The Owner’s longtime wish was to build himself a traditional ‘black & white’ colonial-style home. The site is split into two levels with about a 1.5m drop from the entrance level and the home is designed as two blocks, with a master and a children’s block, linked by a verandah bridge over the long swimming pool. Large, covered terraces (verandahs) extend the interior spaces to the large outdoor poolside areas ie creating that charming colonial lifestyle of a bygone era. A large garden with lush landscape complements the tropical living environment. The cute ‘out-house’ is meant to provide some privacy space where one is expected to quietly reflect on daily life’s ups and downs and thereafter, refreshed, rejoin the mundane.

Aamer explains that as he gets older, he appreciates more and more the romanticism of old houses and the layers of meaning, so it was a pleasure to be commissioned to create a contemporary version of a Black and White and recreate the intricate layering. He embarked on the task by going back to the origin and studying the typology in detail, but he did not want to produce an exact replica. The outcome is a thoroughly modern plan but with many of the key features of the colonial bungalow – broad verandahs, balconies, over-sailing pitched roofs, natural ventilation, lush vegetation, and shaded in-between spaces that promote outdoor living at the junction of the built and natural world.