Accidental architect enjoys Ann Siang Hill's ups and downs

In this series, The Straits Times speaks to designers and residents about urban spaces that inspire them

- Chantal Sajan

Who: Architect Rene Tan, 61, is the director of home-grown multi-award-winning architectural firm RT+Q Architects, which he co-founded with fellow architect T.K. Quek in 2003.

The firm picked up the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Architectural Heritage Award in 2011 for its restoration of a 1913 bungalow. In 2016, it bagged other accolades such as the President's Design Award in Singapore and the Chicago Athenaeum award.

The practice's two-decade body of work was documented in Rethinking The Tropical House (2023) by Thames & Hudson, a London-based publisher of coffee-table tomes.

Mr Tan is also festival director of Singapore Archifest 2025, organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects, from June 25 to July 25.

The "accidental architect", who initially wanted to be a pianist, decided to study music and architecture at Yale College in the US. He later obtained a master's in architecture at Princeton University. He is married to Ms Chuah Woei Woei, who works in banking, and they have a 21-year-old daughter, Lara, who is studying music and government at Harvard University.

"My 'place of the heart' in Singapore is a story of ironies, running through busy Club Street to the quieter, undulating terrain around Ann Siang Hill.

There is this delightful sense of finding the right things in the wrong places.