House Tour: A timeless, minimalist 4-room HDB flat in St George's Lane
This modest four-room HDB Flat in St George’s Lane shows how to create a timeless and tranquil interior by simplifying its floor plan and dressing it up with a minimalist material palette.
By Asih Jenie -
The layout and zoning of a space play as crucial a role in creating a feeling of spaciousness as its actual square footage. Home to a couple and their two-year-old son, this four-room HDB flat in St George’s Lane is one excellent example.
AT A GLANCE
Who lives here: A family of three
Home: Four-room HDB flat in St George’s Lane
Size : 990 sq ft
ID: L Architects
Wanting a more spacious living and dining area for the family, the owners turned to L Architects to turn the standard HDB flat layout into something tailored to their lifestyle. L Architects started by tinkering with the layout of the space.
“We want the users to move into a bright and airy space where they feel comfortable,” says Lim Shinghui, founder and principal architect of L Architects, who helmed the project. “The interior layout has been reconfigured to form fewer but larger living spaces that allow for more natural light.”
The walls of one bedroom were removed to enlarge the living and dining areas. Next, part of the kitchen was opened up to flow freely with the dining space, which is the designated social hub of the home.
“They have large extended families, so despite the flat’s modest size, they still wanted a space where they could host large family dinners,” shares Shinghui.
She adds, “So, at the conceptual stage, we knew we had to propose a three-metre long table that could accommodate 10-pax dinners.”
This oversize dining table from Timber Capitol is the centrepiece of the communal area. Its organic edge creates visual interest in the otherwise straight and linear aesthetic of the home.
It is separated from the communal spaces by a full-height storage wall finished in charcoal timber laminate with open shelves that allow for visual connections while providing enough privacy to study and work.
The material palette has also been kept simple, comprising familiar finishes like terrazzo, mosaic tiles, oak, timber laminates and travertine. “We find that these materials have a certain timeless quality to them. There is no ‘new’ or high-tech material exploration here,” says Shinghui.
This simple material palette also has great colour contrast. The charcoal timber laminate from EDL pops out in the predominantly white and oak coloured interior.
The bedrooms are designed to be purely a place to rest. “They would like the family to bond through daily activities in the communal areas rather than retreating back to their own private bedrooms,” says Shinghui.
The master bedroom is a minimalist’s haven, featuring bare walls, a wardrobe and a mattress sitting on an elevated platform. Shinghui shares a design tip: “A platform bed is a good way to make the bedroom feel a little more spacious. The bed is often the largest item in the bedroom – lowering its position can help make the space feel less cluttered.”
A slew of clever details rounds off the interior design, concealing the standard HDB-issued utilitarian elements. A sliding mirror fitted over one of the bathrooms’ window conceals the old school glass louvres.
The home also provides ample storage spaces within its minimalist cabinetry, such as the pull-out drawers beneath the living room’s bench and the hollow bedhead in the bedroom.
The renovation took two and a half months to complete and cost the family around $120,000. The feeling of spaciousness and the refined elegance of the space, though, is priceless.
photography FINBARR FALLON