The owners are a couple who originated from China and have since lived in Singapore for more than two decades, with two sons currently in primary and secondary schools. Two unique design requirements from the owners formed the genesis of the project.
Firstly, they intended to have the living room, the typically largest room in an apartment, crafted as a conducive study space for their two boys, which we found to be ‘uniquely-Singaporean’ in the sense of placing strong emphasis on academic pursuit.
Secondly, they found the existing teakwood staircase to be very well-maintained by the prior owners, and of very high-quality timber which is hard to come by nowadays.
Our brief research revealed that this type of teakwood staircase was actually the result of a very popular renovation for HDB maisonettes in the 80s. Trendy as they were, a more conventional design approach nowadays would be to re-finish this rather antique-looking teakwood of the staircase and replace its ornate balustrades. The owners’ fondness of this staircase led us instead to a conservational mindset, which generated two design gestures to bridge this vintage element into the new design for the apartment. At its mid-landing, we extended a triangular cabinet in the closest matching laminate to the teakwood, beyond the balustrade like new growth sprouting from an old teak tree. This triangular cabinet also became the ideal location to house the Wi-Fi router in this double-storied apartment.
Next, we took the inclined geometry of this staircase and drew a converging diagonal line from the wall across, which became a threshold-cabinet that doubled as a privacy screen to shield direct view from the main door. This skewed cabinet formed a polygonal portal with the staircase and sculpted the double-volume stairwell as a triangular courtyard, delineating the front dining area from the study space at the back, enriching the spatial layering of the rectangular floor plan. Diagonal lines found their rightful places through considerations of ergonomics (for example, the body manoeuvres easier round a slanted corner than a right-angled one) in the main space with two study tables, one of which cascaded into a seating bookshelf. Movements through this space achieved a heightened sense of dynamism, as perspectives became more pronounced and varied with the diagonals.
The family reflected that since moving into this apartment, they had spent more time together in the same space as compared to before, where they tended to dwell more in their own individual rooms. It is heartening to find that in this era of ever-increasing online attention, design is yet able to steer awareness towards physical spaces, to return the mind to the here and now.
