One would look at a stainless steel building and never believe that it might be changed into a residential residence. The prewar shophouses, largely constructed between 1840 and 1940, were categorised into three essential groups – the Early Model (1840s-1900s), the Transitional Style (Nineties-1910s) and the Late or Chinese Baroque Style (1910s-Thirties). It’s because while the shophouses had slim avenue facades, many of them extended backwards to an amazing length.

Many of Singapore’s traditional shophouses have been preserved with a contemporary twist. Throughout the island, the Singapore shophouse is a quintessential architectural icon nonetheless widely used for residential and industrial functions. After the late model, there was a move in the direction of simpler ornamentation and more streamlined design that culminated within the Artwork Deco Shophouse Fashion.

Shophouses in Singapore usually use two kinds of tiles for their roofs – the terracotta tiles and the flat ‘Marseilles’ tiles. By the mid-twentieth century, pastel colours (rose pink, child blue, light yellow, and so on.) turned in style, they usually stay the colours that most individuals most strongly associate with these buildings. When the Housing and Development Board (HDB) constructed the low-lying flats within the new cities in the early eighties, they …