The adobe was christened ‘Attachment House’ to reflect the approach of attaching components to the existing house proportionately and not superfluously to adequately fulfil the owners’ needs. Built in the 60's with a regular grid, the existing house sits unassumingly upon a relatively large plot. The owners were particularly fond of the original building and the encircling abundance of landscape, which attributed to a careful, less-is-more strategy towards the design. On the ground floor, a thoughtful weaving of old and new spaces neatly laid out and anchored by volumes and partitions of varying opacity and texture, creates a seamless connection between the main living quarters and the utilitarian areas, the latter being easily accessible from the side of the house. The perimeter of the house were lined with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors that allowed natural light to flush in and also allows for easy access the landscaped front and back yard for outdoor play. 

One ‘attachment’ is an extension to the dry kitchen in the form of a sheltered ‘glass house’ that serves as a quaint little dining space, borrowing the greenery from outside to become a kind of natural wallpaper – verdant, mutable and tropical. The stairwell contains much atmosphere in terms of texture and spatial quality. Glass blocks that brighten this space and reiterate the mid-century modern character of the house, are also found in the first storey powder room, letting in light that highlights the ivory, chocolate and forest green swirls of the marble walls.

Upstairs, the plan is simple with only three bedrooms – each well sized and well lit. The original bedrooms were relatively untouched besides changing the orientation of the master bedroom to create a walk-through wardrobe that connects more seamlessly to the extended master bathroom. Half of the second storey was originally an open terrace, where another 'attachment' takes the form of a roof and wall that was plonked on the terrace to create a family room, leaving a small balcony for the family to come out to the open to enjoy the view of the landscaping and the pool.

Inside this new room, the pitched roof could not be cantilevered due to the span. As such, a slim column painted in the most cheerful colour was introduced as a playful punctuation mark to the house’s dominantly tranquil earth-toned colours, framed by a shell of monochrome. Pattern is applied sparingly and in cohesion with the architecture, such as a wall of concrete breezeblocks inserted between the solid parapet and metal railing that captures the zeitgeist of the house.