You’d be forgiven for thinking Alvin Tan’s third-storey walk-up belonged in a bohemian New York City district. But it is in Tanjong Katong the acclaimed designer managed, after months of renovation and a few dashes of serendipity, to conjure a loft that’s every bit as capacious and sophisticated as you would imagine one in the Big Apple to be.
Alvin co-founded :phunk, a contemporary art and design collective that has seen its work grace museum walls, magazine pages and, more recently, the face of an OCBC credit card. The four-member collective is consistently one of the top-rated design studios in Singapore, picking up a President’s Design Award in 2007 to prove it. Alvin’s new home, where he moved in five months ago, should be mentioned in the same breath.
The 1,050-square-foot pad is exquisitely reconditioned. Alvin and his girlfriend Lucinda Law, with whom he shares the home, knocked down a false ceiling and several walls to reveal a mezzanine and spaciousness uncharacteristic of Singaporean apartments—and it all came together by chance.
"We had bought the space thinking we’d just buy furniture and move in without renovating,” the bespectacled designer explains. “But after spending two to three weeks in the original space, we took a peek at our neighbour’s place—and they had a mezzanine. It was awesome and we said to ourselves, ‘I think we need to do one, too!’”
“And I think we made the right decision.”
INDUSTRIAL CHIC
The renovation process might have been “organic”, as Lucinda puts it, but the couple still had a firm vision of what they wished for their home.
“We wanted something pretty raw with an open concept,” Alvin says. “I wouldn’t say ‘industrial’ but something that isn’t too modern, something which has character. We wanted blacks, browns and grays.”
As such, the floor is bare concrete, the walls iPod-white—“It’s hard to find the right painting to hang up,” Alvin admits—and refurbished planks of heritage wood tracing the mezzanine give the space a deep mahogany finish. Completing the designer palette are slabs of jet black from a desk, staircase, lampshades and rafters.
The pared-down look even extends to the kitchen. Cabinets, drawers and the stove hood are laminated in a faux stone veneer, which were a result of another happy accident. “At first we had wanted to keep the original dark brown laminate, but then our contractor brought a book of new samples, and this one literally fell out of it, and we chose it immediately” a delighted Alvin says.
 
LET THERE BE LIGHT
Its colours may be stark or even clinical, but the loft manages to retain a warm sense of homeliness thanks to the abundant amount of sunlight that floods in. A skylight on the mezzanine floor just above the bed and long windows on the lower level ensure wedges of light seep in and illuminate the apartment.
“I love how the light that comes in is slanted and gradually moves across the floor as the day progresses,” Lucinda quips. “So you can literally see the time passing.”
Even the bathroom, a typically enclosed and coldly lit area, looks fresh: a back door is left open to capture as much natural light as possible. And it gets better: the view from the door opens up to Marina Bay Sands’ triple towers to give the home that sought-after urban tenor without being too close to the bustle of the CBD. “The fringe of the city,” as Alvin describes the location.
Once through the back door and up an exterior spiral staircase, a rooftop with the same glorious view suggests barbecue parties and quiet drinks with friends. The couple hasn’t completed that space yet, but given the rest of the loft, it is bound to be a swanky affair.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN
Evidence of Alvin’s creative profession and habits litters the entire apartment. Some work from :phunk livens up a counter top with the studio’s hallmark vivid colours and Asian-inspired graphics; vinyl sleeves—from Coltrane to Pink Floyd—are prominently displayed; and even his work table is built from scratch, embracing every designer’s do-it-yourself ethic.
Lucinda, too, has a keen eye for design. She picked up a gilded geometric lampshade in London that hangs in the mezzanine, along with a matching candleholder, that lends even more minimalist credence to the apartment. “This was as forward-thinking as we got!” she laughs.
Back downstairs, the luscious brown couch that dominates the living room (interestingly, a projector hooked up to an Apple TV replaces a television) is also a product of Lucinda’s design savvy—and also of a stroke of luck.
“We were just exploring the neighbourhood when we came across one of those tacky furniture shops in Geylang Serai,” Lucinda explains. “Not expecting anything, we went in, passed the garish items and then found a gem like this, which we ended up ordering.”
Somehow, Alvin and Lucinda’s curious spirit and eclectic sensibilities managed to coalesce beautifully in their home. The process might have been a right jumble of coincidences and circumstances, but it is one design Alvin will be more than happy to work on for a long time.
“I think the joy of doing up a house is that it’s always in transition and it’s always a process,” he remarks. “I’ve a friend who says, ‘If your house is completed then it’s time to move.’”
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Comments:
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anonymous said...
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c d
April 06, 2012 10:20:00 PM
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anonymous said...
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best regards
j dentims
March 21, 2012 10:26:00 AM
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anonymous said...
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alf
March 08, 2012 9:06:00 AM
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