Compact In The City

Tan Tik Lam’s problem-solving skills and a homeowner’s pragmatism meet in a 120-square-meter family house in a dense city neighborhood.

- Angel Yulo

The road to the house can only accommodate one small car at a time, indicative of how modest the lots are in the neighborhood near downtown Bandung, Indonesia, a city planned by the Dutch who once ruled the country. In the alley populated with clay-roofed houses with pokey gates, street food vendors, and motorcycles, Tan Tik Lam’s composition on a 186-square-meter lot hails attention with its boxy façade and red silhouette detail. Even more striking is the compactness of its layout, which still manages to incorporate setbacks, sneaky openings, and a courtyard for passive cooling.

Lam’s client is a pediatrician, who has lived in the neighborhood all his life except for a five-year residency in Manila for medical training. With their only son already in his college-years and out of the country for school, the doctor and his wife no longer needed stomping grounds as a young family would. Opting not to keep stay-in help, they knew they needed a house easy to maintain. “From any part of the house, you can see the property line. The lot isn’t big, so we suggested that spaces share functions. But we insisted on the void (courtyard) to accommodate green and also for good airflow,” says the architect.