Eleena Jamil remodels ‘end-lot’, an urban home in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur

Eleena Jamil designs a family home that is lucid, comfortable, private and with views of the bustling neighborhood of Bangsar in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

The project came together as an exercise of extending the existing structure to accommodate a young couple, their two young children, and visiting guests. The term ‘end-lot’ is commonly used in Malaysia to describe a house at the end of a row of a terrace row. The original structure was built in the 1980s with low ceilings and floors split into 4 different levels within a two-story structure. It also comes with a small garden along its open boundary.

The remodeling involves adding a level at the top, and removing several non-loadbearing walls and floor slabs to create a double-height volume and voids for a new staircase. This process allows the ground floor to be reconfigured as a single space for daytime dwelling and the upper floors to have more sizeable rooms and efficient circulation.

The building is extended along its southerly front façade with a board-marked concrete wall that sits over the car porch. This new elevation wraps around the master bedroom and extends upwards to enclose a roof terrace on the top floor. Here, the concrete wall is punched with large rectangular openings, framing views out to the neighborhood and the city’s skyline. In the terrace, multiple trees planted in oversized pots provide some privacy and shading from the afternoon sun. The tactility and rawness of the exterior façade is felt inside the house.

Eleena Jamil uses a material palette that is grey and softly raw in the form of bricks, steel, and smooth exposed concrete against the backdrop of white walls. Upon entering, one is greeted by a staircase set against a brick wall that extends upwards to the top of the house. The original staircase is replaced with one that is fashioned out of folded steel plates hanging from above on steel rods. This new staircase allows for a better flow of spaces and improved daylighting levels.

Hovering close to the ground is a series of floating concrete steps snaking around the living area in the quest for spatial continuity. It starts off as part of the main staircase, then connects the different levels of the living and dining areas and transforms to become benches. In section, the split levels of the house are apparent, and the problem of low room heights in the original structure is overcome by creating voids and doing away with false ceilings in places.

Where the original dining room was, a new double-height volume is opened. with the addition of a new high-level window, this space draws light deep into the core of the house and creates a powerful visual connection between the living areas on the first floor and the corridors of the upper floors. This also forms surprising vertical spaces and lightwells that are animated by the staircase rods and sunbeams streaming in, creating a tree house-like quality.

Eleena Jamil places a playroom on the top floor, where the family spends a lot of their time. It has a direct connection to the roof terrace providing a safe outdoor place for the children to play. This space is also used for hanging out laundry to dry and occasionally as an open-air dining space. On the first floor, extra outdoor sitting space is created by the addition of a roofed terrace that overlooks the side garden.

Project info:

Name: end-lot house

Architecture firm: Eleena Jamil Architect

Location: Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Status: built

Completion year: 2020

Floor area: 272 sqm (2,927.78 sqft)

Floor area extended: 94 sqm (1,011.81)

Architects: Eleena Jamil, Yow Pei San, Bahirah Rahman, Cheah Zhi Bin, Nurhidayah Ab Razak

Interior designers: Eleena Jamil, Yow Peisan

Contractor: TH Tham Engineering sdn bhd

Photography: David Yeow