The project is an 8,000sqft column-free space situated in Harry Siedler’s iconic Hong Kong Club Building. The client’s brief was for a space that reflected the values and culture of the family’s founding generation, but which would leave room for the next generation to evolve, especially as the business segues into investments and private equity.
Brewin Design Office designed a modernist-inspired office interior for a private investment office, drawing on the building’s 1980s brutalist architecture., which allowed the interior architecture to respond to not just the physical context but also the historical significance of the building.
The program of a private family office encouraged us to explore high-quality residential level details and furnishing set within the context of a professional office space that needed functions like an 18 person boardroom, and meeting rooms that had the luxury of seating lounges within them.
Custom Brewin Design Office furniture pieces were complemented alongside vintage pieces by Oscar Niemeyer, Jean Michel Frank, Eero Saarinen, among other canons.
Brewin Design Office led the architectural design of Capital Square in Singapore, while DP Architects supported with submissions. The upgrade of the 20 year building includes fully redesigning the exterior plaza, creating a warmer and lush vegetation-filled space. The main lobby is designed to intergrate circulation with the back drop off, reimaging the back dropoff to operate as a front of house entry for VIP vehicular access. A large canopy extends into the plaza carrying a ceiling feature lined with custom designed aluminium louvers that filter day light and artificial light. These louvers are visually extended into the lobby to both visually accentuate its size and to connect it to the plaza.
Sitting at the rooftop of the newly built Capella Hanoi, the entire floor plate of The Hudson Rooms occupies 1,200 sqm and seats 120 people.
Inspired by the aesthetics of 1920’s New York and the renaissance of travel, the restaurant is designed to transpose a golden era into contemporary indulgence, and captures the iconic energy and beautiful spirit of that era. Curved ceiling profiles are inspired by New York’s Grand Central Terminal, and joinery details, fixed and loose furniture pieces have all been inspired by Art Deco motifs, specifically of the later period from the likes of Jean Michel Frank.
A private back room has been dedicated to whisky and cigar appreciation.
Occupying the entire top floor of a 35-storey Grade-A building in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district, this private family office was designed to satisfy the needs of both its first-generation leaders and their children. The range of uses – including investor visits, new venture incubations, board meetings and family conferences – is accommodated by residential-styled lounges and meeting rooms of varying sizes. Though certain spaces, such as the board room and the chairman’s office, are clearly set, the reconfigured layout is otherwise comprised of fluid work spaces that encourage different work modes and moods. The office is furnished with artwork and antiquities from the family’s personal collection, alongside bespoke pieces designed by Brewin Design Office.
The dark and masculine mood for Ando – a 30-seat restaurant in Hong Kong jointly owned by celebrity Argentinian chef Agustin Ferrando Balbi and Hong Kong-based global hospitality group, JIA Group – was inspired by its address in Hong Kong’s famous restaurant and bar district, Lan Kwai Fong. Over the past decade, this dense urban hot spot has seen considerable construction and development, and Brewin’s design references the neighbourhood’s character with raw concrete, hammered stone and patina-finished metal. The feeling of weight and structural solidity is emphasised by thick-walled arches and a muscular chimney feature that descends from the ceiling, whilst subtle surface textures enhance the dark-hued, industrial vibe.
Press:
The Cool Hunter – Ando Japanese-Spanish Restaurant in Hong Kong
Design Anthology – Ando’s Interiors Reveal a Slice of Hong Kong
Brewin Design Office was engaged for an extensive refurbishment of 61 Robinson, a 20-year old building formerly known as Robinson Centre in Singapore’s Central Business District. The new owners, a private real estate fund, aimed to rebrand, reposition and revitalise the building through an asset-enhancement initiative, strategic leasing, and by adding leasable GFA.
Inspired by a 1920s Manhattan Art Deco aesthetic, Brewin Design Office reimagined the lobby with a dramatic 12m tall fluted-bronze walled atrium, its 4m base clad in large slabs of curved travertine, and a stone perimeter acting as an anchor for the lobby giving it presence and gravitas. The original massive volume of space in the foyer’s center that rose to a 5-storey height was lowered to 10-meters across the 6,000 sqft lobby floor plate, spread evenly across the main vault. By redesigning the walls, ceilings and by reorganising the interior architecture of the space, the studio created a new and improved proportion to the lobby, making it more relatable to visitors while retaining a grandeur in scale.
To enhance cohesion between the interior and exterior spaces, the partially enclosed frontage to the five-foot-way was replaced by a 60-metre-long, floor-to-ceiling glazing, as well as the use of similar flooring materials in a receding pattern.
Brewin Design Office was also responsible for turning the building’s entire fifth-storey car park into new interior leasing units, and ensured the upgrades were in line with ESG and Greenmark ratings, such as improvements to M&E and ACMV systems that achieve better energy efficiency and light.
The eventual overall mood and tone created was to bring an element of hospitality into a commercial typology, to create a welcoming and energised space.
Set in the lobby of the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore, this restaurant’s subtle oriental touches incorporate a contemporary language entirely in keeping with its pan-Asian menu. A procession of seven dramatic timber pods – three of which rise six-metres into the soaring atrium – act as both a permanent modern installation to match the hotel’s muscular interiors, and a privacy screen against the hotel’s passing guests.
Press: Archify – A Spatial Installation in an Immense Interior Space
Overlooking the Singapore River, this modern Japanese brasserie comprises two main areas – a water-fronting bar that lights up like a lantern in the evening and an izakaya. Both are connected by a long teak counter framed by bevelled mirrors and timber screens that visually elongate its length. The palette of green marble, white-washed oak and solid teak tubes are subtle references to the natural hues of the river’s landscape.
Comprising a bar, all-day dining restaurant, spa and gym, the Conrad’s expansive pool lounge adjoins the 25m lap-pool on the roof of a four storey podium. The palette is deliberately minimal – handsome teak and white oak timbers are contrasted against frosted mirror panes to create a warm yet sleek and contemporary setting for the lounge’s varied activities.
Located in a district north of the Shanghai Train Station, the Financial Street Business Hub is a new central business district made up of a cluster of five office towers. Brewin created an arresting feature installation in the central core of each of the five lobbies with a series of six-meter tall ‘wall-peels’, created by stacking solid bands of bullnose-edged travertine marble.
Brewin Design Office transformed an ineffective hotel souvenir store into a multi-purpose kitchen and dining room that easily sits 36. The new hybrid space is designed to both catch spill-over from the resort’s restaurant, and operate as a private dining or function room where seasonal menus are prepared on-site. The contemporary moodboard of white marble mosaic tiles, deep green marbles, bronze trims, and grey timber subtly reference the influences of Sentosa’s colonial architecture while adding a warm, intimate vibe.
