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Visitors to Singapore residing in Shang House can truly say they have lived like a local.
For starters, the co-living space is located in the suburban neighbourhood of Balestier on Pegu Road.
Specifically, it is inside a conservation shophouse on the quiet residential street, offering five suites across four storeys, complemented by generous living and dining rooms, and a kitchen.
Taking the cue from the locale, the team from made-in-Singapore furniture label Scene Shang fitted it out with homeware that referenced Balestier's rattan-manufacturing past.
At the same time, it also stays true to its signature Shanghai Art Deco style, albeit with a contemporary take, to keep it relevant for urbanites of today.
Weaving A Narrative
The narrow frontage of the shophouse belies the generous space concealed behind the façade.
Keeping out prying eyes is the three-sectioned, porous Teng Wicker Screen placed behind the Ming Console Table in solid elm wood just inside the front door.
Immediately, the connection to Balestier’s heritage is established at the entrance.
Once inside, the attention is distracted by an atrium soaring four-and-a-half storeys up and filled with daylight.
The canvas is predominantly white, apart from the grey-veined flooring on the ground floor, and timbre strips making up the staircase banisters and steps.
“When I first saw the shophouse, I was excited by the modern space offering a good balance of openness and airiness,” says Scene Shang’s co-founder Jessica Wong, who is a trained architect and previously headed interior design firm Oats.
With such good bones to build on, Wong could focus on designing to the dominant theme of paying tribute to the heritage of the neighbourhood Shang House is in.
It was fortunate that it also dovetails with what her brand stands for, “Scene Shang wants to inspire people to appreciate history and culture and this is also something the client, Figment, is trying to do too.”
The result is furniture pieces and homeware with the rattan weave in subtle and overt ways.
Artistically-shot photographs of Balestier line the walls, with distinctive art pieces by Arthur Ting sitting comfortably alongside them.
The latter is a charming series of works in three-dimensional detail that feature the colourful façade of shophouses in different styles; one piece is even of Shang House’s.
“Ultimately, we want residents to have a sense of place to build memories when they live here,” she explains.
Click here to read the rest of the story in the complimentary online edition of Issue 116: June/July 2020.
