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Old Meets New in a Singapore Shophouse Four and a half years ago, when Michael and Katherin Puhaindran learned their first child was on the way, they started house-hunting in Joo Chiat, a blossoming heritage enclave near Singapore’s East Coast, known as an ethnic food haven of Chinese durian puffs, Peranakan dumplings, Vietnamese pho, American ribs and more. 四年半前，当迈克尔(Michael)和凯瑟琳·普辛德南(Katherin Puhaindran)夫妇得知他们的第一个孩子将要出世时，他们开始在如切(Joo Chiat)找房。如切是新加坡东海岸附近的一个富有历史风情的繁华地区，其闻名之处在于，它是一个领略民族风味的港湾，在这里可以品尝到中国的榴莲酥、土生华人粽子、越南河粉、美式排骨等。 Mr. Puhaindran fondly remembers his family’s long history in Joo Chiat. “I came here every weekend to visit my grandmother,” he said. “And my Tamil ancestor helped build the nearby Ceylon Road Temple in the early 19th century — about 100 years before my mother’s Chinese ancestors moved here.” 迈克尔深情地回忆起了他的家庭在如切的悠久历史。“当年我每个礼拜都来这里看奶奶，”他说，“我的泰米尔祖先在19世纪初协助建造了附近锡兰路的寺庙（即圣帕加维那雅加庙——译注）——大约100年以后，我妈妈的中国祖先搬到了这里。”
The new rear block transforms from day to night. Metallic screens offer texture and privacy. The couple quickly settled on a 1920s shophouse, a Southeast Asian architectural style that is highly prized because it is in limited supply. “This one had the most character,” said Mr. Puhaindran, a local bank solicitor. “It was a no-brainer.” He and his wife enjoy the neighborhood, which teems with amenities, including their daughter’s preschool, which is a 10-minute walk away. 夫妇俩很快住进了一间20世纪20年代的店屋，店屋是东南亚的一种建筑风格，由于房源有限，所以很受追捧。“这间最有特色，”身为本地银行律师的迈克尔表示，“买下它想都不用想。”他和妻子喜欢这个社区，社区里有大量设施，包括女儿的幼儿园，步行10分钟即可到达。 The Puhaindrans’ home, tucked in the middle of a conservation block, is flanked by similar terraced homes. Each has interlocking terra cotta roof tiles, French double-shuttered windows evenly spaced across the facade, ornate garlands of molded plasterwork and sheltered “five foot” connected walkways — a feature to protect pedestrians from rain or hot sun that was called for by Sir Stamford Raffles in Singapore’s first town plan in 1822. 普辛德南一家的住宅坐落在一片保护街区之中，两侧分布着带露台的类似住宅。每座住宅都采用陶土连锁瓦、均匀分布于立面的法式双百叶窗、华丽的成型灰泥装饰，以及带遮蔽的“五脚基”（意指店铺住宅临街骑楼下的走廊，因法规规定，廊宽都是五英尺——译注）连廊人行道——这一特色是为了保护行人免受日晒雨淋，由斯坦福莱佛士爵士(Sir Stamford Raffles)于1822年在新加坡首个城镇规划中提出。 According to Julian Davison, a local architectural historian, Mr. Raffles “codified” designs first brought to Singapore by Chinese settlers and later copied throughout the region. By the 1840s, popular shophouses featured commercial business on the ground floor and residential living above. 这样的设计首先由中国移民带到了新加坡，而后在整个地区流行开来。据当地的建筑历史学家朱利安·戴维森(Julian Davison)表示，莱佛士爵士在立法上认可了这样的设计。到19世纪40年代，流行的店屋以上居下铺为特色。 While shophouses thrived under British rule, many were razed to make room for high-rises after Singapore became independent in 1965. Of those remaining, about half are residential — making them the majority of about 7,000 Singapore homes that have some degree of conservation protection. “Shophouses are very well suited to tropical urban lifestyles,” Mr. Davison said, noting that Malaysian architects continue to use the design. 虽然店屋在英国统治下蓬勃发展，但是在1965年新加坡独立后，许多店屋被夷为平地，以腾出空间建造高楼大厦。残存的店屋当中，大约有一半是住宅——因而，在新加坡约7000座享有一定保护待遇的住宅当中，店屋占绝大多数。“店屋非常适合热带城市的生活方式，”戴维森指出。他表示，马来西亚建筑师在继续使用这样的设计。 The Puhaindrans realized at once that their new home required a complete interior overhaul. The house — previously occupied by Ng Eng Teng, a local sculptor, and later owned by the sculptor’s nieces — had many little connecting rooms that made it unsuitable for the family’s needs. 普辛德南一家很快意识到，他们的新家需要彻底的内部整修。此住宅曾先后由当地雕塑家黄荣庭(Ng Eng Teng)及其侄女居住，内部有很多小房间相连通，不适合普辛德南一家的需求。 After reviewing competing proposals, they chose RT+Q Architects, a small local firm that had experience reinterpreting traditional shophouse design. The entire project, which took two and a half years, was a finalist for a World Architecture Festival award in late 2015. 他们审核了多个互相竞争的方案后，选择了RT+Q Architects建筑师事务所，这是一家本地小公司，拥有重新诠释传统店屋设计方案的经验。整个项目历时两年半，2015年末，该项目入围了世界建筑节奖(World Architecture Festival)决选。 RT+Q retained the required external heritage elements and expanded the square footage to 3,300 by gutting the interior and adding a new three-story structure to the back half. An inner front door opens into a sprawling rectangular space 72 feet deep. It remains largely empty and extends beyond an open-air courtyard into a galley kitchen, with a Sub-Zero refrigerator and two Gaggenau ovens. Guests can see straight through the home to a wall of outdoor plants at the back — a “borrowed” landscape that is actually government property. RT+Q事务所保留了必需的外部古迹元素，将面积扩大了3300平方英尺（约合307平方米），采用的方法是将原有的内饰破坏，在后半部分增建了新的三层结构。一扇室内前门通向一片纵深72英尺（约合22米）的庞大长方形空间。这片空间在很大程度上维持了空阔的状态，它穿过露天庭院一直延伸至一间二字型厨房。厨房配备了一台Sub-Zero冰箱和两台嘉格纳(Gaggenau)烤箱。来访者可以透过这座住宅，直接看到屋后一面墙的户外植物——这片“借”来之景实际上是政府财产。 The vast space suits the Puhaindrans’ lifestyle. Their daughter Liesl, now nearly 4 years old, likes to ride her scooter around the area, and a toy car is kept off to one side, easily accessible for use in the back lane. At least twice a month, the couple host gatherings of family and friends, who are free to mingle without being hemmed in by furniture. “Our friends call this house ‘entertainment central,”’ said Mrs. Puhaindran, who occasionally welcomes as many as 80 guests at a time. “We do a combination of cooking, catering, and buying ready-made food from the area.” 开阔的空间适合普辛德南一家的生活方式。普辛德南夫妇的女儿丽莎(Liesl)现在将近4岁，喜欢踩踏板车在周围转悠，此外，有一辆玩具车晾在墙边，在后巷使用很方便。夫妇俩至少每月举办两次亲友聚会，亲友们可以自在地打成一片，不会被家具碍手碍脚。“朋友们把我们这里叫做‘娱乐中心’，”凯瑟琳表示，她有时候一次接待多达80位客人，“我们会自己下厨、点餐，也会就近在周围买些熟食。” Charles Wee, the project designer, calls the open-air courtyard the home’s “fulcrum,” linking the old footprint of the shophouse to its new rear addition. Concrete walls extend up three stories, but allow the center of the home to flood with light — and rain — for garden shrubs at ground level. A 10-foot-wide swinging door, which was on Mrs. Puhaindran’s wish list, opens the kitchen to the courtyard — and seals it to prevent downpours from seeping in. 该项目的设计师查尔斯·维(Charles Wee)将露天庭院称为这座住宅的“支点”，它将这座店屋的历史印记与后侧新近增建的部分连接了起来。混凝土墙加高了三层，但是给住宅的中心留有充裕的光照——也给地面层的花园灌木留有充足的雨水。凯瑟琳曾经想买一扇10英尺（约合3米）宽的旋转门，现在这扇门设在厨房，通向庭院——同时起到防止大雨渗入的密封作用。 “Boxed in” elements lie behind filigree screens or glass enclosures. “We try to make this ‘infill’ concept pervade the design across all scales,” Mr. Wee said. On the ground floor, for example, a screen box conceals a powder room, a storage closet and a staircase. 掐丝屏风或玻璃封闭间的背后，掩藏着“置入盒中”的设计元素。“我们试图让这个‘填充物’的理念渗透到各个尺度的设计当中，”维表示。例如，一楼有一个化妆间、一个储物柜和一座楼梯掩藏在了屏风的包围之中。 Filigree screens accent the stairs that lead to a transparent glass walkway, which connects the old and new parts of the home. Though the original design called for a step at one end, the Puhaindrans insisted it be removed for child safety reasons. “Changing that step was the most extensive redesign we did,” Mr. Puhaindran said. 楼梯在掐丝屏风的衬托下，通向一条透明的玻璃走道，该走道将住宅的新旧部分连接了起来。虽然原始的设计方案要求在一端设立一道台阶，但是普辛德南一家出于儿童安全的考虑，坚持将它移除。“更改那道台阶是我们对设计方案做的最大变动。”迈克尔表示。 The first two floors are well ventilated and normally require no air-conditioning, while the top floor, with 13-foot sliding windows, heats up during daytime hours. It is affectionately known as the man-cave, where the family uses a home entertainment system to watch movies or soccer. “We wanted to install an open roof terrace,” Mr. Puhaindran said, “but it was far too hot. We had to cover it.” 一层和二层通风良好，通常不需要空调，而顶层设有13英尺（约合4米）的滑动窗口，白天会升温。它被亲切地称为避风港，一家人会在这里使用家庭娱乐系统看电影或足球。 “我们本来想安装一个开放的屋顶露台，”迈克尔表示，“但是那样太热了。我们不得不把它遮蔽起来。” The renovation, costing 1.5 million Singapore dollars, or $1.07 million, pushed the home’s total cost to about 4 million Singapore dollars, which hovers near the current asking prices of shophouses in Joo Chiat. 翻修工程耗资150万新元，约合107万美元（约合人民币695万元），由此一来，购置这套住宅的总成本约400万新元（约合人民币1900万元），接近如切店屋目前的要价。 “We are very satisfied,” Mr. Puhaindran said. “We intend to live here a long time.” “我们很满意，”迈克尔表示，“我们打算在这里住很久。” |
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