilation, water, and
green spaces to help cool and conceal
the structure.
Keeping anything under wraps in
Singapore is a tall order. This is not a city
in retreat. It is future-facing and vigorously
embraces its reputation as one of the
world's most dynamic places, marked by
glitzy malls, gleaming, glass-walled high
rises, and other stupefying spectacles. Of
the newly constructed private residences
n Singapore, where the tendency
is to build enormously, British-
born architect Guz Wilkinson
strives to bring balance to the
urban landscape with designs
that recognize the essentiality of the
landscape itself. Nurtured by nature,
Wilkinson grew up in an old stone house on
a farm in the lush English countryside—a
place that he recently managed to
acquire, fashioning it his "climate change
bolthole"—but it was a sailing mishap that
first brought him to Singapore in the 1980s.
Wilkinson managed to fix his vessel, only
to see it struck by lightning. So, he stayed,
and in the decades since has designed a
series of remarkable residential spaces.
Among these works, Meera Sky Garden
House—a private residence on the resort
island of Sentosa, just off the south coast
of Singapore—is a project of some drama
but one with a broader recognition of
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