For Bobby Cheng, the Singapore-based founder and lead architect at Brewin Design Office, dream projects tend to be the ones that allow him to ‘operate “end to end”, and to design the interior architecture, especially, right through to selecting artworks and creating bespoke furniture pieces for the project.’
His latest work – the 20-storey show suite in the new 20-unit Eden condominium designed by Thomas Heatherwick – fits the bill precisely.
Channeling the idea of a ‘home in a garden’, the 3,000 sq ft apartment is flanked by bulbous balcony pods, each festooned with thick tropical plants. Every view, as a result, is layered by a foreground of lush greenery.
‘We really wanted to show that interior design should be connected to the building envelope, to be contextual,’ says Cheng. To that end, the show suite’s non-linear interiors, a result of Heatherwick’s unusual spatial elevation, are set off by organic forms and natural materials.
Rattan, hemp and rough silk frame acres of timber panels, travertine and marble, alongside bespoke pieces created by a global Rolodex of artists and designers, including the Oregon-based sculptor Julian Watts, who contributed a striking wall piece carved from a single Mapletree trunk.
The low-slung profiles of light furnishings, many of which were custom designed by Cheng, allow the spaces to quietly expand, especially in the central living space where large bi-folding windows open up to connect interior with the green-fringed balconies and views beyond. ‘We took down pre-existing partition walls to add ventilation and light, and to create unobstructed views.’
For Cheng, a Harvard alum who cut his teeth at Tsao & McKown, and later at Atelier Jean Nouvel, Heatherwick’s work on Eden is unique for its sensitivity to nature and its quiet references to traditional colonial typologies. ‘It was important for us to create an interior that complimented his detailing but without replicating his language.’ We’re sold.
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