House of Shelves
x Hock Siong
Adventure Starts Here.
Using shelves as the inspiration, solution and product, the second-hand furniture shop is its branding in itself. Served and service spaces are concealed and exposed, public and private; with the discovery of shopping at Hock Siong starting from outside in. In the House of Shelves, Adventure Starts Here.
The second-hand furniture shop sits on an area with high visibility, circulation and rich programmatic diversity. Originally a group of Karang Gunis, the furniture shop helms its distinct heritage and traits proudly.
Hock Siong prioritises its rapport between customers and workers, making every visit to its physical shop an adventure - from approach, to its entrance and subsequently discovery, eccentric pre-used vintage items serve as a surprise for both the new and recurring customer. Orientated along Jln Jurong Kechil, with pedestrian access along the two main corners of the busy street, vehicular access is diverted to the quieter Jln Seh Chuan at the back of the building. Housing programs aside from the shop itself, served spaces and their accompanying rooms are situated to conceal and expose: the stage set with its accompanying audience seats and holding rooms; the cafe with accompanying kitchen; library-cum-second-hand bookstore and its accompanying games and study rooms. These activity-filled served spaces are housed visibly in the second floor, along the facade of existing most visible spots of the site.
2018
Year 3, Semester 2
Location
Jln Jurong Kechil, Beauty World
Typology
Second-Hand Furniture Shop
Supervisor
Ar. Cheah Kok Ming
Featured in Cityex 2018: Interplay!
Products are lined up from the three entry points with decor-small items on the peripheral, whilst larger items like bedding and outdoor furniture are displayed near the central green spine, enhancing views and atmosphere. The main circulation vessel up the the third floor is a volumous space with a linear gallery-like corridor, housing clocks, paintings along the back of the flanking shelves - this finally culminates to chandeliers, lights and lamps hanging down from a height, almost creating the effect of a lighting forest, a grand gesture from both interior and exterior. This void, along with the central green break apart this heavy massing of the shelvehouse.
Furthermore, service spaces like that of the carpark enlist a car storage lift system as well as a display of antique, vintage cars being sold that come about from the overarching shelving theme and technique.
The design of Hock Siong seeks to emulate the adventurous nature of its brad, where adventure starts outside of Hock Siong with product visibility, continuing in the journey of product items and the various installations in the shop. The technique employed in creating this, Shelving architecture, uses shelves for storage and display, as well as a structure in terms of steel columns or fins in a gridded 6m x 6m system, eliminating the banal structural pillars that hindered its previous shop and breaking away from the traditional warehouse typology. Instead, steel gridded columns touch the ground lightly, connected to timber infills that vary according to the nature of items housed, forming display shelves.
