WHERE EARTH MEETS WATER

When homeowner and designer adopt a collaborative approach, the result speaks for itself. LYNN TAN susses out this interior that truly reflects the homeowner’s personality and style.

When it comes to his first home, Haikal Mohamed left no stone unturned. From hunting for the perfect property, to scouting for an interior designer most suitable for the project, the digital marketer spared no effort. After engaging with 10 designers, he finally decided that Pivot would be the one. “Some designers just wanted to design what they wanted, while others gave me rather ‘normal’ proposals. Pivot’s scheme was unique, out-of-the-box and I could tell that a lot of effort had been put into it,” he says.

For Pivot's designer, Keith Low, clinching this project against nine other firms was a tremendous motivation. He brainstormed no fewer than 10 schemes, before eventually going with this one. He was inspired by the Golden Mean, a mathematical ratio used by artists, architects and designers to come up with aesthetically pleasing proportions. The Golden Spiral is one of the derivations of the Golden Mean. “It started out as an exercise on the plan, where I superimposed the spiral and curves onto the layout. When Haikal collected the keys and I visited the unit, everything just fell into place. The design echoes the curved banks of Bedok Reservoir, as if they are engaged in dialogue,” Keith explains.

The original layout was fairly typical- you entered via a corridor leading from the main entrance, and another corridor led to the bedrooms. Keith felt that doing away with the corridors would achieve a more efficient use of space. Besides, Haikal also favoured a more open layout. The unit underwent extensive reconfiguration and almost everything was replaced, except for the main door and windows, as well as part of the bedroom flooring.