Bridged House

When they were asked to connect two buildings from different ages and styles, Ida&Billy Architects opened up the boundaries creating a suspended bridge, unifying colours and materials.

The Bridged-House designed by Ida&Billy Architects links two existing houses of different ages and styles, in order to achieve a new aesthetical character, while keeping their own identity.

One major challenge was the segregation between the two buildings due to the presence of a long swimming pool, and a 3 meter vertical distinction between their living room floors. The landscape plinths had been demolished for a generous middle garden stretching the site’s depth. The swimming pool was taken down with its enclosing walls, so to overflow, forming a backdrop for the garden. The architects also designed a new steel bridge connecting the houses at second level, that floats above the middle garden.

The houses’ original marble cladding were stripped off, and replaced with white paint and big rectangular windows, while timber parapet-tops add highlights to the neutral color, together with the trees’ green. Stairs are expressed as a geometric galleries of form and light, and the existing structure was manipulated with new balconies and windows openings to form continuous lines or patches of forms. The skylights are designed to hide the glass frames and to blur the boundary between inside and outside. Finally, the penthouse is topped with plank fair-faced concrete slab, that with its rough texture and cement color ties back to the nature, and echoes to the fair-faced concrete fence wall located at the entrance of the house.

Ida&Billy Architects, Bridged House, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, 2015. The swimming pool water overflows gently down the black stone, giving a living pattern of water and light reflections

Ida&Billy Architects, Bridged House, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, 2015. Left: a new steel bridge links up the two houses and floats above the middle garden. Here daily path and outdoor life are connected. Right: the penthouse is topped with plank concrete slab, tying back to nature, and to the fence wall of first encounter

Ida&Billy Architects, Bridged House, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, 2015. On the upper levels, the two houses overlook each other, like neighbors in a town, and are linked up by the bridge

Ida&Billy Architects, Bridged House, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, 2015. Natural light flushes the hallway from above, giving a time dimension to the interior environment

Ida&Billy Architects, Bridged House, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, 2015. The ground datum is laid with light grey stone extending to the garden. Timber steps lead up to the upper floor

Ida&Billy Architects, Bridged House, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, 2015. Stairs are expressed as a gallery of form and light, while the tailor-made handrails emphasize sense of touching and grabbing

Ida&Billy Architects, Bridged House, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, 2015. The skylights are designed to hide the glass frames, to blur the boundary between inside and outside

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Ida&Billy Architects, Bridged House, site plan

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Ida&Billy Architects, Bridged House, sections

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Ida&Billy Architects, Bridged House, sections

Bridged House
Program: private house renovation
Architects: Ida&Billy Architects
Structural engineering: David S.K. Au & Associates Ltd.
Services engineering: K’fan Services Co.
Main contractors: P&T Construction and Engineering Co. Ltd., Art Construction Limited
Completion: 2015

Bridged House

When they were asked to connect two buildings from different ages and styles, Ida&Billy Architects opened up the boundaries creating a suspended bridge, unifying colours and materials.

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