NUS Studios - Bespoke Connection

By Christopher Chua

Tutor - Prof. Richard Ho

Bespoke Connection reinterpretes the back alleyways of Singapore’s historical shophouses as spaces that support a wide variety of activities at the street and over multiple levels. The project brings an active, social life to a much-neglected space used primarily for services. The intervention introduces a new urban space and presents a back alley urbanism that re-defines publicness which has traditionally been focused on the five-foot way at the front of the shophouse. The project was inspired by Wong Kar Wai’s "In the Mood for Love 花样年审", where the use of film frames hides and reveals fragments and hints of the main character’s lifestyles. The concept of fragmentation space is used to then celebrate the idea of the backalley's sense of clutter.

The project entails the use of prefabricated pods managed by shophouse owners who then rent them out to various tenants. The arrangement of the pods presents contrasting spaces of the private and public, the exclusive and inclusive spaces within the compound of the backalley.

The inclusive spaces are identified by pods arranged in parallel to the backalley. They are accessible from the ground level and host programmes such as thrift shops and food retailers, performing its role as a public community node in Whampoa; a hub for collecting once-loved products and an alternative street-dining experience. Exclusive spaces are identified by pods angled away from the backalley, in the east-west facing direction. These spaces can only be accessed via the entry to the back-door of the shophouses where exclusive pathways have been introduced within the hidden spaces available in the shophouse rear courtyard spaces. These pods host bespoke personal programmes such as tailors, hairdressers and tattoo artists who charge a premium for their by-appointment-only personalised services. The sense of exclusivity is hence heightened further with each bespoke pod requiring a specific circulation path.

“You notice things if you pay attention.” - Su Li Zhen, In the Mood for Love