Jalan Bahasa house was designed for a family of three. The site was formerly part of a townhouse development that was demolished and redeveloped into landed houses. The 775.8 m2 site is sandwiched between two neighbouring plots with wider street frontages and had a 4m high drop from the rear to the street level. The site runs west-east from the street. Views were towards the north-west end.

The brief was for a modern reinterpretation of the black and white bungalows but adapted to suit their contemporary lifestyle. The Client liked the notion of the contrasting colors of the old colonial black and white bungalows predominantly built between the late nineteenth century and the Second World War and featured white facades with black framing details and striped sunshades.

The foremost determining architectural element of the Jalan Bahasa house is an inventive twist of a pitch roof with a gable end that cantilevers over the pool area and wraps around a monolithic concrete box clad in grey stone. The form was conceptualized from basic dwellings like the tepee and the igloo where there is no segregation of roof and wall; the roof functioning as the structure, shelter and form of the dwelling.

The Jalan Bahasa house is immaculately composed on a compact L-shaped plan, keeping itself to simple rectilinear forms, and yet, remains fully connected with the outdoors and the environment it sits on. On the 1st storey, the living and dining areas overlooks the pool and can be opened up fully to catch the passing breezes. In place of bamboo chicks, the upper floors are shaded by a continuous ribbon of foldable perforated aluminium screens. Even when fully closed, they allow views of the exteriors to be glimpsed from within.

The building structure is made of reinforced concrete frame and the foldable perforated aluminium screens are supported on steel frame structure. External finishes include aluminium clad panels, grey granite stones, rendered masonry and aluminium framed glass doors and windows.