Plum Job

In this home belonging to a young family, design principal Gwen Tan of Studio iF sought to capture the beauty and ephemerality of Japan's plum blossom season.

- AARON DE SILVA

It's a femininomenon: Swathed in a palette of pinks and plums and anointed with rounded silhouettes, the apartment's living room gives off a sensual feminine energy.

When the developers of this luxury condominium in Singapore's District 10 approached Gwen Tan to design the interiors of a duplex penthouse apartment slated for relaunch, her first instinct wasn't to hit the drawing board. To create something really desirable, the founder and principal designer of Studio iF had to think outside the box.

A site survey revealed that the 2,500 sq ft apartment was housed in a stack with a unique, staggered configuration, so adjacent units fit into each other like a jigsaw puzzle. This particular unit abutted a larger, 3,500 sq ft duplex unit. A thought struck Tan. What if the units could somehow be combined to form a super penthouse?

TWO BECOME ONE

Her years of executing projects for private clients taught her that the demand for such properties was strong. Buyers were always on the lookout for something special on the market. Even in one of Singapore's plummiest districts, penthouse units of this size were exceedingly rare.

"We've had clients in the past who waited a long time for adjacent units (in their condos) to become available, and as soon as they did, they would snap up the properties, knock down the (dividing) walls, and create larger units," Tan shares.

"If the buyers can afford a unit here, they could have also afforded a Good Class Bungalow. However, some owners prefer to live in a highrise rather than a landed property. They want to feel on top of the world, have spectacular views, and (to be) smack in the middle of town," she adds.