Two decades ago, Candace Teo joined one of Singapore’s leading architecture firms as a manager. When she began designing her house in Bukit Timah several years after leaving the company, two former colleagues came to mind. Chen Kian Khiong and Wong Ker How, who now run their own practices, readily agreed to work together on the project – Chen on the architecture and Wong on the interiors.
Chen is a co-founder of Freight Architects, whose portfolio of landed homes includes one that won an SIA Award in 2025. Wong is a founding partner of ASOLIDPLAN, a practice known for intimate spaces and its exploration of texture. One of its shophouse projects was recently featured in the book Shophouses of Singapore: Beyond the Facade.
Their shared history and complementary approaches come together in the house, whose design process felt more like a school project among friends than a formal client-architect arrangement. “We had common topics and mutual acquaintances, so the rapport was natural and worked well in this tripartite relationship. It allowed the house’s design to evolve over time during construction,” said Wong.