Artist Tan Ngiap Heng On Why This Mid-Century Modernist Bungalow Is Like No Other

The location for our cover story lensed by Rebecca Toh this month is a mid-century modernist bungalow in Holland Park designed in 1963 by the late architecture pioneer William Lim for the family of another Singapore legend, the late forensics pathologist Tan Kheng Khoo. Consider the shoot our way of paying homage to it – it’s the first time the estate has been photographed in a fashion editorial. In January this year, Tan’s artist son Ngiap Heng revealed plans to put the property up for sale – but not without first staging on site the exhibition Eat Play Love during Singapore Art Week to commemorate it and, in turn, the concept of home.

“I’m not an architect so I can’t comment too much on the design details, but what I do feel about this house is that it’s very human. It’s not too small or too big – it’s just nice to live in and work in (the site sprawls a whopping 21,800sq ft, but the dwelling itself is a cosy two-storey bungalow with a built-in area of 4,650sq ft meant to house generations). Overall, its design is not in-your-face, which I guess is why I don’t think about this aspect consciously too much. Ask me to describe it and the thing that comes to mind is that it’s very livable. 

Some of the houses around us are much bigger and that one might need a walkie talkie to talk to someone who’s on the other end. But here, say if my daughter isn’t having her meal like she’s supposed to, I can simply call out and tell her to do so. And I believe this is the last of the houses in the area that still has a big garden – it’s been the playground of my daughter who also grew up in this home and is five this year, and I think she will miss it a lot more than me.

As for me, I’ve got good memories revolving around every single space throughout the house. They’re mostly family moments. When my siblings and I were kids, for example, we had three dogs here: a golden retriever, a sausage dog and a bull terrier. I used to love playing with them, but after a while, my mom got tired of looking after them so we didn’t have any more after they passed on. I also remember learning how to cycle in the driveway and the many hours spent playing with Legos and various toys around the house. I would also go over to my neighbour’s to play marbles with their kids.

I've seen videos of some really large birthday parties being hosted on site, but these were when I was really young and I don’t really remember much of them. Over the years, my late father became more spiritual and these parties ceased. The house hasn’t really seen big crowds since and Eat Play Love probably marked the largest number of guests we’ve ever received: Many people came over the two weeks we held the exhibition and we had in total more than 2,800 visitors.

I’m not going to lie. It’s of course sad to be letting go of the house, but my father was a meditation teacher and he always lived by his mantra of pang tio – Teochew for letting go of things. Before he passed away in 2019, he said, ‘I don't want you to give me a funeral. I want you to give me a celebration when I go.’ So even though I feel sad about letting the house go, I try to remember the good things that have happened in it. Staging Eat Play Love here was in a way a celebration of the house and the memories created here. And having my daughter grow up here for the first five years of her life is another thing I’ll take away fondly.”

AS TOLD TO KENG YANG SHUEN

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity

This article first appeared in the April 2024 Art Book edition of FEMALE