Home Tour: $400,000 Japanese-style renovation for a couple’s penthouse in Upper Bukit Timah

For this couple in their 40s with two young preschooler daughters, being able to supervise the girls while engaging in their own activities around the house was a priority. However, despite the penthouse’s sizeable floor area, most of the private rooms were cut off from the shared living spaces, which meant that in order to keep an eye on the children, the parents would have to be in the same room and would not be able to go about their daily tasks independently.

To address this, Melvin Keng, principal architect of Kaizen Architecture came up with the concept of using internal fenestrations. “By analysing the home’s functional patterns and activities, we thoughtfully positioned sight lines and fenestrations in key areas, enabling family members to stay visually connected while occupying different parts of the apartment,” he explains. This approach inspired the project’s name, “Mado Apartment”. “Mado” is Japanese for “window” and is derived from the concept of the eye’s door, which symbolises the connection and openness achieved through design.

Who Lives Here: A family of four
Home: A 4-bedroom penthouse apartment in Upper Bukit Timah
Size: Approx. 3,500 sq ft
Interior Designer: Melvin Keng, principal architect of Kaizen Architecture

Sliding Glass Doors

One of the advantages of this interior design strategy is that it establishes connectivity within the home without resorting to major reconfiguration or extensive demolition of walls. Most of the existing rooms were retained and some hacking was carried out only to the extent required to realise the fenestrations.

These include full-height, frameless, sliding glass panels between the dry kitchen and the living and dining rooms, a picture window between the dining room and the kids’ playroom, a small pocket window between the living room and master study nook, as well as the fluted glass doors between the master corridor and master bedroom.

Japanese Interior Design

In terms of aesthetics, interior designer Melvin drew upon the couple’s love for Japanese culture and their collection of Japanese art. The wife is also well-versed in the art of kimono dressing, calligraphy, traditional Japanese archery and tea ceremony. “The clients’ love for Japanese culture heavily influenced the general aesthetics of the design, including incorporating reinterpreted elements seen in traditional Japanese spaces,” he shares.

The entrance foyer is intended to create a sense of mystery and anticipation as you enter the home with a deliberately dim and dark atmosphere. The flooring is black granite stone with a tessellated layout, loosely inspired by the outdoor pavements along the streets of Japan. The walls are finished with a dark textured paint and the recessed wall lights and bespoke timber crafted wall lamps are softly illuminated. Concealed behind one of the entrance foyer walls, the cloud-like veins of the marble feature wall in the powder room offer an unexpected contrast to the moody tones of the entrance foyer.

Japanese-Style Living Room

Conceived as an open plan layout, the living and dining rooms are connected by a full-height, multi-functional carpentry unit in white oak veneer that serves as a focal point within the two spaces. Towards the living room end, the unit houses the television console, storage and shelves.

Children’s Playroom

At the other end facing the dining room, it integrates more shelves and a picture window with a view into the adjacent children’s playroom. Two pairs of custom made shoji style timber screens allow the flexibility of closing off the playroom window for privacy or the television console to hide clutter.

On the wall showcasing the homeowners’ art collection, a small and narrow pocket window offers a glimpse into the master study nook. It features a unique design with Japanese nuances- a solid timber frame around shoji paper laminated between two clear glass panes.

Marble Kitchen Island

The centrepiece of the kitchen is an island clad in an exotic Rossa Luna marble stone with strikingly bold veins, which was selected to not only lend an artistic quality to the space, but also stand out against a predominantly neutral colour palette. It has been painstakingly detailed to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing.

Interior designer Melvin designed it to a 750 mm table height so that it can serve as a secondary dining area for breakfast or a casual meal. The bench seats are mounted on castor wheels and can be tucked neatly under the island when not in use to achieve a clean aesthetic. Full-height, frameless, pocket sliding glass panels allow the kitchen to be enclosed when cooking or when the air-conditioner is switched on, and retracted seamlessly to open up the kitchen to the living and dining areas.

Master Bathroom Design

The master bathroom deserves special mention. The combination of dark, matte granite stone slabs and timber laminates reminiscent of cedar wood instantly transports you to a Japanese onsen.

Continuing along this theme, the freestanding stone bathtub in the shower compartment was inspired by the traditional single person onsen tubs. A stone bench incorporated into the shower area resembles those used for resting after a soak in the onsen. Some of the original glass blocks have been retained, allowing light to filter into the bathroom, shrouding it in an ephemeral glow.

$400,000 Renovation

The renovation took about five months to complete and the family moved into their new home in the middle of 2024. The cost came up to about $400,000, including new finishes, lighting and built-in joinery. The existing marble flooring in the common areas was retained to help keep the costs within budget.

Kaizen Architecture’s design approach revolves around storytelling and narratives centred on the stories of their clients. “In this case, the love of Japanese culture is evident in the final outcome of the project and makes the project bespoke and unique to our client. It is never driven by or based on a particular style or aesthetic, but often the brief, the client’s personality and the stories we hope to tell through our work shine through in every project of ours,” Melvin affirms.