Singapore combines tight floor areas, constant humidity and unusually strict rules. A condominium apartment has to store a household in its joinery without feeling mean. A conservation shophouse has a facade and a structure that are not yours to change, and they are usually the most valuable thing on site. A landed house draws damp garden air through every room. The city rewards precision and punishes improvisation.
NYKS is a design studio in Jaipur, and we take on a Singapore project as a whole; our built work is in Jaipur and Udaipur. We lead the interiors, joinery, lighting and craft, and the team includes the Singapore contractor — HDB-listed where the flat requires it — and, where plans must be submitted, a locally registered architect or professional engineer as Qualified Person.
The built work on this site is in India. Three projects speak most directly to Singapore: one for its materials, one for what can be shipped, and one for how it treats an old building. Nishtha Kandoi’s TEDx talk, “Aesthetic Intelligence: How We Design with Meaning”, sets out the thinking behind all three; it is on the about page.
Singapore is two and a half hours ahead of Jaipur. The studio’s day, 10:00 to 20:00 IST, starts at 12:30 in Singapore, so afternoons are for reviews and evening site photographs are answered the same day. There is no nonstop flight from Jaipur; visits connect through Delhi, which has nonstop flights to Changi of around six hours.
Singapore’s rules are clear, and they set the programme.
Relative humidity in Singapore averages around 82 per cent: above 90 per cent before sunrise, falling to about 60 per cent on a dry afternoon, with rain on roughly 171 days a year. Mould starts where nobody looks — behind a wardrobe on an external wall, under a vanity, in a closed room while its owners are travelling. Floor area is expensive, so the joinery carries the storage, and the plan has to be efficient without feeling mean.
Not every craft suits Singapore, and we say so. Jaipur blue pottery, glazed and fired, is at home in a humid kitchen or bathroom. A hand-carved stone jaali works as a ventilating screen, letting air move where a solid wall would trap it. Hand-forged brass darkens in the damp; we lacquer it or choose it for the patina. Cane and block-printed cotton are lovely and need air, so they go where they can breathe, not into sealed cupboards.
Pieces are packed in Jaipur and shipped from Nhava Sheva or Mundra. Singapore levies no customs duty on furniture, but 9 per cent GST is payable on the import value. Our India projects run to handover under one roof; in Singapore we bring the design, the craft and the coordination — more on how the studio works.
The licensed people on your team. “Architect” is a protected title in Singapore and architectural services are supplied by registered practices, so where plans must be submitted — structural changes, a conservation shophouse, a new landed house — a Singapore-registered architect or professional engineer acts as Qualified Person and signs. NYKS leads the interior design, joinery, lighting and craft, appoints and coordinates the contractor with you, and inspects what is built.
Yes, and the rules shape how. All renovation in an HDB flat must be carried out by a contractor listed in HDB’s Directory of Renovation Contractors, who also submits any permit application. We design and specify, you appoint the listed contractor, and we inspect their work. Furniture and craft from Jaipur are installed within HDB’s guidelines, and noisy work stays within weekday hours.
Usually a renovation application to the managing agent with drawings and the contractor’s details, a refundable deposit, and agreement to the by-law working hours and lift protection. Where any wall is altered, BCA advises MCSTs to ask for a professional engineer’s endorsement that no structural work is involved. We prepare the drawings for that package first, so approval runs while pieces are being made.
Ventilation, material and habit. Wardrobes on external walls stand slightly off the wall with a gap to breathe, sit on vented plinths and, where possible, have louvred or slotted doors. Timber is sealed on all faces, and nothing is made airtight. Then the habit: run a dehumidifier or the air-conditioner’s dry mode in closed rooms while you travel.
Singapore levies customs and excise duty only on liquor, tobacco, motor vehicles and petroleum products, so furniture and craft are not dutiable. GST at 9 per cent is payable on the import value when the goods are cleared. Sea freight from Nhava Sheva to Singapore takes roughly two weeks port to port, so pieces are ordered as soon as the drawings are signed off.