THE SECOND RENAISSANCE

Refreshed by its original interior designer after two decades, this home harmoniously blends art and design into a cosy medley of colour and elegance

- Asih Jenie

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was a strong relationship. For French-born interior designer Maud Ferrand and the husband-and-wife owners of this Good Class Bungalow (GCB) in Singapore’s District 10, their collaboration has been an almost two-decade journey that began in 2005. The couple had just completed their two-storey modernist tropical home—designed by renowned architect Ernesto Bedmar—and were in search of an interior designer to complete their vision. A mutual friend introduced them to Ferrand. “The interview process lasted for six months,” she recalls. “The rest is history.”

The clients didn’t just engage Ferrand for the initial design; they returned to her for a second transformation of their home. Completed in August, the refreshed interiors breathe new life into the 10,764 sq ft space while honouring Bedmar’s architectural shell. Thanks to their long-standing collaboration, Ferrand, who today splits her time between New York, Dubai and Singapore, was given creative freedom on the project. “The design brief was, well, brief: to develop a new concept incorporating the existing art collection and a few furniture pieces,” she shares.

The result, affectionately dubbed Renaissance 2.0, is a series of meticulously appointed spaces in which artwork, furniture and design elements that sit comfortably between the realms of art and design blend harmoniously to create an emotional spatial experience for the couple and their four cats.

PUTTING THE “ART” IN START