In this apartment, a reworking of the plan and ample sliding panels break the rigidity of the original plan. A layer of poetry comes through in the trajectory of lines, strips, translucent surfaces and screens applied alongside a shell of earth tones and natural textures. They are like the serif in typographical fonts, giving elegance to a basic framework.
After working abroad for many years, the owners wanted to make Singapore their home base. This home epitomises their desire for rootedness, tranquillity and comfort that is found in good design and nuanced accents. Reworking the jigsaw puzzle of programs, we broke through the rigidity and single functionality of the original plan to enhance liveability and function.
By the entrance, we demolished a storeroom door to create a spacious entrance vestibule, which transits to the connected kitchen-and-dining area. One bedroom became a wardrobe for the wife’s shoe collection, and two bedrooms were combined into a flexible lounge-cum-music and study area. Throughout the home, sliding doors adapt to desired levels of visual porosity and spatial connectivity at different points in the day.
Our employment of earth and sand hues imbibe the home with a calm aptitude. Timber, matt light grey marble flooring (sanded down from a polished sheen) and Tadelakt or lime plaster walls lends to an overall light-hearted scheme. Each timber-clad space was given distinction through light touches – rounded strips of timber in the bedroom, a rhythmic composition of joint lines at the dining table, repetition of timber strips at the kitchen, a single and stoic horizontal line at the foyer. These articulations act as a guide from the social spaces into the privacy of the master bedroom. They also add depth and interest, like the serif – slight projections finishing off strokes – in typographical fonts that give elegance to a basic framework. Fluted glass surfaces and variations of Japanese Kumiko screens applied to door panels are other iterations of this ‘serif’.
