Brick and Breeze House

Completed 2026

Team Members: Yen Yen Wu, Sarah Chan

Photos by Finbarr Fallon

Where Building Science Meets Brownstone

When a Singapore couple returned from years in New York with an affinity for the American brownstone, they didn’t simply want to replicate its aesthetic — they wanted to understand why it works, and make it work here.

Genome Architects approached the brief with rigour. Digital wind simulations mapped airflow across multiple scenarios — doors open, half-open, closed — informing the precise placement of custom aluminium monsoon windows, a jack roof for passive heat expulsion, and a staircase deliberately positioned as a wind corridor. The result is a home that self-ventilates.

The facade is equally considered. Oatmeal-coloured brick, double-layered and waterproofed, was chosen for its material performance — outlasting plaster, treated to resist moss, expressing the thermal mass and authenticity that tropical climates demand. Vertical windows, set deep into terracotta-coloured slim sills, challenge the trend and wisdom that tropical homes require expansive glass openings. Privacy, proportion and solar control were designed from the start. The owners’ personality does the rest: bold colour, collected art, and a fearless interior sensibility that proves evidence-based design and beautiful living are not in tension.

This is what it looks like when a client and architect speak the same language.