SINGAPORE \u2013 On the fringe of Chinatown stands 21 Carpenter, once a remittance house for the Teochew diaspora and now imaginatively redesigned as a modern heritage hotel.<\/p>\n
The boutique hotel is named after Carpenter Street, part of the Teochew sub-enclave within Chinatown, so the streets around the 1936-founded shop would have mirrored scenes from the movie of the moment, Dear You.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n The hit Teochew film now showing in Singapore cinemas has resonated with audiences with its story of a struggling migrant worker in Bangkok\u2019s Chinatown and his wife in rural Shantou, China, linked by decades of letters.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the family drama, young trishaw rider Zheng Musheng (Wang Yantong) writes about a rising moon \u201cround as a jade pendant\u201d, wishing his wife, Ye Shurou (Wang Xiaohui), could admire it together with him.<\/p>\n Singapore\u2019s labourers, who would have experienced the same separation and heartache, sent letters and money home through the Chye Hua Seng Wee Kee remittance shop that forms the bones of 21 Carpenter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Woha Architects has translated that local history of grief and grit into architectural poetry. The hotel\u2019s sleek facade is laser-etched with 24 lines from archival letters across its aluminium skin. Running horizontally in English and vertically in Chinese script, one inscription reads: \u201cMy words overflow the page.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A scene from the Dear You movie, where the young Ye Shurou\u00a0(left, played by Wang Xiaohui) listens as a friend reads aloud a poignant letter from her husband working in Bangkok\u2019s Chinatown.<\/p>\n PHOTO: GOLDEN VILLAGE<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Richard Hassell, co-founding director of Woha, tells The Straits Times: \u201cThe facade design draws on old Chinatown itself, when shopfronts were covered in carved signs and inscriptions \u2013 we wanted the new building to carry that same sense of being \u2018read\u2019 as you walk past.\u201d<\/p>\n Collected from the National Archives of Singapore, the poignant verses are also embedded across the lifts, social spaces and 48 guest rooms of the hotel, which opened in December 2023 and was named Design of the Year at the President\u2019s Design Award 2025.<\/p>\n Many Chinese labourers could not read or write, so their words were composed by educated street scribes. \u201cThese writers often reached for classical poetry \u2013 lines everyone at the time would recognise, and instantly know what feeling they carried,\u201d adds Hassell.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lines from remittance letters written by immigrants are laser-etched onto the facade and interiors of the 21 Carpenter hotel.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The motif of writing repeats at different scales throughout the property. The carpets and headboards draw on calligraphy, for instance.<\/p>\n In the lobby that features warm, rich chengal wood floors and railings salvaged from the original structure, the carpet draws inspiration from the Chinese character \u5bb6 (jia), meaning home or family.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the corridors, the custom carpets are woven in stark black and white, evoking the strokes of a calligraphy brush.<\/p>\n Above the bed is a work of art that is a stylised segment of the Chinese character for home or family. It testifies to the mass displacement of the Chinese diaspora and their longing for home.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Above the beds hang stylised segments of the Chinese word for home \u2013 a silent chronicle of the mass historical displacement of the Chinese diaspora. It is also a visual testament that these pioneers never ceased yearning for their roots, recreating a piece of home wherever they landed.<\/p>\n Yet, Woha has balanced this gravity with light, playful elements. The guestroom furniture features cabinet doors \u2013 adorned with a 1930s fan motif \u2013 that glide open to reveal premium wet bars.<\/p>\n These cabinets are a \u201csmall analogy\u201d <\/b>for the hotel as a whole.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is meaning built into every layer, and you are rewarded for looking closer,\u201d Hassell says.<\/p>\n The garden terrace at 21 Carpenter hotel, planted with local flora such as nutmeg and red guava, is a rare slice of lushness in densely built Chinatown.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n True to Woha\u2019s biophilic signature, the site is lushly green despite its placement in dense Chinatown.<\/p>\n The design of 21 Carpenter, composed of four shophouses and a new urban wing, makes space for eight mature trees. A garden terrace within the nine-storey structure is planted with local flora such as nutmeg and coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n The selection pays homage to Singapore\u2019s spice trade and port heritage of the nearby Clarke Quay and Singapore River. The choice of gambier, especially, honours the Teochew coolies who toiled in gambier plantations and packed the commodity by the river.<\/p>\n Today, red guava and longan trees add a new sensory layer.<\/p>\n Collectively, Woha\u2019s design is a wistful tribute to the sacrificial Nanyang immigrants who sought a better life outside China and supported impoverished families in southern coastal China with small remittances.<\/p>\n 21 Carpenter partners Singapore brands such as In Good Company \u2013 its kimono-style robes are provided in guest rooms.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Beyond design, the hotel partners local brands to stock its rooms, such as Haldy\u2019s sugar-free cinnamon turmeric mints \u2013 once again, an allusion to the old spice trade. Other hyper-local examples are Oatbedient oat milk, Irvins snacks and In Good Company\u2019s light kimono-style bathrobes \u2013 a contemporary alternative to the white, heavyweight versions in hotels.<\/p>\n The playlists, artworks, soaps, coffee, recycled glass bottles, bedrunners and more are also proudly Singapore-made.<\/p>\n Commenting on the world of Dear You and its pathfinders, Gwendoline Poon, director of rooms and revenue, tells ST: \u201cFor us, it was never just about preserving a building; it was about keeping those voices alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we watched Dear You move millions of viewers with its own portrayal of the \u4fa8\u6279 (qiaopi or overseas remittance letters) tradition, we felt this quiet sense of pride, knowing 21 Carpenter carries that same story forward,\u201d she says. \u201cRomancing heritage and hospitality together is really just how we try to honour the people who came before.\u201d<\/p>\n Remittance letters were penned in classical literary style by street scribes for illiterate immigrants.<\/p>\n PHOTO: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF SINGAPORE<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Hassell, reflecting on what the Dear You sensation says about the hunger to preserve emotions and physical vestiges of Singapore\u2019s past, says: \u201cWanting to know where you came from is a universal human condition \u2013 it\u2019s part of what gives meaning to a life, and this project was our way of doing the same thing through architecture: <\/i>revealing stories about the past to make the building itself more meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n Singapore is a young nation, but not a young place, he points out. Take Fort Canning, which holds royal archaeological treasures tracing back 700 years.<\/p>\n The Chye Hua Seng Wee Kee remittance shop, founded in 1936, has been redesigned as the award-winning 21 Carpenter hotel.<\/p>\n PHOTO: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF SINGAPORE<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s true is that most Singaporeans can trace their own family history back only 100 or 200 years, and much of what came before has been lost to redevelopment. That\u2019s why what does survive \u2013 a letter, a facade, a name \u2013 carries real weight,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s part of why revealing the past through architecture has been a recurring interest of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n Atop the hotel, a vista of Singapore past and present is revealed from the rooftop lounge and infinity pool on the ninth floor. Across the horizon, the OCBC Centre towers over low-rises that are shophouse siblings of 21 Carpenter.<\/p>\n In a poetic parallel, 21 Carpenter was a remittance house founded by Guangdong-born philanthropist Lee Wee Nam and his brothers.<\/p>\n Lee, a Teochew, went on to become a co-founder of Sze Hai Tong Bank, which later merged with and evolved into today\u2019s OCBC Bank.<\/p>\n Inside the rooftop lounge, a commissioned charcoal mural by local artist aeropalmics is inspired by the line, \u201cTime flows relentlessly like water\u201d. Written by a couple, Chen Chuanmin and Chen Guangliang, in China to a relative in Singapore, uncle Wang Yujin, the letter suggests the enduring connection between loved ones across oceans and time.<\/p>\n Like the correspondence, 21 Carpenter is a love letter to the vanished Nanyang generation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 On the fringe of Chinatown stands 21 Carpenter, once a remittance house for the Teochew diaspora and now imaginatively redesigned as a modern…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
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Ink and memory<\/h2>\n
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The real Dear You letters<\/h2>\n
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