MOD's all-white house provides a canvas for the future and glimpses of the past
– Colin Seah
Ministry of Design (MOD) have completed an all-white co-living house aimed at making the residents its "prominent features" and giving them a blank canvas for the future.
Canvas House is set in a heritage shophouse in Singapore and is intended to inspire dreams about what could be while retaining historical elements.
Project developer Figment provided a fixed budget and a tight four-month timeline for the reimagining of the building's interiors, including the design, sourcing of materials and fit-out.
MOD's design was conceived to look to the future while preserving the past and to do so working within the constraints of the brief.
The sense of a blank canvas was created by filling the interior with white coverings, materials and elements, with glimpses of heritage revealed in certain places.
Pieces of furniture like tables, chairs, chests, mirrors, screens and vanity desks were upcycled to fit the all-white theme and to help meet the budget and time constraints of the project.
Ultimately, it was hoped that this blurring of dichotomy within the building would shift the focus from its constituent parts to the people inhabiting it.
Glimpses of the past were created by carving out vignettes of colour in the white surfaces, such as of the brick walls, furniture parts or floors in the bedrooms, where so-called "time shadows" are cast by the beds.
Colin Seah, founder-director of MOD, said: “When it comes to adaptive reuse projects, the question is always the same, how do we tread the line between the past and the present? If one opts for the project to be just about preservation, it's as good as time standing still, which could be paralysing and inhibiting.
"But at the same time, neither do we want to disregard history completely by creating something too foreign or novel. Our response was to layer over the existing history with a proverbial blank canvas whilst leaving choreographed glimpses into the past, blanketing both space and the furniture in it – allowing us to blur the inherent boundaries between past and present, object and space."
Ministry of Design co-living house interiors Singapore











Seventh International Museum Construction Congress to be held in Norway this year

The 'world's most anticipated museum' to finally open this year

Nike's Serena Williams Building, designed by Skylab, follows the concept of flow

Saudi Arabia's Neom mega-development to include 100-mile long 'horizontal skyscraper city'

David Adjaye and Ralph Appelbaum selected for £57m International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum project

Virgin Active opens at Milan’s sleek new Bocconi University by SANAA

Swedish architects Wingårdhs create year-round resort with waterpark and hotel for Liseberg

Juneteenth Museum by Bjarke Ingels Group has been designed to inspire spiritual uplift

BIG and HOK's timber concept wins Zurich Airport competition

Christoph Ingenhoven reveals Lanserhof Sylt, featuring the largest thatched roof in Europe

BIG's designs Prague concert hall to be vibrant centre of life

Mather & Co-designed Gretna Green Experience opens to the public

Project to save last major bellfoundry which cast bells for St Paul's and Washington National Cathedral

Perkins & Will reveals designs for net-zero sports and cultural centre in Toronto

World’s first living waterslides announced for Therme Manchester

Heatherwick reveals Volcano-inspired opera house designs for Hainan

Natural history museum planned for Abu Dhabi

Controversial London music venue, MSG Sphere, gets full planning permission

Clifford's Tower opens to the public after £5m redevelopment

Clifford's Tower opens to the public after £5m redevelopment

Glasgow's iconic Burrell Collection reopens after five-year, £68.5m revamp

SB Architects delivers Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Costa Rica with tree-house spa and private residences

Ole Scheeren designs vertical jungle resort complex in China

Designer Brian d’Souza launches Swell to create evocative soundscapes for physical environments

Basalt Architects create geothermal Forest Lagoon in the wilds of Iceland

Hot Pickle design £73m Guinness visitor attraction for Diageo in London

Amsterdam's new digital art centre Fabrique des Lumières will use tech to bring art alive

Pharrell Williams to launch tropical Bahamian beach resort

Banyan Tree curating solar-powered wellness retreat on private Mozambican island

Dubai Expo hits 10 million visits
From parks designed to mitigate the effects of flooding to warming huts for one of the world’s coldest cities, these projects have been designed for increasingly extreme climates