This combined house and gallery in Singapore by architecture studio Lekker Design comprises a single rectilinear building with another twisted inside it.

The twisted inner volume towers up through the roof to house the bedrooms and other private spaces of the residence, keeping them separate from the triple-height gallery on the ground floor.

A boxy staircase leads up from the gallery to the floor above and passes by a perforated metal screen that shields a window to the bathroom.

The narrow building forms part of an existing row of houses, located in the red light district to the north-east of the city centre.

Other combined houses and galleries we've featured include a residence for Australian artists in Japan and a gallery beneath a pool of water in South Korea.

Above: photograph is by Eugene Goh/Light Works Photography

Photography is by Darren Soh/FullframePhotos, apart from where otherwise stated.

The text below is from the architects:

This is a small building, with two programs - a house and an art gallery - squeezed into a very dense envelope, in the midst of Singapore's red light district.

The design attempted to balance this programmatic double-life through a play of two volumes. The lower volume contains a triple-height gallery and kitchen.

Above is a rotated tower, which appears to be partially suspended below the ceiling of the gallery; this holds the bedrooms and private spaces. The building has been designed such that the client may open the gallery to the public, via a separate access.

The Gallery House is sited in a typical Singaporean lot, between two very long party walls. In order to bring natural light deep into the interior, a series of small gardens have been extracted from the facade and roofline.

This creates a complex series of nested spaces, merging the interior with tropical landscape.

Ground floor plan - click above for larger image

Rooms are unexpectedly located and strangely formed, partially overlapping with others or sharing views of interior canyon spaces. The largest of these contains the main stair, which winds informally between rooms at front and back.

Upper floor plan - click above for larger image

Project title: Gallery House
Architects: Lekker Design
Location: Singapore
Size: 3,500 ft sq.
Project year: 2012
Design Team: Ong Ker-Shing, Joshua Comaroff, Germain Goh, Sio Lim, Peter Then, Joshua Feldman

Section - click above for larger image