A LIFE OF BALANCE

The key to building her home, says corporate lawyer Rebecca Hong, is having the right mix of tradition and modernity.

- Azhar Rahim.

When the renovation works for their bungalow in Serangoon Gardens was completed in 2016, then Hong Kong-based corporate lawyer Rebecca Hong and her husband, Anthony, knew that it was to be a place they would retire to someday in the future. Despite building their lives and career in the city-state for more than a decade, the couple would visit Singapore with their three children at least twice a year, staying in the house that is very different from their Deep Water Bay property in Hong Kong.

“Maybe it was because we lived in Hong Kong for a long time, so we veered towards something very different for this house,” Hong shares. The four-storey irregularly shaped bungalow, which is a playful departure from the conformist linear shapes of conventional architecture, sits on a 5,000sqft piece of land. Yet, despite the rounded edges and soft curves of the exterior, the inside of the house feels airy, light, and, more importantly, very spacious.

To design and build the house, the couple interviewed three architecture firms and design studios before deciding on renowned architect Aamer Taher, who is known for incorporating curvaceous forms in his designs. “Coincidentally, Aamer was also engaged by our next door neighbour at the same time. So he designed both houses together,” she reveals. “If you were to look from an aerial viewpoint, both houses look like the inside of an opened shoe box. Ours is one half of the shoe box, and theirs is the other.”

Indeed, it is an interesting modern design that stands out from the rest of the bungalows along the street. Since its completion though, the house had been mostly unoccupied until recently, when the couple decided to uproot and move the family back to Singapore.