Leisure Farm Guard House, Johor

Completed: 2014

This building is located at the main entry point of the Leisure Farm Resort in Johor, the original structure was built in the 1990’s and required an upgrade in keeping with the image of the resort that focused on nature based lifestyle. Although the brief called for the demolition of this building to make way for the new guardhouse; we thought to retain the existing frame and sub-structure in an effort to save precious time, re-coup previous investment and retain the site’s personal history. We also felt that the constraint of working around existing conditions would give rise to more interesting challenges and opportunities to create dialogue between the new and old and is a more environmentally sustainable process than a complete re-build.

As such, the redundant fabric from the 1990’s was stripped to reveal the ‘bones’ which were then shaped and adapted to receive a new architectural language that reflects its surroundings and the green living concepts promoted by Leisure Farm Resorts. The red brick lace walls take their cues from the adjacent ivy-clad fence walls while nature is harnessed to provide shade instead of glass and polycarbonate. All the spaces are naturally ventilated with the exception of the security control room; making sure that the building is not only cheap to build but also economical to maintain and operate.

The new guardhouse offers a fresh entrance statement to Leisure Farm Resorts

This guardhouse offers a new entrance statement for the resort, one that is in keeping with the times yet sits so comfortably with its surroundings that it must have been there since the beginning.

Which it has.