A Playful Yet Functional Homage

This five-room resale flat in Bukit Merah is a playful yet functional homage to the world of vintage cinema and caravan living. ASIH JENIE takes a tour.

- Asih Jenie

More than a decade ago, husband and wife Wong Foong Hwee and Soh Kok Leong hired interior designer Kelvin Teo, founder of Space Sense Studio, to design their HDB maisonette. Working in the creative industry as a director and a cameraman, respectively, Foong Hwee and Kok Leong wanted their home to be bold and unique. Their collaboration with Kelvin was a creative triumph. Inspired by origami, their home landed the cover story of Home & Decor in May 2011, filling pages after pages with exciting interior shots of design features like a sculptural staircase, a ladder that serves as an art installation and a lego bookcase.

It says something about your design practice when your clients return to you to design their next home. In April last year, Foong Hwee and Kok Leong moved into their new home, a 1,400 sq ft resale HDB flat in the Bukit Merah area, which Kelvin designed with the same playful energy.“It begins with Foong Hwee’s love for caravan,” shares Kelvin of the starting point of the design. “Then we decided to create a garage-inspired interior.” The finished home, which cost $150,000 to renovate blends the owners’ existing furniture and accessories collection with new and custom industrial, vintage, and automotive-inspired features into a functional yet delightfully cool home.