The Past and the Present Meets in this Modern Minimalist Amakan House

Thinking about a concept for your dream house can be taxing. At one point, you want to have a modern and minimalistic black and white house. But on the other hand, you want to add our rich Filipino culture to your house by using Amakan or following the traditional Bahay Kubo designs. When it gets too hard to choose, why don’t you choose both?

Cross-design

JSM Arch Studio successfully designed a modern Bahay Kubo making sure it uses the loved and culture-rich Amakan (bamboo) and Capiz windows. When you see these two materials, you automatically have that feeling of “old houses” in the Philippines.

But the twist comes in the way they designed the exterior and the facade. The designer made sure that even if they used Amakan and Capiz on several parts of the house, they opted for the darker shade of brown. Instead of the light brown/yellowy beige color of a Bahay Kubo.

Dark minimalist

Modern houses today have dark and white facades aiming for a more minimalistic approach. JSM’s design incorporates that. With dark brown steel and wood design, it surely exudes a look of elegance and class.

The house itself is elevated by more or less 1 meter from the ground. The terrace, which is the main entry point is surrounded by wood railings and is accessible through a stepped entryway.

Accent feature

In the terrace, a protruding slanting wall can be seen coming from the middle of the house. That is the bottom of the stairs. Most house design turns this wasted space into a cabinet or cupboard but JSM thought of a way to showcase it and turn it into an accent.

At the back of the house, more steps can be seen. This multi-level evolution of a Bahay Kubo is surely something that can be considered if you want a cross between a modern and a traditional house. When in doubt, hire an architect.