Page 73 - AIT0321_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Ministry of Design, SG-Singapur
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan
Grundriss 1. Obergeschoss • Floor plan level +1
Grundriss 2. Obergeschoss • Floor plan level +2
Grundriss 3. Obergeschoss • Floor plan level +3
Bauherr • Client Figment, SG-Singapur
Standort • Location 28 Blair Road, SG-Singapur
Nutzfläche • Floor space 350 m 2
Fotos • Photos Edward Hendricks, CI&A Photography
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 126
CANVAS HOUSE
IN SINGAPORE
Shophouses are a distinct part of the local architecture
of the city of Singapore and represent the built heri-
tage of Asian culture. In one of these houses, Ministry
of Design connected the past, the present and the fu-
ture by covering almost the entire interior with a layer
of white. The residents of Canvas House can there de-
sign their future themselves – as if with oil on a canvas!
A long Blair Road in Singapore’s Chinatown, they are strung like
pearls on a string: the traditional shophouses. Depending on the
date of when they were built, various architectural styles and features
were integrated in these houses. What they have in common are the
traditionally narrow façades with a roofed walkway – the five-foot
ways – for the protection of the pedestrians who stroll down the
streets. Not infrequently, the slender buildings with an elongated lay-
out open at the back into an interior courtyard to flood the whole in-
terior with light. In such a shophouse, the local team of designers
from Ministry of Design developed an unconventional co-living project
for temporary living. To make the history of the house and, at the
same time, the relationship with the present and the future notice-
able, the façade, the interiors as well as the furnishing have been im-
mersed in neutral white. Thanks to this strictly uniform colouring, the
boundaries of space, time and object blur. The colour white symboli-
zes a kind of future which the residents of Canvas House are able to
paint for themselves as if on a blank canvas. With the quotation “I like
the dreams of the future better than the history of the past” by Tho-
mas Jefferson, a specifically made neon lettering decorates the living
room and sums up the core idea of the design. Distributed across all
the surfaces on the inside one repeatedly finds – mostly circular – ope-
nings in the layer of white. They allow seeing the brickwork and the
flooring or are details of the repurposed furnishing and traditional ce-
ramic decoration. The sections with these gems pay tribute to the hi-
story of the shophouse as well as to the Asian culture and connect the
new residents with the memories and the emotions of the previous re-
sidents. Up to three persons can be accommodated in Canvas House.
The building’s Alpine, Alabaster and Ivory suites are complemented
with two spacious living rooms. The linking element between the
zones is an open staircase construction which allows brightness to pe-
netrate from the roof terrace into the interior – and the white canvas
shines all the more brightly.
AIT 3.2021 • 073