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Nestled on a mountain slope in Rawang, Malaysia, the Plane House by architect Dr Kody Kato is not a traditional structure.

An experiential axis forms a passage that traces a cultural alignment from mountain to lake, earth to the past and future. Rooted in the sacred geographies of Malaysia’s indigenous and Chinese cultures, the project revives ancient beliefs through a new architectural language that merges computational design, ecological responsiveness, and poetic restraint.

“From the land and nature comes the structure of a material’s soul,” says Kato, founder of the Office for Design Evolution (ODE).

“Plane House is an invitation to experience space as something living, breathing, and grounded in cultural beliefs.”

The house draws a literal and conceptual line from the northern mountain ridgeline to a lake in the south. Along this invisible thread, a series of discrete, single-storey volumes unfold bedrooms, gathering areas, contemplative nooks. Each space is tethered lightly to the natural slope, avoiding excavation wherever possible, and instead embracing terrain as a connective tissue. The result is a 34-meter-long contemplative corridor — part home, part sanctuary — designed for meditation, reading, and the quiet integration of life and landscape.

This spiritual axis is more than symbolic. It is also deeply technical. Powered by Kato’s proprietary Creative Engineering code — a 3D, evolutionary design system refined over 15 years — the design integrates material science, engineering, wind flow, solar exposure, and site-specific topography into the earliest phase.

Unlike conventional architecture, which often introduces climate data late in the design process, Kato’s method uses environmental data and even the chemical makeup of materials as inputs from the beginning. Bedrooms, for example, are positioned where wind naturally cools the interior, while the dining area — strikingly — requires no air conditioning at all.

“We don’t optimize after designing,” Kato notes.

“We let data drive the design itself — so the architecture becomes responsive by nature, not as an afterthought.”

The roofline is a defining gesture: a sequence of angled planes that rise with the mountain, connecting otherwise separate structures into one architectural terrain. These surfaces frame views of the lake below and mountaintops beyond, capturing the elemental movement of light throughout the day. At night, the roof plane is illuminated subtly, creating floating lines of light guided by the mountain’s topography.

Materials in Plane House are experimental, currently undisclosed, but visibly lightweight and rigorously positioned.

“The goal was to create a zero embodied carbon building that felt barely there,” Kato says.

“To allow the mountain to be the protagonist, not the building.”

The home’s axis culminates in a reflection pond — the emotional core of the house — where silence, shadow, and nature converge.

Culturally, spiritually, ecologically, and digitally, Plane House proposes a new kind of residential architecture: one that neither dominates nor recedes, but instead listens, reflects, and adapts. It resists monumentality in favor of flow, permanence in favor of passage, and spectacle in favor of stillness.

As Kato puts it, “The house isn’t a final destination. It’s a series of moments along a continuum — between earth, structure, and the sacred cultural logic embedded in the land.”

Currently under construction, Plane House is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2026. Beyond its architectural ambition, the project will also serve as a testing ground for years of material science experimentation conducted by Kody Kato and his team.

For the first time, these experimental materials and methods—developed through ODE’s Creative Engineering approach—will be realized at full scale, making Plane House a family residence and a living laboratory for architectural innovation.