A Nondescript Shophouse or a Themed Café? A Designer Can Judge

In Singapore, Art deco shophouse’s facades are one of the trademarks tourists must-see. As early as the 1800s, built were shophouses using the fundamental form of traditional Chinese architecture in South China. Traditionally, many of these served as homes but now there are places for businesses such as bars and cafes. It is easy to miss out on this unique and trendy cafe as you walk along Tyrwhitt Road Singapore. Chye Seng Huat Hardware is not your typical café concept.

Chye Seng Huat Hardware

In interior design and architecture, most concepts align to the obvious and what easily our eyes can perceive. Usually, a café project brands out to look like a café, obviously. But what if designing means looking deeper into the history of the place, its memories, and sentiments? As the saying goes, ideas are wild and limitless. Yet, it is also true that sometimes a good design comes from an unobvious source. Chye Seng Huat Hardware gives no clue that the shop serves coffee. Yes, retained was the original signboard not to sell nuts and bolts but to serve coffee and good food. The cafe welcomes its visitors with its unique interior design too.

The name of this café speaks volumes. According to the owner, Leon Foo, In Chinese, “Chye Seng Huat” means “to flourish again.” Thus, given a second chance was this old hardware shophouse in Tyrwhitt Street that now exudes resplendent beauty. The word “Hardware” pays homage to the neighborhood’s heritage, as many Singapore history buffs would know that Tyrwhitt Street used to be the location of many hardware back in the 1950s. Chye Seng Huat utilizes a café shop design trend, having a theme of being hidden, opaque, and intentionally that’s hard to find. Casual visitors might be baffled, but a designer can appreciate the paradox.

Unique Design Strategy

The shophouse retains its original window grills and folding doors. Moreover, the main entry looking entirely like a hardware store is an oversized rustic, slightly ajar vehicular gate with a sign “TOWED AWAY, ILLEGALLY PARKED VEHICLE” written on it. Chye Seng Huat’s nondescript exterior design strategy does not point to a coffee shop design, undoubtedly uninviting but unique. The compound offers Alfresco dining in an industrial feels garage. A 360-degree indoor island coffee bar made with full wood in a rustic design greets customers upon entering inside. A wall feature under the stairs gave an exciting use of a metal reinforcing bar, one of the construction materials the old “hardware store is selling.” It is suspended horizontally and vertically on the wall to serve as shelving and display units.

Open ceilings and exposed pipes also add up to the industrial look of the cafe. Also made available for customers to freely play is the iconic Pacman arcade machine, taking the customers back to the nostalgic feels of the 1980s and 1900s. While a complete coffee gear inventory is on the ground floor, the complex hides a coffee school and a retail space on its second floor. Cheng Seng Huat Hardware is a hidden semiotic gem, a perfect setting for great conversation and a cup of coffee. A true coffee experience that goes beyond coffee.

The cafe is also a pioneer of third-wave coffee, Papa Palheta, a renowned coffee roaster, and purveying specialty coffee in Singapore and Malaysia.

Photo Credits: Chye Seng Huat Hardware Coffee Bar©, Urban Journey©, and Flicker Photos©