Stripped-down Style

When it comes to selecting materials for the home, the sky's the limit - if your wallet stretches that far, that is. Purists can insist on Calacatta marble, which can only be found in one quarry in Carrara, Italy, and known to be the most expensive. Or, if you want to make a different but still fancy visual impact, there's natural stone, granite, quartz, or Burmese teak for parquet wood flooring.

But you can do more with a lot less, says architect Pan Yi Cheng, co-founder of Produce, who proposed a simple combination of plywood and ceramic tiles to his clients AC Ngai and Celeste En, who had just bought their walk-up apartment near Balestier.

The extensive use of birch plywood in the home gives the space a work-in-progress feel which the couple, who are both from the creative industry, couldn't be more pleased with. It was also aligned with their request to keep the colour palette neutral- largely white and grey tones with a mix of light wood.