A design of house is largely intertwined with the sensibilities and parameters of place. Climate, architecture – international style, vernacular, and everything in between – coupled with labour and materials revolve around local construction norms and techniques, governed by the time-cost-quality trifecta. When emancipated from these, especially in a city like Phnom Penh, the opportunity to adopt a different way of working presents itself. 

CONTEMPORANEOUS 

The desire to investigate a job outside Malaysia led to Essential Design Integrated’s (EDI) foray into Cambodia. “It was 2018, around March, when we got involved on the project,” says EDI director Wong Pei San. “We took the initiative to fly to Phnom Penh, and to look at the site. The area was a new suburb, affluent. The client is a Cambodian who has lived mostly abroad and wanted us to explore something modern, something clean, that was different from what’s around.”

The city’s suburban homes – reflecting a post-war, post-2000-expansion – are commonly clustered, an eclectic tableau of last-century styles, roofs often tiled or concretised. EDI’s In-Ex-trovert is ostensibly a contemporaneous departure; white walls and floor-to-ceiling glazing delineate a U-shaped layout of boxed forms, offset by deep overhangs of tropical origin. The design also benefits from the afforded 50m-by-50m square real estate, the permeability of space a priority, and whose language jives nicely with the newer neighbourhood surroundings. 

FENG SHUI & FAMILY

The house sits off-axis, notably visible from above. “The client placed importance on feng shui. Hence it (the house) being on an angle. You’ll notice the main door doesn’t even directly face the road,” director Chan Mun Inn remarks. “This was good in a way, as we could introduce a driveway, or a public zone, that bypassed the house’s main areas. The moment you enter the house, you don’t see cars, a car porch. And neither can people look in. It’s very private.”

The design reflects a courtyard house focused on communal, and pragmatic, aspects of family life. Pei San chimes in, “You directly step up into the living area to see the courtyard and garden, where kids can run around and play. Keeping them safe was a key factor in physically separating the common driveway.” 

A guest would be hard-pressed to detect these nuances. From inside the house, the driveway wall appears as a rocky backdrop, edged by crystalline waters of a wide pool for family recreation and personal reflection. The garden itself dominates views. A manicured landscape of Japanese bonsai, fruit trees and other planting heighten the sense of private domain, obscuring what lies beyond perimeter walls, similarly deterring unwanted outside attention. 

AIRDROPPED

In pursuing the design, the difference in construction cultures presented a unique challenge. “We produced the tender documentation here (Kuala Lumpur) at the client’s request – architectural, interiors, engineering, even quantity surveying. Of course, we were detailing things to Malaysian standard, like standing seam roofing, joinery, cabinetry, that balanced design and practicality particularly when it came to maintenance,” says Mun Inn. “It only became apparent during the tender process that local know-how and availability of certain materials, in Phnom Penh, weren’t quite what we expected.” 

The solution warranted an approach where, beyond basic materials and labour, additional skills, resources and equipment had to be organised and brought in. Pei San runs down the items. “The air-conditioning system had to be imported from Vietnam. This was also the case for our metal roofing which came with Vietnamese skilled workers to do the installation. Marble for floors and walls were flown in from China.” Doors and timber flooring came by way of Malaysia, including finished carpentry shipped with their own carpenters. “In terms of imported-versus-domestic items, I would say it’s a 60-40 split,” Pei San concludes. Mun Inn posits the split closer to 75-25. Either way, the airdropped approach to construction underscores a new methodology for housing in the city, one aligned to higher design sensibilities and a lifestyle centred on quality, conviviality and creature comforts. 

REGIONALISM IN DESIGN

Materials and labour aside, the house presented for EDI a first Cambodian project that would harness their in-depth Malaysian experience. The play of timber, polished stone, and white surfaces speaks to a distinctive look appreciable by the homemakers and designers in this market. By leveraging on an established vocabulary and marginal climatic differences, the design retains a regional disposition in spite of place or geography. It is arguably unbeholden to local style or vernacularism, opting instead to meet its intended purpose and fulfilling the needs of a young family.

Mun Inn summarises, “We’re foregoing the experimental for a design that’s not too complicated, not too fancy. You’re building on what’s tried and tested, what can be easily maintained. It is a simple house, and for the client, an assurance that this home will last.”