Less visually striking than some of their other projects, one recently completed commission saw the architects tackle adaptive reuse. Open Studio was engaged by Lo & Behold Group to repair and restore the former Nan Chiau Secondary School hall at New Bahru, which is now used for large-scale events and exhibitions.
While the rest of the building had already been preserved or updated by multidisciplinary studio Farm in collaboration with design studio Nice Projects, the hall had not been touched until Open Studio was brought in. The process was akin to surgery: Tan and Lam removed unsightly elements – partitions, fittings and services added haphazardly by former tenants over the years – before reorganising everything “to reveal and complement its modernist bones”.
Lam elaborated: “Despite its age, the hall still had material charm, such as the deep-stained teak panelling and ecru mosaic floor, which the landlord admired and which we sought to preserve.” Rather than concealing imperfections, the architects left the “patchwork of repair on the floor and staple scars on the wood” as part of the hall’s shared memory.
Given the range of projects and solutions, it is hard to pigeonhole Open Studio into a single design category. What unifies the work across homes, retail spaces, gyms and restaurants is an approach rooted in hospitality – though not in the way the word is commonly understood. For Tan and Lam, hospitality has nothing to do with how fancy or expensive a space is. Rather, it is about the considerate, personal touches that make a space feel intuitive and comfortable to the people who use it.
Each project reflects the architects’ attention to detail. Tan added: “We take pride in anticipating what people want, often before they know they want – or need – it. These interventions may be small, like the cubbyholes in the JC Apartment kitchen or the thoughtfully detailed shared vanity at Ally Maxwell, with compartments for everything you might need.”
COMMUNITY, CULTURE AND CITY
When asked about dream projects, Tan turned to larger ideas, referencing a recent talk she attended at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) titled The Tokyo Toilet: Rethinking Public Design.
Established in 2020 by The Nippon Foundation, the project engaged prominent architects to renovate 17 public toilets in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. The aim was to challenge perceptions of toilets as dirty and purely utilitarian, producing instead innovative structures that prioritise cleanliness and inclusivity. Tan said it was exactly the kind of initiative she would love to be part of – one that brings meaningful, positive change to a city.