Over the past decades, adaptive reuse has been utilized as a sustainable alternative for the built environment. It involves repurposing existing buildings for a new use, allowing the past to remain while serving a modern purpose. Here, structures facing potential demolition or no longer serviceable are seen as sources of raw materials for new projects. […]
10 Milan: Crafting Connections in a Multi-Generational Home
The typical daily Philippine urban bustle recedes when entering the Merville neighborhood, winding through until you reach more genteel streets. This is where architect Sudar Khadka grew up, formerly in an older house on a 540-square meter lot, which his parents bought in the late 1980s. He has now designed and built a completely new house – 10 Milan – in its place for his parents and family.
A low-walled perforated fence already invites you into their front garden, with full-height windows on both ground and second floor facades open to the morning sun. These days the architect’s father, Shaun, likes to spend a lot of time on the front porch where he often has breakfast and watches videos on his tablet. Lilian’s (the architect’s mother) creative energy, as an artist and a practitioner of Sōgetsu, can be seen in the adornment of their outdoor space with bonsais perched on plinths.
Designing for Daily Life
It’s a far cry from the more rigid and dated configuration of their old home, which the family felt could not fulfil their wishes nor requirements today and for the future. Despite Lilian making adaptations over the years, and with Sudar himself having exhausted countless studies to remedy the house, they decided to start from scratch. “There wasn’t really a view to the outside in our old house, but now I feel the openness. That’s what I like most with the space [now]. I don’t have to go out and look at the sky; now I can look at the sky from everywhere in the house,” opines Shaun. In August 2024, after around three years from the house’s conception, the family finally moved in.
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Through the largest space in the 400-square meter house, the double-height living and dining area, the first thing you notice is an array of timber screens with a solihiya pattern. Behind this is the master bedroom; the screens can be drawn back to simultaneously admit more light through and offer views into the garden right across the central space of the house. Upon closer inspection one will notice that the solihiya pattern has been intricately carved out of solid wood. “In Nepal, we call this the Ankhi Jhyal (a Newar window) or ‘eye window.’ You see it in the temples, you see it in old, ancient palaces…which are usually looking into a courtyard,” Shaun explains. Inside the bedroom it feels cavernous, with Shaun and Lilian able to see out and appreciate the morning daylight coming through without being seen themselves.
Redefining the Vernacular
Sudar points out that this screen has the Filipino touch with the use of solihiya motif, and this epitomizes both the architect’s fascination with the vernacular and harnessing its wisdom into the architecture of today. It’s been a journey which began with the influence of his Nepalese roots; through to working at the renowned Leandro V. Locsin and Partners office; and participating at numerous international biennales as a vehicle to explore traditional building methods made modern.
Sudar elaborates, “There is a dichotomy between vernacular and modern architecture and construction. This whole discourse is incomplete, because of the question ‘Where does the vernacular end?’ Is it 1920? Or 1980? Or even 1800? I think it’s a flawed question to frame the concept of vernacular in terms of time… There are many definitions [of the vernacular], but the one I find most relevant is that the vernacular is what is immediate, what is accessible, and what is common. That’s the definition I apply to my work as well.”
This article has been abridged for digital publication. Read the full story behind 10 Milan by ordering your copy of BluPrint’s “Design Conversations” at Sari Sari Shopping, Shopee, and Lazada. E-magazines are also available for download here or through Readly, Press Reader, and Magzter.
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Photographed by Ed Simon.
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