Hip, edgy, dramatic, playful, relevant are clearly adjectives that suit the Ministry of Design’s (MOD) architecture and interior design projects in Singapore. A rising international star of architecture and urbanism, MOD’s designs straddle the spatial fields of architecture, interior architecture, and landscape design.
Recent openings reflect this unique approach as evidenced in the über chic The Club a boutique hotel with a colonial façade reflecting the city’s past and a modern sleek interior is primarily decorated with furnishings wrapped in the drama of black and white. MOD’s design motifs – the stark contrast of black and white and wall illustrations of people, animals and nature are often repeated in corporate interiors to combine the professional with a more casual lifestyle to create a holistic experience. As an integrated spatial-design practice, MOD’s designs are seamless transitions from form, site, object, and space, an idea brilliantly executed in developing The Lien Residence a three-zone home on a triangular site.
One of the new breed of architecture and interior design firms to offer the “Total Experience Design,” the team works collaboratively with photographers, fashion designers, and graphic artists to further founder’s Colin Seah’s philosophy to “Question, Disturb and Refine” spaces and forms adding meaning to our world. Seah is the winner of several awards, including Hong Kong’s 40 Under 40 Architect With Excellence.
Where modern nomads cross paths with nomads of yesteryear, The Club’s lobby is graced with a tongue-in-cheek statue of British statesman and founder of Singapore, Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, whose head is in the clouds, or in this case, fabric. Cozy, with 22 rooms, there is a tapas bar on the ground level and rooftop skybar, among other amenities. Targeted to attract the design and lifestyle savvy of the global traveler, The Club blends sophistication and cutting-edge design with a colonial aesthetic.
Tired after a long day’s journey? The sleeping alcove provides a meditative retreat that echoes “Peace, Ritual and Perception,” key to Seah’s commitment to promoting Essentialism in everyday life. Man’s relationship to nature, part of Oriental thought, is represented by a design motif of black illustrations of plants and trees repeated throughout The Club.
The title says it all. A variation on MOD’s style and design motifs, an all black canvas coupled with dramatic lighting and various reflective matte surfaces where silhouettes of people, animals, and nature offer a quirky sensibility opposite the 10- meter long solid surface bar. An overhead strip of LED and fluorescent lights used in the interior’s public spaces visually connect spaces and meeting rooms changing the perception of the standard, business environment.
A zigzag is usually not what you would want in a design for a residence, but MOD’s imaginative single storey home maneuvers around a tree on a triangular site. Divided into three zones: entertainment, family, and private in what appears to be an irregular line, is a seamless, singular form resembling an abstract sculpture. The building’s curves in in-between spaces create courtyards for cross ventilation and filtered light as well as a shelter from harsh weather. Diagonal planting strips on the rooftop is arranged to mimic the twisted form of the “House Around a Tree.”
Paying homage to the outsized talent of the firm’s founder is a fun and clever drawing of Leo Burnett sprawled across the walls and floor of the reception area showing him wielding a scaled-up model of a pencil indicating his creativity – in case you were wondering why the oversized pencil. Circular holes in the black corridor walls allow a glimpse into bright green meeting rooms.
