Designed by Singapore-based architects AD LAB Pte Ltd, Charlton 27 is a 27-unit cluster terrace project in the heart of the tropical city-state. The architects experimented with the design of the units as well as their relationship with the outdoors to achieve a feeling of bright spatial openness and environmental comfort within the typically dense typology of privately owned terrace houses with communal facilities. In Charlton 27, the spatial design concept is to open up the interiors of the units by splitting the upper floor levels of the houses and to create a central atrium that allows air and light to flow through the buildings both horizontally and vertically. Above this central atrium are two louvred wind scoops at the roof level, one facing each of the prevailing wind directions, that draw air into the central atrium as well as allow warm air to escape.
All of the bedrooms and living spaces that surround the central atrium at each level bring in light and air into the rooms through the external windows as well as have openings into the central atrium, providing cross ventilation into every main living space of the house and contributing to the Greenmark Gold certification of the development. The center of the terrace house is here a bright and airy space that gives a feeling of permeability and openness as well as allows the inhabitants to see diagonally through the house and beyond to the lushly landscaped external. Lightweight screens on the external facades mediate the harshness of the direct tropical sun. These screens are angled to increase privacy from on-looking houses while maximizing the views to the 50m swimming pool and richly planted external environment.