Hong Kong design sensation André Fu cut his teeth on the era-defining The Upper House 12 years ago, the first in a new breed of hotels sporting his pared-back, contemporary Asian style. Since then, his work has spread across the region, landing signature hotel projects in Kyoto, Bangkok and Shanghai, as well as projects further afield, leaving behind a collection of meticulously appointed hotels and resorts that bear his hallmark minimal style.
Fu has spent the last year reimagining the guestrooms at Capella Singapore, a sprawling urban resort on Sentosa Island, where Pritzker Prize-winning architect Lord Norman Foster transformed two 19th-century colonial bungalows into one of the most striking resorts in Asia back in 2009.
Originally created by the late Indonesian design legend Jaya Ibrahim, the original layout and structure of the 112 rooms, suites and villas remains unchanged, but a new colour palette of earthy sand, sage and mineral grey reflect the resort’s surroundings: the lush rainforest of Sentosa Island, the surrounding beaches and the lapping waves of the South China Sea.
Mindful of the fact that people use hotel rooms differently now than they did a decade ago, Fu has infused the spaces with a residential feel. A low-slung sofa in woven, slate-grey fabric is designed for work, rest and play, and a two-tiered lounge table serves as both dining table and desk. As well as furnishings inspired by the André Fu Living collection, some of the pieces reflect local arts and crafts: hand-carved teak bowls from Indonesia, an oak and rattan-panelled screen and an oak drinks cabinet with rattan door panels in the style of an antique armoire.
“I wanted my presence to be complementary. Jaya represented the first generation of modern Asian designers. My perspective acknowledges that the world has become larger,” said Fu. “For me, design now crosses cultures and geographical locations, whether you’re in Singapore, Tokyo, London or Aix-en-Provence. So, it’s not about designing a new room just for the sake of being new. It’s more personal than that. It’s about evolving a space through design. In the context of the refurbished rooms at Capella Singapore, I think of it as an imaginary dialogue between me and Jaya.”