Design Anthology - Asia Pacific Edition
Short-term Co-living
WANDERLUST / Short-term Co-living
Figment’s Case Study Homes breathe new life into shophouses and forge a path for a new mode of transient living
Fang Wei Low’s memories of growing up on a shophouse-lined street in one of Singapore’s vibrant neighbourhoods have shaped his distinct notion of a home. The founder and CEO of luxury co-living enterprise Figment, Low traces the origins of his company back to those formative years. All of Figment’s residences are refurbished heritage shophouses, envisioned as co-living spaces that capture this spirit of shophouse living for more mobile or even transient residents, with leases starting at just three months long.
In conceptualising the Case Study Homes series, Low was inspired by his father’s Lorong 24A Shophouse Series, which he eventually took over and turned into Figment in 2019, and the pioneering mid-century Case Study Houses project in Los Angeles, in which Arts & Architecture magazine commissioned acclaimed architects to experiment with new ideas for providing housing in a post-Second World War society. Like the original Case Study Houses, Low says, Figment’s versions ‘are also a response to a contemporary issue. People want to stay mobile and unencumbered, yet they still value the experience of living in vibrant places that feel authentic.’
With the goal of restoring a series of heritage shophouses to suit modern urban co-living, Low reached out to local firms Ministry of Design, Studio Juju and SCENE SHANG. And while all of the projects are markedly different, each reflects the respective studio’s ethos and personality, rooted in the context of the brief and the site.
Low’s childhood home, a shophouse in the very neighbourhood that inspired him to establish Figment, has been transformed into Canvas House. Here MOD blanketed the shophouse in a layer of white to metaphorically cover the past and provide a blank slate for the future. In creating this dialogue between past, present and future, the designers preserved historic details in a similarly conceptual fashion, selectively revealing the shophouse’s original bones and using upcycled furniture pieces.
Taking a distinctly different approach, SCENE SHANG’s vision for Shang House aligned the furniture and lifestyle label’s ethos of
capturing heritage stories through furniture and objects with the history of the house’s Balestier neighbourhood, a historical rattan manufacturing district. The firm used rattan as a signature material to connect spaces in the house, from the entrance screens and hanging lights to bed frames and the studio’s signature SHANG system of modular storage.
Timo Wong and Priscilla Lui of Studio Juju took a playful approach with their iteration on the eastern side of the city in the bustling neighbourhood of Joo Chiat. Intended to be a respite from the streets outside, the aptly named Still House is focused on the manipulation of shape and form, its four suites displaying distinct spatial qualities and pops of vibrant colour while integrating various sculptural elements, a pared-back palette and natural materials to create a sense of simplicity and restfulness.
These three distinct design responses reflect the position of Figment’s Case Study Homes as part of a broader exploration of what it might take to shape one’s home within a larger community and in the context of transient living. For Low and his team, it’s all about providing beautifully designed spaces that are part of a city’s built heritage, making it easy for people to plug into the local life without much introduction. ‘We certainly hope that our homes can help revitalise their respective neighbourhoods, not only as nostalgic icons of the past but also by presenting a renewed vision,’ he says.