Birds Island, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Time: 2007-2010
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Type: Single Family House.

GRAFT is eager to explore territories of design offered by a new awareness of and open-mindedness to sustainable design, translating energy-saving requirements into poetic design solutions which are not only environmentally friendly and efficient, but provide a new interpretation of the spaces we live in. Along these lines, this structure in Kuala Lumpur presents a cost-saving response to warm climate habitation. These living quarters provide an expansive shaded and ventilated outdoor living deck, concentrating the primary living space in a cooler interior core. A surrounding silicon glass skin structure provides a multifunctional translucent shell, casting subtle shadows and allowing changing view patterns hence freeing the space from the bonds of traditional walls. Curtains enclose living spaces, creating privacy. This strategy is geared to cut waste and eliminate redundant energy systems. The optimized building skin doubles as a frame while implementing rainwater and solar heat collection systems, acting as wind flow conductor, and distributing rainwater. The entire structure is set on piers, minimizing erosion and affording natural cooling by allowing unobstructed air floor under its floor. Solar lotuses in the water nearby act as satellite energy-collectors, providing the remainder of the energy-collectors, providing the remainder of the energy needed for the structure to operate as zero-energy building.