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Best Luxury
- Interior Designer: Mak Ai Ling (SIDS ID1.)
- Address: 62 Ubi Road 1 #09-04 Singapore 408734
- Contact: 6232-0070
- Website: www.studiomakal.com
- Type of home: 6-bedroom condominium
- Size of home: 3,000 sq ft
The homeowners brought along with them cherished furniture pieces.
The Brief
The homeowners of this six-bedroom apartment envisioned a mid-century modern treehouse, a home that felt intuitively grounded in nature yet quietly refined. They wanted spaces for study, music, and guests, while retaining four cherished pieces rich in sentimental meaning: their vintage dining table, an ornamental Chinese tea set, and two family heirlooms: a vintage lamp and an antique chandelier.
Designer Mak Ai Ling, founder of Studio Makal, began with observation rather than sketches. “I visited their then-current home several times to understand their routines, what they love, and their hobbies,” she recalls. “This hands-on approach helped inform the design choices, ensuring each room reflected not just their stated needs but also their personalities and future dreams.”
Full-height timber panelling now wraps the entry and living areas.
Flow and Materiality
Reworking the apartment’s linear plan, Ai Ling introduced privacy and fluidity to create definition. Full-height timber panelling now wraps the entry and living areas, concealing storage while adding warmth and order. Living and dining zones connect gracefully, anchored by the restored dining table at the home’s centre. A hidden bar in Verde Alpi marble gleams softly behind sliding panels, its deep green veining a nod to the owners’ love of nature.
This choreography of light and texture sets the home’s tranquil rhythm. Ai Ling calls it “understated luxury—spaces that feel quietly elegant, deeply personal, and effortlessly liveable.” Having studied and lived in the UK, she shares her clients’ appreciation for comfort, balance, and restraint—values that inform her soulful approach to design.
A freestanding bathtub sits in the master ensuite.
Crafting with Meaning
Throughout the home, craftsmanship and memory intertwine. When the family’s vintage lamp was unboxed on site, it became clear its cable couldn’t be extended for ceiling mounting. Determined to preserve its sentimental value, Ai Ling designed a custom mid-century-style outrigger bracket that displayed it at the ideal height and proportion. “The solution felt serendipitous. What began as a technical challenge became one of the home’s most meaningful details,” she recalls.
Elsewhere, bespoke furniture and precise joinery underscore the home’s quiet discipline: a tiltable architect’s table for their daughter, tailored shelving in the study, and the lovingly restored wedding dining table. Ai Ling is meticulous about alignment, a discipline honed over nearly a decade with Kerry Hill Architects. “True elegance often lies in restraint, order, and the beauty of seamless detailing,” she says, describing the quiet precision that defines Above the Canopy’s sense of calm and refinement.
A pair of 'his and hers' bathroom sink.
An Intentional Home that Listens
The finished home feels both elegant and human, shaped by trust and collaboration. “Working with clients is a lot like a marriage—a partnership built on trust, understanding, and a healthy give-and-take,” says Ai Ling. The sense of calm extends into the private spaces where a bathtub opening to the bedroom creates what Ai Ling describes as “a private retreat within the home, a place to slow down and reconnect.”
It captures the spirit of Above the Canopy—a home that values intimacy, rest, and the quiet beauty of daily rituals. Here, beauty serves life. Natural materials, cherished heirlooms, and seamless detailing come together with warmth and empathy, proving that timeless design is born of intention rather than excess.
A sense of calm permeates the house.
The Appeal
Through thoughtful planning and refined craftsmanship, Studio Makal redefines luxury as quiet confidence. Above the Canopy balances family history with architectural precision, resulting in a home that feels grounded, tactile, and timeless—a fine portrait of design that listens.
Founded in 2019 by ARB (UK)-registered architect Mak Ai-Ling, Studio Makal is an award-winning design studio celebrated for its clean, elegant, and timeless approach.
Studio Makal
Founded in 2019 by ARB (UK)-registered architect Mak Ai-Ling, Studio Makal is an award-winning design studio celebrated for its clean, elegant, and timeless approach. With over two decades of experience across hospitality, residential, cultural, and institutional projects, Ai-Ling brings a refined international sensibility shaped by her years at Kerry Hill Architects, where she honed her eye for understated sophistication and contextual depth.
Operating across Asia as Foreign Architects, Studio Makal collaborates with local partners on hospitality and residential developments, including work with H World Group on a 4-star hotel in China. Guided by thoughtfulness and precision, Ai Ling and her team approach each project with a commitment to creating spaces that feel both meaningful and enduring.
Today, Studio Makal is increasingly recognised for its refined interior design work, where proportion, material harmony, and crafted detail come together to form spaces of quiet, lasting elegance. The studio has earned multiple international accolades, including the World Design Award, International Design Award (Silver), and commendations in major global competitions such as RIBA Home of 2030, RIBA Ancient Tree Civilization, LAGI Fiji Placemaking, SIA Bukit Merah Placemaking, and PAM Sri Kembangan Market.