Outside The box

An inverted timber box is both a centrepiece and design solution in this sprawling penthouse home.

- Isabelle Tow

Space 4-bedroom penthouse apartment

Location Paterson Road

Reno period Six months

Home to A married couple

Budget Undisclosed

After buying off the property from their parents, the new owners, a newlywed couple in their early 30s, set off their plans to remodel their 3,500sq ft three-storey penthouse apartment. “The home had been recently renovated, but not quite to their personal tastes,” said Dennis Cheok, creative director of UPSTRS_, whom the couple commissioned for the redesign.

The gutsy owners gamely offered their home to be a sequel to The Crate Apartment, a residential project completed in 2017 that featured a centrally placed wooden box, which won the firm acclaim and crystallised their reputation for novel interior design. “We like textures” was what the owners conveyed to Dennis in terms of aesthetic direction, on top of an ask to temper the excessive light and heat let in by the expansive west-facing, floor-to-ceiling windows of the lounge.

Dennis and his team first recognised that there was an opportunity to turn the lounge into the heart of the home, through which all the other spaces around it could be connected. The walls that had hemmed it in and cut it off from the rest of the apartment were consequently torn down, opening up the million-dollar views of the double-volume lounge to the mezzanine-level library.