Old Is Gold

DARK, DINGY AND grim aren't usually the criteria a househunter puts on his wish list, but for married couple Chin Sing Ping and Sharon Tay, looks didn't matter in their quest to buy a shophouse.

"We love shophouses and didn't want to move into one that was already restored and renovated," says Ms Tay, a homemaker. "We wanted one that was old so that we could redesign it to our preferences."

That was how their property agent took them to see 105 Onan Road, a dilapidated shophouse that had previously been used as a workers' dormitory. Needless to say, the couple fell in love with it.

As their pre-war shophouse was gazetted in 1993 as part of the Joo Chiat Conservation Area, it had to follow the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) conservation principles of maximum retention, sensitive restoration and careful repair.

Tasked with that responsibility was Keith Khoo of EZRA Architects, who not only helped the couple breathe new life into the shophouse and the neighbourhood, their efforts earned a Special Mention at this year's URA Architectural Heritage Awards.

Under conservation guidelines, the shophouse facade had to be retained. The original windows were kept, and the front glass door was replaced with a wooden one, modelled after an archival photo. The entire facade was given a coat of white paint to best showcase the simple aesthetics of its original architectural features. The five-foot-way outside the shophouse was also kept, its original terracotta floor tiles given a thorough scrub down.

In the living room, the plaster on the existing party wall was removed to expose the original bricks, which although not uniform in size, have their own beauty.

The timber rafters on the living room ceiling were fixed up and given a fresh coat of varnish. As part of the restoration process, the covered air well was opened up to encourage ventilation and lighting into the long and narrow interior, as was its original purpose. A newly-built kitchen now looks out into this airy courtyard.

The master bedroom is upstairs, along with a spacious reading area. The original timber floor boards were restored, and instead of conventional bedroom doors, Mr Khoo designed a set of Peranakan-inspired pivoting doors to create an old world charm.

Meanwhile, on Mr Chin's wishlist was a floating loft in the bedroom that the lawyer could turn into a home office. During a site recce, Mr Khoo discovered an empty space between the roof and the false ceiling in the bedroom. It became the perfect spot to house this loft. "A loft is the ideal spot to appreciate the high interior volume of the shophouse's original architecture," he says.

But building this loft wasn't so simple. "The challenge was to design the new structure to be as inconspicuous as possible without disrupting the existing party wall," says Mr Khoo. A pair of slim steel columns was conceived to support the lightweight timber floor loft.

A skylight in the loft makes the space brighter, while glass panels provide safety and giving the impression that it's floating. While conservation guidelines emphasised preserving as much of the original shophouse, they allowed for the addition of an extension block at the back so that the couple could have more living space.

The new block houses a double volume dining room, a guest room and a small rooftop garden. A highlight of the dining room is a wrought iron spiral staircase specially made by a local craftsman, and cast using a similar mould for the spiral staircases at Chijmes. This spiral staircase connects the second storey of the old house to the guest room and roof garden.

Mr Khoo made it a point to salvage as much of the original materials as possible throughout the house. For example, the old solid timber balusters have been reused in several places, such as safety railings at the bay window in the guest room. "The use of recycled materials and upcycled discards throughout the house help add to the charm," he says.

On their part, the couple were happy to fill the home with old or second hand furniture. The dining room pendant lights, for example, used to belong to a friend's grandmother. Their sound system is also a hand-me-down from a friend, and most of the furniture in the home have been with them for about a decade.

Ms Tay loves her new courtyard, where she can grow indoor plants, and her second favourite spot is the five-foot way outside.

In the evenings, the neighbourhood kids scoot up and down the passageway, and sometimes passerbys take a breather on a bench outside her home. "Sing Ping and I also enjoy sitting here chilling with some wine," she says.

For Mr Khoo, who has always had a passion for conservation, he says the project allowed him to "show how the old and the modern can come together."