This Jurong West resale flat is designed for openness

Home Type: 5-room HDB flat

Floor Area: 1,313sqft

Text by Janice Seow

For the homeowners — an educator and an engineer with outgoing personalities and a shared love of cycling — home was always meant to feel open, flexible and easy to live in. When they approached Jonathan Tan of No Sense Studio, their brief was straightforward: rework a typical five-room resale flat into a space that felt as open as possible, while still supporting everyday routines.

“The brief given to me was very clear,” Jonathan shares. “It is a five-room resale unit, and the clients wanted the space to feel as open as possible.” One request stood out in particular — a comfortable corner where mornings could begin slowly with a cup of coffee.

That clarity shaped the reconfiguration of the flat. The original back-to-back kitchen and study were opened up and reconfigured, allowing light to move more freely through the home.

“To address the brief, the layout was redesigned to create a more open and fluid space, enhancing natural light and circulation,” Jonathan explains. Within this openness, a dedicated coffee corner was carved out by the window — “a cosy yet connected spot within the open layout” that supports the homeowners’ mornings without interrupting the overall flow of the space.

Material choices reinforce this sense of practicality and restraint. Tiles are used in the kitchen and dining areas for durability, while vinyl flooring softens the living and bedroom zones underfoot. Cement screed accents introduce a subtle robustness, grounding the palette and keeping the home from feeling overly polished. The selections reflect a clear understanding of how the space will be used day to day, rather than treated as a purely visual exercise.

Beyond the shared spaces, further changes bring greater cohesion to the private zones. The original storeroom was reconfigured into a functional workspace and connected to the newly proposed master bedroom, which in turn links back to the original master bedroom, creating a cohesive flow between the three rooms. Doorways elsewhere were shifted to better support the revised layout, ensuring that movement through the home feels intuitive rather than forced.

Completed over a three- to four-month renovation with a budget of $95,000, the project balances openness and functionality with confident design moves that give the home its character — and the flexibility to adapt comfortably over time.