08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Singapore's first 3D-printed house is out there yet introverted
Visitors to the Pantheon often leave with tangible souvenirs – a Roman coin, a pendant of its famous dome, a model of the ancient architectural marvel. But Singaporean architect Lim Koon Park, founder of Park + Associates, took home something more profound: a feeling of oneness with nature.
'What really attracts you when you enter is the oculus open to the sky,' he recalls of his family's excursions to the temple-turned-church in
Rome, Italy . Through the circular hole puncturing the Pantheon's giant dome, light descends and moves across the interior as day turns to dusk.
QR3D, Singapore's first 3D-printed house, designed by architect/owner Lim Koon Park. Photo: Derek Swalwell
Inspired, Lim – who lived in Hong Kong and Zhuhai in the 1990s, overseeing the design and development of Zhuhai's Lakewood Golf Club and the Zhuhai International Circuit – built his own oculus. Penetrating his family's seven-bedroom, six-split-level, 6,130 sq ft home in upscale Bukit Timah, the 12-metre-high opening is awe-inducing for another reason, too. The feature is the product of a hard-working nozzle in what is Singapore's first 3D-printed house.
Park estimates 400 layers of concrete 'Colgate' were squeezed out just to form the asymmetrical cone containing the oculus. With the oculus at the top, its effect over the dining area is as dramatic as it is divine: heaven-sent light illuminates abundant curves in the walls, ceiling and furniture.
A space-making element in a house dubbed QR3D, the oculus and its funnel solved the potential problem of darkness and stuffiness at the centre of what is essentially a square, semi-detached building connected at the back to its neighbour. A concealed extractor fan drives hot air up and out of the house, while a heat pump throws cold air, its by-product, down the stairs.
The living area. Photo: Jovian Lim
The cone up to the 'eye' is also felt on the levels above, where it shapes – directly or by design – the bedrooms of Park and his wife, plus their four children. His newly married eldest, also an architect, lives on the top floor with his spouse.
