INTIMATES

In leading and talking me through the spaces and rooms on the opening night, the narrative of Ed Poole, the designer, is like that of parentage. He knows how the place sounds, how it reverberates, and the successes and the ongoing trials.

There are various levels of relationships formed with the old Neo-Palladian house. The covered up entrance to the theatre-kitchen dining hall from the river front was recreated based on a study of the symmetrical other wing of the building, now used as a Yoga Studio. While it was befitting to resimulate the doorway, the conversion of the dining hall into a theatre-kitchen required a different strategy. Fully open cooking takes over the hall. A rich textured surface fronts the serving counter. They are futuristic cast aluminum tiles. The floor tiles are Javanese compressed volcanic ash. The new lowered ceiling is of coffered cast aluminum. Here, the patterns and scales of the old are appropriated and played with into making something new. The coffer refers directly to the ceilings at The Chamber of the Main Building while the dimensions of the tiles of 100mm and 200mm x 200mm were deliberate efforts to play with hand held scales of the Victorian era.. It is also of note that the cast aluminum were all recycled from old BMW car parts and cast using sand moulds in a kampung outside of Yogyakarta. The palette of grays and glass however present unmistakably contemporary effects.

INFRASTRUCTURE

At the foyer, three crystal "Rambutan" chandeliers energize and set the tone. To the left, a blue glowing passageway leads to the toilets which are lit similarly. Blue and red LED lights, selected to produce a purple tone flattering to the skin, wash the walls of the staircase. The regularity of the blue next to red lend a certain formality to the process of moving up and down the stairway and made me think of the colors of a flag washing over the space. The interventions here are mainly in terms of these effects as the hallway falls outside the Cafe Society lease zones. But, as the hallway served to connect the lower and upper parts of the cafe, the landlord was however convinced of the need to have a sense of continuity in the experience without much change to the existing provisions.

In the bar, its previous role as a courtroom commandeered the whole set up and experience. The position of the judge was central with a stage and semicircular backdrop. In its present reincarnation, the new is mixed directly with the old. The judge’s bench becomes a performance stage for a live band. Directly opposite, a new leather padded wall and projecting ceiling layer over an existing blank wall. In between, it houses vertical ducts from the kitchen and serves to distribute a whole set of wires and services to the hall. At this area is a raised platform for the dj console and seating overlooking the restored timber floor, and looking at the performance stage.

If you were to extend the survey beyond the river, you would see the towers of Shenton Way. Compared to the horizontal and stately nature of The Arts House, the office buildings with their machine scaled curtain walls and energy saving fluorescent lighting appear full of tension, ready to push their way on to the river. The new postcards of Singapore will carry this juxtaposition, the stately buildings of The Arts in relation to the commercial centre, as she moves to rebranding herself as a global hub of various sorts.