The Chic Home: Bukit Purmei flat mixes and matches styles

SINGAPORE – Home owners Shaun Lee and Andrea Tang, who are in their 30s, viewed 50 properties before buying a 1,000 sq ft four-room resale HDB flat in Bukit Purmei Road.

The couple – Mr Lee works in banking and Ms Tang owns an eatery – chose the 40-year-old unit for its original pink marble flooring and views of Mount Faber.

They had specific requirements in their design brief. Apart from retaining the existing flooring, they wanted an open plan that would maximise natural lighting and cross-ventilation, allow them to host gatherings and fit everything they needed for their hobbies – Mr Lee is into pottery, while Ms Tang is an avid reader. The couple also have a significant amount of shoes and clothes.

They also wanted a large master bedroom with separate sleeping and walk-in wardrobe areas, a bathtub in the master bathroom and an enclosed kitchen.

Despite the extensive brief, the couple did not have a preferred style or mood board – something that many of the design firms that they met insisted on.

They eventually decided to engage architect Woon Chung Yen, founder and principal of design studio Metre Architects.

One of the constraints was a pair of columns in the middle of the unit. Instead of trying to conceal them, Mr Woon reframed them as freestanding columns by hacking and shifting segments of the walls attached to these columns.

Detaching them from the old walls creates a sense of layering by forming a “corridor” between the columns and the new walls.

Mr Woon says it also provides a buffer zone between the public (living and dining) and private (master suite) zones within the apartment.

The combination of freestanding columns and glass panels reveals or conceals spaces depending on where one is standing.

A sense of the flat’s peripheral walls along its length and depth is apparent upon crossing the threshold. This is conveyed through spatial layers. First, a low shoe cabinet, then a “portal” formed by a beam connecting the two columns. The third layer is a nearby curtain, which opens up or closes off a multi-purpose guest room.

Past the main entrance on the right is a bar counter that has replaced the store room, followed by sliding and folding glass panels. These separate the kitchen from the living-dining area and the yard.  

The renovation took six months and the couple moved into their new home in March. The cost came up to about $125,000, excluding furniture and furnishings.

Ms Tang says of the renovation: “The home offers a glimpse of who we are and reflects who we grew into while creating it. Chung Yen has made us see and move within the house in a completely different way from what we expected when we bought it. We absolutely love it.”