Hotel Soloha – Takeshi Noodle Bar

For a restaurant that dishes out fusion cuisine or some calling it “Mod-Sin Cuisine”; we wanted to create a space that redefines traditional materials with a contemporary look. The project redefines the idea of conservation architecture by juxtaposing highly colourful and graphical elements with traditional materials. Conservation projects tend to fall back on materials and textures typically considered “historical”, such as unpainted timber, while eschewing bright colours as they are deemed too “pop”. Historically, shophouses were painted in colours too, albeit in pastel hues, probably due to high cost of pigments in those days. Given how ornate the shophouse facades were, it would not be unreasonable to deduce that architects of that era would have used intense colours if they could.

The result is an Instagram popular space, proven by the proliferated presence in the social media space.