These amazing old home conversions will make you want to move into a charming old property made new again.
30 October 2018
Text by Vanitha Pavapathi and Janice Seow
Many people prefer buying newly built homes to old homes, as they think the latter are dated and dingy. While it’s true to some degree, old homes do have their charms and quirks. And when restored and redesigned right, they can be more beautiful than newly built homes, as seen in these four homes, which are in the running to be named “Outstanding Space: Old Home Conversion” at Lookbox Design Awards 2018.
Designed for a young family, the individual private spaces in this apartment are planned out like a house within a house, where the bedrooms and study spaces are clustered behind birch plywood volumes that double up as the distributed storage for the house. This frees up more windows for natural daylight to pass through. A system of wooden CNC-cut operable geared louvres also helps regulate airflow. See the full house feature here.
www.produce.com.sg
Four siblings decided to build a new flat for their mother in their childhood neighbourhood of Tiong Bahru – a place where the whole family would visit regularly. A balance has been struck between celebrating nostalgia and inserting something new. Architectural elements such as existing windows and mosaic floors have been restored in this 1930s HDB flat, while new works can primarily be found in areas such as the bedroom and kitchen.
www.asolidplan.sg
The owner inherited this apartment from his parents and asked for a refreshed space that also preserved old elements and memorabilia. Important details were retained, restored and given new life, such as the mosaic flooring, window grilles and electrical distribution box, while design details such as the classic clerestory windows were emphasised in black paint. See the full house feature here.
www.dmarvelscale.com
Originally built in the 1930s, this Tiong Bahru apartment has been designed for entertaining, and the display of art and objects. To balance the need for privacy and daylight, the windows of this ground floor apartment feature custom pivot screens whose patterns are inspired by iron grilles commonly seen in the estate in the olden days. Each window becomes an aperture, where transparency is fine-tuned via both the angle of the pivot screens and the alignment of its two layers.
www.asolidplan.sg
If these beautiful old home conversions inspire you, you should definitely get tickets to the upcoming Lookbox Design Awards 2018 Gala Night to find out who the winner of this category will be, and see more amazing works from Singapore’s top designers.
We think you may also like 6 stunning HDB flats that don’t look HDB
Like what you just read? Similar articles below
Metaphor Studio manipulated the layout of this Pinnacle@Duxton resale flat as a stage for a couple to live out their best lives for many years to come.
Home to a small family unit, this maisonette has been completely transformed into a hip residence that defies typical housing typologies with each level serving different functions.
