SINGAPORE — When the owners of a row of shophouses in Singapore’s Geylang neighborhood renovated their properties, they could’ve easily wound up with another block of cookiecutter residences.
But Karen Tan, a family friend of one of the owners, convinced them to instead do something experimental: Hire seven different local architects to turn each three-bedroom home into its own showpiece.
“We tried to do something a bit more sensitive,” says Ms. Tan, who took on the initiative as a way to launch her development consultancy, Pocket Projects. “Instead of eight identical residences, each one became an exercise in exploring the potential of a shophouse.”