Singaporean architect Chang Yong Ter and his client go back to their army days in the late 1980s, when both attended officer cadet school. They lost touch afterwards, reconnecting only decades later when Chang’s work appeared in a magazine, and his old friend recognised the name.
By then, the client had already set his sights on a plot: a corner site in Bukit Timah, one of the island’s toniest neighbourhoods.
“I thought the plot had potential,” the client says. “It was squarish and elevated with an unblocked rear, and adjacent to a quiet cul-de-sac. We liked the location as it was a relatively quiet and small estate that was still close to amenities.”
Living just down the road, he drove past it for years and, one day, the ageing 1950s house on the plot came up for sale. An elderly widow lived there at the time and it was barely habitable – the kitchen and bathrooms were stuck in another era, the roof tiles failing. But its footprint was worth keeping, the original walls were sound and the scale suited a family of three: the owner, his wife and their son, studying in Ireland and back only for summers.
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