Bespoke Connection
_FRAGMENTATION OF EXCLUSIVITY
Bespoke connection creatively reinteprets the backalleyways of Singapore’s historical shophouses as spaces that support a wide array of activities at the street and over multiple levels. The project brings an active social life to a much neglected space used primarily for services. The intervention introduces a new urban space and presents a novel back alleyy urbanism that re-defines publicness which has traditionally been focussed on the five-foot way.
Bespoke connection was inspired by Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love, where the use of film frames hides and reveals fragments and hints of the protagonist’s lifestyles. The project entails the use of prefabricated pods managed by shophouse owners who then rent them out to various tenants. The arrangement of the pods presents a juxtoposition of exclusive and inclusive spaces within the compound of the backalley whereby pods arranged parallel to the backalley or east-west facing.
The former pods are
accessible via the ground level and host programmes such as thrift shops and food retailers, performing its role as
a public community node in Whampoa; a hub for collecting once-loved products and an alternative street-dining
experience. The latter can only be accessed via the entry to the back-door of the shophouses where exclusive pathways have been installed within the hidden space available in the courtyard spaces within the compounds
of the shophouse itself. These exclusive pods host bespoke personal programmes such as tailors, hairdressers and tattoo artists who charge a premium on their services and are appointment-only service providers. The sense
of exclusivity is hence heightened further with each bespoke pod requiring a specific circulation path.
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