The Blair Road project

Restoring a 1930s-era Peranakan shophouse to its former glory is the pet project of new owner Tammy L Wong.

Sat, Jul 02, 2011
The Business Times

By Geoffrey Eu

IT was love at first size.

When Tammy L Wong went househunting earlier this year, she made a conscious effort to seek out a small-scale home - one that appealed to her aesthetic sensibilities while also meeting the uncomplicated needs of her family.

Restoring the glory of this 1930s-era Peranakan shophouse Click on thumbnail to view

She looked at around 30 places before she chanced upon what she calls a 'little gem' - a tiny conservation shophouse shoehorned into an odd-shaped, stamp-sized space, beside an alleyway at the end of a row of larger shophouses.

It's not quite the Singapore equivalent of The Little House on the Prairie but it comes close if you substitute the vast open plains with a sweeping modern cityscape.

The three-storey home, sitting on a quiet residential street at the edge of Chinatown, represents urban living on an intimate scale - large enough to accommodate Wong, her husband Jonathan, their teenage daughter Summer and the family's six-year-old Labradoodle Angel, but in marked contrast to the high-rise penthouse they previously lived in.

The 1930s-era house was also in a raw, unfettered and unrestored state, with wooden floors on the upper levels and cement and tiled floors on the ground level, plus an open wooden deck adjoining the open kitchen area.

It was a condition that suited Wong just fine because she is a strong advocate of the simple life - within the local context, at least. She moved in just two months ago and already it feels like home.

'I like that nothing was done to it, because then it feels like it has kept its integrity and honesty,' says Wong, who is well known in the local performing arts circle as a dancer-choreographer.

She is currently working on the script for a show that will mark the September launch of her book A is for Achar, which is based on her memories of growing up in a Peranakan household.

The house is indeed reminiscent of an earlier age, and a simpler lifestyle. It is bright and airy and even in the height of the afternoon, with various windows and doors open and the sound of ceiling fans spinning and traffic blaring in the distance, there is a strong sense that the living is easy. Wong insists on doing all the household chores herself and she is also an accomplished cook who frequently entertains dinner guests.

Scattered throughout the house are various items of mid-century Scandinavian furniture which, along with old pieces from local stores such as retro desks and bookcases, antique Chinese chairs and a 1970s-vintage foldable round table with a floral-pattern formica top, add to the period charm. A vinyl copy of Miles Davis's classic album Kind of Blue is resting on a traditional turntable in the living room, ready to be listened to.

The small gated entrance is already hidden away in a corner but is even harder to spot because it is shaded by the branches of a banyan tree from the neighbouring property. The front door has an additional pair of pintu pagar - saloon-style swing doors - to allow for natural light and better ventilation.

Inside, the living area leads into the open kitchen with its cement counters and an adjoining open-air deck where the family has its meals when the weather permits. An original wooden staircase leads to the second-floor family area and master bedroom, while a second, steeper staircase leads to the loft-like bedroom on the third level. From the upper floors there are views of old and new Singapore, with high-rises in the distance and linen hanging out to dry on a nearby balcony.

Wong has moved seven times since returning to Singapore in the 1990s, but she is hopeful that her stay here will be much longer. 'Of all the houses I've lived in here and overseas, this one expresses me best,' she says. 'It is not a huge house but I think that the individual spaces are well-sized for our family. In my previous home we had phenomenal views and looked at the city from above - now we're back on terra firma, in the heart of the city and in a part where there is history, culture, colour.'

She adds, 'I love this neighbourhood because it's eclectic and bohemian and each day there is the possibility of stumbling upon something interesting - there is always a possibility waiting to reveal itself.' She probably wasn't referring to the bridal shoots that seem to take place daily on every corner but the sense of discovery persists throughout the neighbourhood.

Wong says she is on a mission to restore the house according to the colours of Peranakan porcelain - primarily pink and green. 'The house was built in the 1930s, when Peranakans were moving out of the heart of Chinatown,' she says. The house evokes a sense of home in an earlier age, which also enables her to appreciate the views of two facets of high-density living in Singapore - the soon-to be-demolished Pearl Bank Apartments which were built in 1976 and The Pinnacle@Duxton, the most recent showpiece for the country's modern housing miracle.

'The past and the present co-exist in this house - it allows for a more imaginative future and living here just gives me a very optimistic feeling,' says Wong. 'This is a raw and honest space with plenty of context - after this it will be hard to move to a white marble bathroom somewhere in the sky.'

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