We hear you are quite a party-goer. Did you visit The Warehouse Hotel in its past life as a disco? How did this aspect of its heritage shape your approach to this project?

Chris Lee (CL): I was a party-goer! I’ve been there when it was a disco. I was actually looking for Zouk and we went into the wrong place. The impression wasn’t much—just another big club. Over the years, there were a couple of events that happened in the space as well. In the back of my mind, it was a jewel waiting to be polished. When the client contacted me, it felt great that somebody finally decided to do it.

When we first walked into the dilapidated building with the client, we immediately felt that we wanted to keep the volume in the lobby to give it the character of a warehouse. If you were to seal that up to add a few more rooms or block that out, then from the outside it looks like a warehouse but it could be anywhere in the world when you walk in. From day one, we knew we had to preserve this distinct feel of going into a warehouse. Then it’s about finding a way to give something with so much history a future. One of the initial ideas was inspired by movie sets such as Blade Runner and Metropolis. I felt the cold industrial architecture would work well within the warehouse context.

Transforming former industrial spaces for alternative uses has become commonplace around the world. How did Asylum go about giving a “fresh perspective” and why was this important for the hotel?

CL: All around the world, cafés that don’t have any industrial context also want to be industrial. It’s a good look; young people resonate with this old feel that is not squeaky clean. Given that this warehouse has all the right in the world to be industrial, we wanted to deliberately layer it with a more mature and modern take. It’s also about who our audience is. It’s not meant for bed and breakfast travellers or budget travellers, but for people who want a unique and different experience from other boutique hotels in Singapore. Many of these boutique hotels tend to have kitsch design or scream “design”. We wanted to move away from that and contextualise the warehouse.

We didn’t want any of the “industrial”: carts, heavy metal beams and used wood. The bare bones of this architecture, particularly its pitch roofs, would already tell you this is a warehouse. We did not have to scream “industrial” anymore. Instead, our design adds a whole layer of modern, luxurious touches that is subtle. We have a lot of warm leather and tropical plants to balance the cold industrial space. Unlike typical hotel rooms, we also dispense with cabinets and just have open hangers that make the rooms feel airy and more modern. We also kept the original brick wall and trusses. The only throwback to the era that we added were the pulley lights. Given that it was once a spice warehouse, we designed a system similar to what the coolies used then.

The warehouse’s original function was not for hospitality and its key features such as its pitch roofs were a challenge to designing the hotel rooms. How did Asylum go about overcoming this and turning it into a selling point?

CL: When we were designing for hospitality, one of the things that had to work was obviously the bedroom including amenities and a bath. Typically, a newly built 400-room hotel has five different rooms and then you clone them throughout the building. There’s more work at the Warehouse Hotel because of the pitch roofs. We had to move rooms around and alter the design accordingly to take in as much natural light as we could. We managed to achieve that in 33 or 34 rooms, either from the roof or windows. That was a big challenge and the architect, Zarch Collaboratives, did a great job working with us. Even at the corridors you have sunlight coming in to accentuate them. That is my favourite part of the hotel.

Another key design feature is the double-volume lobby that defies conventional hotels. The reception is tucked to the side and visitors are welcomed with generous seating. Why start with such a social entrance?

CL: Given that there were only 37 rooms, we were very mindful that each time you checked in, it would be quite quiet. We wanted the lobby space to have energy. We wanted to bring the local community into the space. Anything with activity has to be in the lobby space. Not just hotel events, but a public bar and restaurant. Besides, how much reception space do you need for 37 rooms? So, we integrated everything into one space and that has worked very well. We wanted to open the back lane as a café to serve passers-by at the river side but the authorities did not allow us.

I’ve been there in the evenings and it is a nice, lively space if you want to meet your friends, or bring somebody from out of town. Financially, it has also worked very well from the client. With only 37 rooms it’s hard to make it viable so the bar and restaurant adds to the revenue. To the credit of the client, he did not try to squeeze many rooms in this hotel but chose to make it comfortable and charge higher fees instead. If you are practical, you look at how much money you can make and what are the returns. We were lucky to have a client who gave us a good canvas to project our vision on to it.

Besides its interiors, Asylum also worked on its branding found across the hotel’s collaterals and guest experience. We hear there is even a “vice” menu to reflect the neighbourhood’s histories. What is the role of design in telling stories?

CL: We wanted the identity to tell the story of the godown and that era. We found the company’s name painted on the warehouse itself in Chinese so we incorporated it into the secondary graphics for the brand.

As we were doing research we found all these stories about the warehouse being part of a street where there were illegal distilleries too. We highlighted these illicit histories through the type of drinks offered at the bar. The hotel also extended this theme of “vices” by offering guests items such as handcuffs and blindfolds in the rooms. That added to the story-telling.

As we got to do both the interior and the branding, we could synergise and decide where the story-telling should be played up or down. This made the project more complete.