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Temasek Shophouse, preserving Singapore’s urban heritage through architecture.

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Temasek Shophouse is a living showcase of Singapore’s rich architectural history, demonstrating how heritage properties can be reimagined to remain relevant, contemporary, and sustainable, without erasure of their historic identities.

  • Location

    Singapore

  • Period

    2022-2026

  • GFA

    6,400 m²

  • Member companies

    SJ, KTP, Atelier Ten

  • Impact

    Enhancing social wellbeing

  • 60+

    coworking spaces for its growing community of changemakers

  • 47%

    expected energy savings through integrated sustainable design

  • 75%

    of construction waste diverted from landfill

  • Sited at the start of Orchard Road, the four heritage buildings record the layered history of Singapore’s early years. Occupied by different owners and tenants across eras – including the historic Malayan Motors car showroom and a Mid-Eastern film distributor and furniture depot – their evolution chronicles the sociocultural shifts and growing affluence from the inter-war years to the present day.

  • As one of the few remaining street blocks along Orchard Road, these units were gazetted for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in 1990. Careful attention was given during the expansion of Temasek Shophouse to preserve the multi-layered architectural features, originally constructed during the pre-war period and renovated between the 1950s and 1980s.

Façade of Temasek Shophouse

Heritage meets sustainability

A holistic sustainability framework guided the adaptive reuse of Temasek Shophouse, shaping how both indoor and outdoor spaces could be adapted to meet contemporary environmental and social needs while preserving historic character.

 

The framework encompasses seven pathways to achieving holistic sustainability – optimised energy performance, climate resilience, landscape and biodiversity, holistic water management, health and wellbeing, material and resource circularity, and inclusive and supportive community.

Systems including solar panels, alternative cooling technologies such as hybrid cooling, energy-efficient lighting, and rainwater harvesting were integrated to enhance efficiency, comfort, and everyday use across workspaces, event areas, and public spaces.

 

A building management system supported by COâ‚‚ sensors and occupancy monitoring allow cooling, ventilation and lighting to adjust in real time. This helps workspaces, event areas and shared public spaces maintain thermal comfort, indoor air quality and efficient energy use as conditions and patterns of use change.

Original elements – including the Shanghai plaster, metal roof trusses, precast cornices, and mosaic tiles – were carefully preserved and brought forward through adaptive reuse, allowing the Shophouse to become a medium for storytelling Singapore’s urban history.

 

Archival drawings were also sourced to reconstruct the original spatial logic, which served as the foundation for the design development. Where possible, original design intentions were retained or reinterpreted, with key spaces sited within the existing layout. New amenities that could not be accommodated were sensitively integrated towards the rear, maintaining the historic Orchard Road frontage.

To unify the four conserved units, a connecting spine – inspired by traditional five-foot ways – was introduced on the ground floor as an internal street, guiding circulation and creating a sense of continuity.

 

Together, these measures underpin the building’s design without compromising heritage character.

The outcome

The restoration and expansion of Temasek Shophouse brought together four conserved buildings as a revitalised social impact hub. It reflects how design and sustainability can come together to reimagine heritage architecture for the future, preserving its character while meeting contemporary environmental, operational, and community needs.

Temasek Shophouse Attains WELL Platinum

The social impact hub has officially attained the highest level of the world's leading standard for buildings designed to support health and wellbeing.

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