New Seasons

This home embraces the aesthetic tastes of both the younger and older members of the family.

- ISABELLE TOW

This may be the second time that AkiHAUS is designing for this client but the design brief has evolved greatly from the first. In the decade that has passed since they designed the client's first home, the daughter has gotten married, and the family has gained a young granddaughter as well as a son-in-law. To accommodate her expanding family, the matriarch of this home recently purchased this 2,330sq ft four-bedroom resale apartment so that all five members of the household, including their helper, can reside comfortably together.

While their previous home had been designed largely to her tastes, the matriarch was more than happy to accommodate her daughter and son-in-law's interior inclinations in their new apartment. In their discussions with designers Lawrence Puah and Ash Nur Ashiqin, the family agreed that the communal areas would be designed with the matriarch's tastes in mind, whilst the rest of the apartment would be inclined towards the younger folks' tastes. Like the previous home, the stipulation for plenty of storage room was also added to the brief.

As the matriarch's collection of antique furniture would be brought over to the new place, the designers had to develop a design language that could incorporate the pieces without evoking a dated atmosphere that would put off the rest of the family. To allow her hardwood antiques to stand out whilst maintaining a contemporary vibe, a modern classic backdrop was proposed for the communal areas, composed of pristine white walls and ceilings, with bleached wood-paneled alcoves carved within it to mark the functional spaces.

The use of colour and material contrast, such as the bleached wood panels against the stark white background, to create alcoves in the interior architecture is a recurrent motif in the apartment. This concept of carving nooks keep the overall space feeling open and spacious whilst imbuing a sense of coziness in the framed alcoves where people dwell.