Inside an Architect’s Hidden Garden Home | Minimalist Style | Tropical Homes | Architecture Ideas
This is the Introverse House, a minimalist sanctuary and a bold experiment in living differently. Once a simple semi-detached home built in 1980s, it was completely transformed from this into this.
Remember the Interlace House? Now imagine the architect behind it designing his own home. In a world that celebrates being social and connected, what if his dream home was designed for solitude and peace? Can architecture help introverts find comfort in a nosy world?
The architect-owner of the house, Tan Chun Hooi of Core Design Workshop explains, “Over the pandemic period, that time I was actually diagnosed with vocal cord cancer. I went through a treatment, and during the treatment I actually lost my voice for over 6 months. In that moment of time, I realized that how our society actually perceive handicap or as when you cannot talk, and that actually trigger me on the conceptual design for this house.”
From the facade, this house looks deceptively ordinary, but the moment you step inside, you realise nothing about this property is ordinary at all.
“Once you step in, there is this jungle garden which my family actually loves a lot, like going to the jungle. And once you step into this inner garden, then the whole experience transform into very serene and zen,” says Chun Hooi.
“I’m Chun Hooi. I’m actually a founder of Core Design Workshop, and this is my house. Instead of looking outward, we actually wanted it to turn inwards, that’s why the house is called Introverse House. The reason being it is introverted in a way that whenever you start walking into the house, you will actually come to a point that you will look into the house instead of looking outwards.”
Like the Interlace House, this home hides a secret inner garden behind layered walls. Framed by lush greenery, a bright yellow door stands quietly among the foliage, curious and inviting. It feels like a surreal rainforest retreat when you’re actually in the suburbs of Subang Jaya in Malaysia.
“In terms of layout, the house is designed and arranged into very, very much basic. We try to get rid of a lot of the rooms that have been designed by in the 80s. In that living space, which was a bit dark, it’s not like what we are seeing now where there’s full sunlight coming in, where you feel refreshed and all those. That time, it has four or five very small little bedrooms, and then the toilets were extremely uncomfortable and small. That’s the reason why we decided that we wanted to look into refurbishing the house, especially during when it was lockdown,” says Scarlette, Chun Hooi’s wife and art director of Core Design Gallery.
Chun Hooi explains, “The entire house is broken into three categories. One is the inner garden that we talk about, where we actually house the kitchen, the bathrooms, also all the wet areas. On the other side that is adjoining to the neighbour’s wall, we actually created a courtyard space. It’s actually a cross ventilated tunnel, I would say. It has a courtyard that works like a chimney that allow the hot air to come out. That’s where we actually put in the guest room and also the utility room.”
The master bedroom is oriented towards the garden, facing inwardly towards the house with full height pivot glass doors. One of my favourite space in this house is here, the master bedroom.
The bedroom is sunken, creating a subtle separation without using walls. This design move isn’t just visual but completely changes how you experience the rest. A lower level adds a sense of cocooned intimacy, inviting slower mornings and nights.
While wooden floors add warmth, perforated metal cabinets create a weightless impression. The all-white interior becomes a quiet canvas for nature separated only by a veranda.
“The idea of creating this sunken master bedroom was to allow oneself to actually more immerse into the environment, because when you wake up, you feel like you are actually surrounded by the environment,” says Chun Hooi.
“In this house, we instead choose to work with external curtain instead. All the curtains are on the outside of the glass doors and also in the toilets. By using external waterproof curtain, it also somehow actually soften the landscape within the house and also the harsh gravel floor as well,” states Chun Hooi.
The master bathroom feels as though you entered an outdoor sanctuary. A skylight draws daylight into the space, creating a refreshing experience that feels open yet private. Here, curtains replace walls, softening the space and allowing it to breathe. The minimalist approach continues through every detail, with simple materials that evoke calm and clarity.
The second bedroom serves as both a playroom and a bedroom, spacious and bright. Its bathroom is an echo of the master bathroom, with generous natural light and simple honest materials.
Scarlett says, “If you notice, we didn’t really want to put in all those things that all tucked into one bedroom. We wanted to have everything very open and then keep it in a way that is constantly communication. It can give him more creativity, more freedom of thoughts, and also a freedom to roam free in the house itself rather than just being stuck in one little corner.”
There is a third bedroom, and the third bedroom sits just across the courtyard, linked by a bright yellow staircase that catches your eye. With louver windows on both sides, this room is filled with plenty of natural light and cross ventilation. Curiously, it’s the only room in the entire house with a view of the street outside. The wooden floors and louver openings add a nostalgic touch, evoking the charm and simplicity of a kampung home.
Near the end of the property, the utility space feels surprisingly airy and open despite being tucked at the back of the property. The skylight brings in soft daylight while the adjustable louver panels in the bathroom and perforated metal screens encourage cross ventilation. It feels almost semi-outdoor.
This is a reminder that even service areas can benefit from passive cooling and daylight, reducing the need for artificial lighting and improving overall comfort.
Spaces flow freely into one another, without solid walls to define where one function ends and another begins. The living area greets you with a striking double height volume, opening seamlessly to the garden. Light pours in from above as a gentle cross breeze fills the space.
The interiors are minimalist and timeless, defined not by excess but by carefully chosen artworks. Each piece anchors a space, guiding movement and perception, transforming walls into galleries. At the centre of the home, a courtyard rises like a vertical chimney. A single tree stands here, connecting every space and every moment within this introverted sanctuary.
“These white walls become like a white canvas that actually allow us to curate the internal space to showcase the art collections that we have,” says Chun Hooi.
Scarlette explains, “But of course, to fit in all the different kind of artworks throughout the years, it was a much of a difficulty. We knew that we wanted all white walls, white spaces and all. But then how do you mix and match everything together? I said, let’s do the yellow. Oh, he said, oh brilliant. I’ve been wanting to do yellow. I said, yes exactly, so there won’t be clients who are willing to do yellow in their house. Why don’t we try this because yellow hogs attention.”
Chun Hooi explains, “The old house actually has typical very low ceiling. We actually opened up the entire ceiling and rework on the roof trusses so that we can actually start opening up the whole ceiling and push the ceiling to the roof profile. On the living room, we even used recycled floor boards from a lot of the old houses. They are actually not just one wood, they actually are 3 or 4 different woods from different houses, and yeah, so now it become the feature of the living room.”
Follow the gravel path and you’ll pass through soft flowing curtains and slender trees until you arrive at the unexpected space—an open air kitchen and dining area. Here pops of yellow stand out against a calm scenery of greenery and light. It’s playful yet minimalist in a space that blurs outdoors and indoors. This is a deconstructed kitchen, one that invites you to slow down and simply bask in nature.
Scarlette says, “We wanted to have the kitchen in a semi outdoor space. This reminded us very much about trying to preserve our culture of a very old culture, if you really recall back in the olden times where our grandma grandpa, when they do their cooking, it was always on a semi outdoor or outdoor space. And we wanted to bring a very traditional what we call kampung living into today’s contemporary lifestyle as well.”
A unique feature of this house lies in its walls. Surrounding the property are 3 metre high linear garden walls with a permeable lower half. This clever design allows natural ventilation at the lower level while ensuring privacy at the higher level. From the street, you’ll never guess how open this home truly is. Here, outdoor spaces are private and secure, designed to be enjoyed at any moment of the day.
Chun Hooi explained, “Ever since we designed the house, it has actually is a bit of a pivotal project to my entire career because I started to realize that architecture, it can be very expressive in a way that every design we do can have its own narration.”
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Introverse House—a minimalist sanctuary that questions how we live, how we connect, and how we find calm in a world that never stops moving.
Within its quiet walls and garden lies one person’s answer, an architect’s journey of healing by embracing solitude, minimalism, and mindfulness as a different way of living.
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