As tempted as I am to call New Bahru a new shopping mall, it is so far from the regular Singapore shopping mall as to deserve another designation entirely. Built in a Modernist building that was once a school, New Bahru is now home to more than 40 small shops, restaurants, cafes, creative hubs, wellness and fitness centres (and even serviced apartments). And it is championing Singapore design and creative entrepreneurship in an entirely new way.
First of all, the building. An example of Tropical Modernism, New Bahru was originally built in 1969 as a teachers’ training college and then became Nan Chiau High School until 2000. After that, it was used for various offices and other functions, until The Lo & Behold Group stepped in with a vision to create something entirely new.
The adaptive reuse of the building was undertaken by local studio FARM, which retained the Modernist structure of the building – a large U-shape around a garden and carpark – painted the facade a warm pink, and added steel and aluminium details. Concrete remains a uniting feature, accompanied by breeze-block facades, barrel-vault arches and U-shaped details at the top of pillars.
FARM’s architect statement reads: “By amplifying the building’s original features, we allowed its storied past to guide our design. Rather than a strict separation of old and new, we embraced the challenge of blending the historical with contemporary.”
For the interiors, another local studio Nice Projects designed some of the spaces themselves, and elsewhere, helped connect the tenants with local interior designers. And the finishing touches of New Bahru – the funky graphics and typographic colour palette – are by Portland-based studio OMFGCO.
But the real genius of New Bahru is in the selection of tenants. Lo and Behold Group has chosen Singapore brands like Beyond the Vines (BTV) Design House, which sells brightly coloured bags, fashion, accessories – at its largest store at New Bahru, the brand now offers customisation options. When I was there in April, I visited this store and others including MAKE by GINLEE, which sells beautifully pleated clothes and bags (all designed to minimise waste), and Soilboy, which sells carefully curated plants and handmade ceramic pots.
The food and drink options are also extensive. I had lunch at The Coconut Club, the third of its Singapore locations, which specialises in delicious local Nasi Lemak food (I hope you like your food spicy!). The interiors are full of rattan and other natural materials and the space is open to the outdoors, creating a totally different feel to the closed-in experience of dining in a Singapore mall.
Other businesses I didn’t get to put my head into include various fashion stores, stores selling ethical bedding, jewellery and leather crafts, plus cocktail bars and coffee shops, a woodfire charcoal grill, a chai bar, a micro-bakery and more. Then there are the gyms, cycling and tennis centres, a wellness centre including sauna, and ballet school, plus spaces to learn new creative skills like art, ceramics, food science and singing, and various childcare spaces. You can even stay there: Alma House offers serviced apartments.
More on New Bahru
