FOR Amy Long, a Singapore management consultant raised abroad, living in a shophouse has always been a dream. The humble terraced structures, which once housed storefronts at street level and cramped dwellings above, were built mostly between 1840 and 1960. And “as a Singaporean who grew up overseas” — in the United States, Germany, Hong Kong and Korea — “I’ve always been drawn to the nostalgic part of the country,” said Ms. Long, 27.
When she moved back to Singapore after receiving her undergraduate degree from Stanford in 2003, she and her boyfriend, TQ (pronounced TEE-cue) Shang, 31, who is also a management consultant, bought a 900-square-foot apartment near downtown. But its compact size provided an excuse to pursue Ms. Long’s shophouse fantasy.
They began their hunt in 2008, and soon found there wasn’t much to choose from — the few they saw were either run-down or overpriced. So after Ms. Long discovered that a co-worker, Dale Hardcastle, renovated and sold shophouses as a hobby, she said, “I cornered him at the next office party.”
It turned out that Mr. Hardcastle and a partner were working on a row of six shophouses in a residential suburb of Singapore. And although Ms. Long and Mr. Shang were apprehensive about the less-central location, when they visited the work site, Ms. Long said, “it just felt right — even amidst dangling electrical wires and concrete floors.” They negotiated the purchase of the still-unfinished shophouse for 3 million Singapore dollars (about $2.2 million).
Mr. Hardcastle preserved the original facade of the shophouse, which was constructed around 1950, but rebuilt most of the interior. Since shophouses are attached units, like brownstones, they tend to be long and narrow: this one is 16 by 98 feet, so a floating staircase and a loft-like design were created on the first level to open up the space.
The centerpiece is an atrium garden installed between the living and dining areas — about 70 square feet planted with palm trees, bamboo and other tropical greenery — which helps keep the building cool. Three bronze-framed glass doors can be closed to seal its perimeter.
Both bedrooms are on the second floor, along with a den overlooking the garden; on the third level, the couple set up a home office.
For decorating help, Ms. Long turned to her best friend from high school in Manhattan, Amy Chang, who was then studying at the New York School of Interior Design.
“We started by looking at design books and Web sites, and e-mailing images and colors back and forth,” Ms. Long said. “TQ and I knew from the beginning that we wanted to focus on regional and environmentally responsible materials. We also wanted to strike a balance between East and West, modern and classic, in relation to the shophouse architecture.”
Many of the furnishings were bought during a two-week period when Ms. Chang came to visit. The two women went to Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand, buying silks for upholstery and bedding, an oversize fringed lantern for the dining area and a wall hanging by the Thai textile artist Kachama Perez that now hangs on the second floor.
Several pieces, including beds, cabinets and a dining set, were custom made with regional materials like teak and rattan in Jepara, Indonesia, from designs Ms. Long and Ms. Chang created based on European antiques. A chaise longue of Filipino water hyacinth and a teak coffee table with a cutout design came from Ms. Long’s and Mr. Shang’s old apartment.
The couple, who got engaged last month, had set a decorating budget of 80,000 Singapore dollars (around $60,000), and found themselves with a few thousand Singapore dollars left over. But as Ms. Long put it: “A house is never complete — we intentionally left room to grow.”
Source: nytimes.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment