In one Instagram post, Jax Tan shared photographs from her visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, designed for heiress Aline Barnsdall. Last December, she also posted about a trip to the home and studio of Mexican architect Luis Barragán in Mexico City.
Tan was travelling with her husband and business partner, Lam Jun Nan. Together, they founded Open Studio, one of Singapore’s emerging design firms. It was a leisure trip – though not entirely.
Founded in 2016, Open Studio grew out of the partners’ shared background. Both studied architecture at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and worked at well-regarded firms before starting their practice – Lam at Aedas and Arcstudio + Urbanism, and Tan at Arcstudio and Park + Associates.
Club 21 store at Raffles City. (Photo: Open Studio)
Beyond residential work, the couple have also brought their creativity to notable commercial spaces, including the Club 21 store in Raffles City, the Ally gyms, and Korean beauty retailer Ksisters at Wheelock Place, where a hanok-inspired structure nods to the brand’s cultural roots.
While far-flung travels offer plenty of inspiration, the couple also draw ideas from everyday situations. Tan cited the example of a ramen shop near their office, where she noticed an unusual tiling pattern. “The shop owners needed to repair a spot on the wall, but it was inconvenient to overhaul the interior and costly to redo the entire wall. Shaped by need, convenience and economy, this solution became part of the interior,” she said.
At Ksisters in Wheelock Place, a hanok-inspired structure nods to the Korean beauty retailer’s cultural roots. (Photo: Open Studio)
That does not mean clients can expect rough-and-ready fixes. Rather, Tan’s point is that the firm’s value lies in helping clients “navigate their world in a better way”, however mundane that may seem. She added, “The real world can problem-solve without a designer, but as spatial designers, we contribute by offering organisation and sensitivity without being detached from how the real world would have done it. This is what shapes our design thinking in approaching project briefs.”
The apartment – Singapore’s most common dwelling type – gives the couple ample opportunity to push the boundaries of residential design, even when space is limited. “The typical apartment layout is already the result of highly optimised planning, where rooms have been arranged to efficiently support an urban lifestyle within tight constraints. What we offer our clients is complete customisation of the home, which begins by breaking apart the inherited layout and reassessing adjacencies of use,” Lam explained.
At Habitat 65, Open Studio introduced a purpose-designed storage pod that adds function without subdividing the compact apartment, allowing storage, circulation and living to overlap while preserving openness. (Photo: Open Studio)
The storage pod allows the workspace to sit seamlessly within the home’s broader layout. (Photo: Open Studio)
Rather than resigning themselves to convention, the architects approach spatial design by first understanding how each client actually lives. The result is a “new spatial economy”, where “spatial reorganisation becomes an enabler of a curated lifestyle, and material expressions then become the layer that further personalises and gives character to this new spatial order,” Lam explained.
He cited Habitat 65 as an example, where a purpose-designed “storage pod” introduced an additional function without subdividing the already compact apartment. This allowed storage, circulation and living to overlap without sacrificing openness in the main areas.
Such solutions can only emerge through honest discussions with homeowners, who share their daily routines, priorities and “non-negotiable requirements” with the architects. Tan said: “Arriving at the best arrangement of functions and space is less about imposing an ideal plan and more about working through these conversations to find a spatial structure that meaningfully supports the way our clients choose to live.”
Lam elaborated: “Rather than positioning ourselves as advisers dispensing answers, we use questioning as a tool. As homeowners work through these questions, they often arrive at their own realisations and, in that sense, unknowingly educate themselves.”
The architects say they learn from clients too. “Their routines, habits and priorities constantly challenge our assumptions and refine our understanding of how spaces are actually occupied. This exchange keeps our work grounded, reminding us that meaningful architecture is ultimately shaped through dialogue, negotiation and trust,” Tan said.
In R65, Open Studio used a mirrored volume to separate the main living area from the entrance while containing storage for the kitchen, dining and living spaces. (Photo: Open Studio)
Small apartments – a common housing typology in Singapore – compound the challenge. “In our experience, design innovation in constrained spaces is less about outward expression and more about how effectively light, air and movement are brought into the interior,” Tan observed. “In small homes, these environmental qualities often have a greater impact on lived comfort than formal gestures.”
One example is R65, where the architects organised built-in elements to maximise the penetration of light and air while reducing visual clutter. A mirrored volume separating the main living area from the entrance contains storage for the kitchen, dining and living areas. “This allowed the interior to feel calmer and more generous than its actual size might suggest,” Tan said.
Open Studio’s portfolio is evenly balanced between residential and commercial work. Lam noted that the latter offers different opportunities. Every design decision, he explained, is essentially a hypothesis about human behaviour – and commercial work allows the architects to test those hypotheses at scale, with less risk to the fundamental purpose of the space than in a home.
Successes from commercial projects can sometimes carry over into the residential sphere. Playful spatial ideas – more readily accepted in retail or F&B spaces – can bring joy to homes too, Tan noted.
At Ally Cross Street, Open Studio avoided the usual mirrored walls and functional lighting, instead using a three-metre curved divider of Plexiglas tubes to shape a more atmospheric Pilates space. (Photo: Open Studio)
Commercial projects also allow the architects to push boundaries in material exploration and expression. In designing the Pilates wing extension at Ally Cross Street, they focused on emotion rather than equipment, avoiding standard functional lighting and mirrored walls. They introduced a three-metre curved wall divider made of Plexiglas tubes.
The choice of material was as practical as it was striking. At just 0.5 per cent of the weight of glass and a fraction of the cost, the Plexiglas tubes were far easier to transport. Because they were assembled from ready-made components, they were also quicker to procure and install – efficient without being ordinary.
“In this way, the rigour and testing possible in commercial settings help us refine strategies for usability, while the intimacy and specificity of homes remind us of the importance of subtlety, personalisation and emotional resonance in every project,” Tan said.
At New Bahru, the studio repaired and restored the former Nan Chiau Secondary School hall, stripping away unsightly additions to reveal and complement its modernist bones. (Photo: Open Studio)
Less visually striking than some of their other projects, one recently completed commission saw the architects tackle adaptive reuse. Open Studio was engaged by Lo & Behold Group to repair and restore the former Nan Chiau Secondary School hall at New Bahru, which is now used for large-scale events and exhibitions.
While the rest of the building had already been preserved or updated by multidisciplinary studio Farm in collaboration with design studio Nice Projects, the hall had not been touched until Open Studio was brought in. The process was akin to surgery: Tan and Lam removed unsightly elements – partitions, fittings and services added haphazardly by former tenants over the years – before reorganising everything “to reveal and complement its modernist bones”.
Lam elaborated: “Despite its age, the hall still had material charm, such as the deep-stained teak panelling and ecru mosaic floor, which the landlord admired and which we sought to preserve.” Rather than concealing imperfections, the architects left the “patchwork of repair on the floor and staple scars on the wood” as part of the hall’s shared memory.
Given the range of projects and solutions, it is hard to pigeonhole Open Studio into a single design category. What unifies the work across homes, retail spaces, gyms and restaurants is an approach rooted in hospitality – though not in the way the word is commonly understood. For Tan and Lam, hospitality has nothing to do with how fancy or expensive a space is. Rather, it is about the considerate, personal touches that make a space feel intuitive and comfortable to the people who use it.
Each project reflects the architects’ attention to detail. Tan added: “We take pride in anticipating what people want, often before they know they want – or need – it. These interventions may be small, like the cubbyholes in the JC Apartment kitchen or the thoughtfully detailed shared vanity at Ally Maxwell, with compartments for everything you might need.”
When asked about dream projects, Tan turned to larger ideas, referencing a recent talk she attended at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) titled The Tokyo Toilet: Rethinking Public Design.
Established in 2020 by The Nippon Foundation, the project engaged prominent architects to renovate 17 public toilets in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. The aim was to challenge perceptions of toilets as dirty and purely utilitarian, producing instead innovative structures that prioritise cleanliness and inclusivity. Tan said it was exactly the kind of initiative she would love to be part of – one that brings meaningful, positive change to a city.
Japanese toilets designed by Shigeru Ban and Kazoo Sato (Photos: CNA/Jasper Loh)
She also recalled a project from architecture school in which students were tasked with designing hypothetical nursing homes. “Superficially – and perhaps naively – we approached the design from the exterior, hoping to shape the building to its function. Today, our approach is more nuanced: We consider the commercial and historical context so we can contribute more meaningfully,” Tan added.
Aesthetics remain part of the process – Tan stressed that beauty matters – but the architects place culture above that, and the city above all. She said, “Designing a building that can resonate in the collective memory at a national level – that would be a dream project.”
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Tan was travelling with her husband and business partner, Lam Jun Nan. Together, they founded Open Studio, one of Singapore’s emerging design firms. It was a leisure trip – though not entirely.
Founded in 2016, Open Studio grew out of the partners’ shared background. Both studied architecture at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and worked at well-regarded firms before starting their practice – Lam at Aedas and Arcstudio + Urbanism, and Tan at Arcstudio and Park + Associates.
Club 21 store at Raffles City. (Photo: Open Studio)
Beyond residential work, the couple have also brought their creativity to notable commercial spaces, including the Club 21 store in Raffles City, the Ally gyms, and Korean beauty retailer Ksisters at Wheelock Place, where a hanok-inspired structure nods to the brand’s cultural roots.
BREAKING DOWN SPATIAL BARRIERS
While far-flung travels offer plenty of inspiration, the couple also draw ideas from everyday situations. Tan cited the example of a ramen shop near their office, where she noticed an unusual tiling pattern. “The shop owners needed to repair a spot on the wall, but it was inconvenient to overhaul the interior and costly to redo the entire wall. Shaped by need, convenience and economy, this solution became part of the interior,” she said.
At Ksisters in Wheelock Place, a hanok-inspired structure nods to the Korean beauty retailer’s cultural roots. (Photo: Open Studio)
That does not mean clients can expect rough-and-ready fixes. Rather, Tan’s point is that the firm’s value lies in helping clients “navigate their world in a better way”, however mundane that may seem. She added, “The real world can problem-solve without a designer, but as spatial designers, we contribute by offering organisation and sensitivity without being detached from how the real world would have done it. This is what shapes our design thinking in approaching project briefs.”
The apartment – Singapore’s most common dwelling type – gives the couple ample opportunity to push the boundaries of residential design, even when space is limited. “The typical apartment layout is already the result of highly optimised planning, where rooms have been arranged to efficiently support an urban lifestyle within tight constraints. What we offer our clients is complete customisation of the home, which begins by breaking apart the inherited layout and reassessing adjacencies of use,” Lam explained.
At Habitat 65, Open Studio introduced a purpose-designed storage pod that adds function without subdividing the compact apartment, allowing storage, circulation and living to overlap while preserving openness. (Photo: Open Studio)
The storage pod allows the workspace to sit seamlessly within the home’s broader layout. (Photo: Open Studio)
Rather than resigning themselves to convention, the architects approach spatial design by first understanding how each client actually lives. The result is a “new spatial economy”, where “spatial reorganisation becomes an enabler of a curated lifestyle, and material expressions then become the layer that further personalises and gives character to this new spatial order,” Lam explained.
He cited Habitat 65 as an example, where a purpose-designed “storage pod” introduced an additional function without subdividing the already compact apartment. This allowed storage, circulation and living to overlap without sacrificing openness in the main areas.
DESIGN FOR LIVING
Such solutions can only emerge through honest discussions with homeowners, who share their daily routines, priorities and “non-negotiable requirements” with the architects. Tan said: “Arriving at the best arrangement of functions and space is less about imposing an ideal plan and more about working through these conversations to find a spatial structure that meaningfully supports the way our clients choose to live.”
Lam elaborated: “Rather than positioning ourselves as advisers dispensing answers, we use questioning as a tool. As homeowners work through these questions, they often arrive at their own realisations and, in that sense, unknowingly educate themselves.”
The architects say they learn from clients too. “Their routines, habits and priorities constantly challenge our assumptions and refine our understanding of how spaces are actually occupied. This exchange keeps our work grounded, reminding us that meaningful architecture is ultimately shaped through dialogue, negotiation and trust,” Tan said.
In R65, Open Studio used a mirrored volume to separate the main living area from the entrance while containing storage for the kitchen, dining and living spaces. (Photo: Open Studio)
Small apartments – a common housing typology in Singapore – compound the challenge. “In our experience, design innovation in constrained spaces is less about outward expression and more about how effectively light, air and movement are brought into the interior,” Tan observed. “In small homes, these environmental qualities often have a greater impact on lived comfort than formal gestures.”
One example is R65, where the architects organised built-in elements to maximise the penetration of light and air while reducing visual clutter. A mirrored volume separating the main living area from the entrance contains storage for the kitchen, dining and living areas. “This allowed the interior to feel calmer and more generous than its actual size might suggest,” Tan said.
LEARNING FROM COMMERCIAL WORK
Open Studio’s portfolio is evenly balanced between residential and commercial work. Lam noted that the latter offers different opportunities. Every design decision, he explained, is essentially a hypothesis about human behaviour – and commercial work allows the architects to test those hypotheses at scale, with less risk to the fundamental purpose of the space than in a home.
Successes from commercial projects can sometimes carry over into the residential sphere. Playful spatial ideas – more readily accepted in retail or F&B spaces – can bring joy to homes too, Tan noted.
At Ally Cross Street, Open Studio avoided the usual mirrored walls and functional lighting, instead using a three-metre curved divider of Plexiglas tubes to shape a more atmospheric Pilates space. (Photo: Open Studio)
Commercial projects also allow the architects to push boundaries in material exploration and expression. In designing the Pilates wing extension at Ally Cross Street, they focused on emotion rather than equipment, avoiding standard functional lighting and mirrored walls. They introduced a three-metre curved wall divider made of Plexiglas tubes.
The choice of material was as practical as it was striking. At just 0.5 per cent of the weight of glass and a fraction of the cost, the Plexiglas tubes were far easier to transport. Because they were assembled from ready-made components, they were also quicker to procure and install – efficient without being ordinary.
“In this way, the rigour and testing possible in commercial settings help us refine strategies for usability, while the intimacy and specificity of homes remind us of the importance of subtlety, personalisation and emotional resonance in every project,” Tan said.
A HISTORY LESSON
At New Bahru, the studio repaired and restored the former Nan Chiau Secondary School hall, stripping away unsightly additions to reveal and complement its modernist bones. (Photo: Open Studio)
Less visually striking than some of their other projects, one recently completed commission saw the architects tackle adaptive reuse. Open Studio was engaged by Lo & Behold Group to repair and restore the former Nan Chiau Secondary School hall at New Bahru, which is now used for large-scale events and exhibitions.
While the rest of the building had already been preserved or updated by multidisciplinary studio Farm in collaboration with design studio Nice Projects, the hall had not been touched until Open Studio was brought in. The process was akin to surgery: Tan and Lam removed unsightly elements – partitions, fittings and services added haphazardly by former tenants over the years – before reorganising everything “to reveal and complement its modernist bones”.
Lam elaborated: “Despite its age, the hall still had material charm, such as the deep-stained teak panelling and ecru mosaic floor, which the landlord admired and which we sought to preserve.” Rather than concealing imperfections, the architects left the “patchwork of repair on the floor and staple scars on the wood” as part of the hall’s shared memory.
Given the range of projects and solutions, it is hard to pigeonhole Open Studio into a single design category. What unifies the work across homes, retail spaces, gyms and restaurants is an approach rooted in hospitality – though not in the way the word is commonly understood. For Tan and Lam, hospitality has nothing to do with how fancy or expensive a space is. Rather, it is about the considerate, personal touches that make a space feel intuitive and comfortable to the people who use it.
Each project reflects the architects’ attention to detail. Tan added: “We take pride in anticipating what people want, often before they know they want – or need – it. These interventions may be small, like the cubbyholes in the JC Apartment kitchen or the thoughtfully detailed shared vanity at Ally Maxwell, with compartments for everything you might need.”
COMMUNITY, CULTURE AND CITY
When asked about dream projects, Tan turned to larger ideas, referencing a recent talk she attended at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) titled The Tokyo Toilet: Rethinking Public Design.
Established in 2020 by The Nippon Foundation, the project engaged prominent architects to renovate 17 public toilets in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. The aim was to challenge perceptions of toilets as dirty and purely utilitarian, producing instead innovative structures that prioritise cleanliness and inclusivity. Tan said it was exactly the kind of initiative she would love to be part of – one that brings meaningful, positive change to a city.
Japanese toilets designed by Shigeru Ban and Kazoo Sato (Photos: CNA/Jasper Loh)
She also recalled a project from architecture school in which students were tasked with designing hypothetical nursing homes. “Superficially – and perhaps naively – we approached the design from the exterior, hoping to shape the building to its function. Today, our approach is more nuanced: We consider the commercial and historical context so we can contribute more meaningfully,” Tan added.
Aesthetics remain part of the process – Tan stressed that beauty matters – but the architects place culture above that, and the city above all. She said, “Designing a building that can resonate in the collective memory at a national level – that would be a dream project.”
Continue reading...