It’s difficult to imagine that long before it bristled with high-rises and high-density developments, Singapore’s Beach Road was exactly that – a bucolic, breezy strip fronting the sea.
Soaring land prices and reclaimed land have put paid to all that. The newest kid on the block, just down the road from the still regal Raffles Hotel, is the massive South Beach mixed-use development that one Lord Norman Foster and Aedas have built around the heritage-listed buildings and officers’ club of a former army base.
This being Singapore, the jewel in the crown is the 654-room hotel. The interiors are courtesy of Philippe Starck whose DNA of white furniture, silvery Ghost Chairs, and acres of mirrors is writ large in every nook. Clearly, no expense has been spared, a fact seen to best effect with his 11,520-light ceiling installation in the grand ballroom and in the dazzling expanses of the Chairman and Presidential Suites with their gasping panorama of Marina Bay’s skyscrapers.
It’s all the more reason to enjoy the less charged moments from the aerie of two sky-gardens, each with its infinity pool. The women’s only guest-floor is a genuinely thoughtful touch that does much to redeem the hotel’s odd insistence on describing itself as a H.I.P hotel for 'Highly Individualised People and Places'.
ADDRESS
30 Beach Road
-
Emma Corrin on their fresh venture into fragrance with Miu MiuItalian fashion house Miu Miu partners with the actor on new fragrance Miutine which captures the scent of changing seasons. Beauty writer Hannah Tindle speaks with Corrin on their blossoming collaboration
-
Paris Ballet etoiles Hugo Marchand and Hannah O’Neill to perform at Paradise Art Night during Frieze Seoul 2025A dazzling fusion of dance and contemporary culture awaits as Paris Opera Ballet étoiles join forces with Paradise Art Night during Seoul’s biggest art week.
-
Capsule Retreat is a concrete home embedded with ‘texture, memory, and locality’East Architecture Studio offers a powerfully minimalist, highly textured home set among the coniferous forests of Mount Lebanon
-
Discover Philippe Starck’s most surreal hotel yetAt Maison Heler Metz, brutalism meets bedtime story, with a 19th-century home perched on a concrete tower and a fictional host guiding the way
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Brach Madrid: a hotel of love and passionBrach Madrid, part of Evok Collection, is a charming city-centre bolthole designed by Philippe Starck
-
Wallpaper* checks in at The Standard Singapore for a quirky tropical city breakDisarming and energising in equal measure, The Standard Singapore is a lush addition to the brand’s growing Asia-Pacific portfolio
-
Singapore bar and lounge Baia revives the opulence of Ancient RomeDaven Wu samples Baia’s bacchanalian cocktails and louche slouching spots that are drawing the crowds in Singapore
-
Wallpaper* checks in at QT Singapore, a plush hotel amidst wondrous skyscrapersSet within an elegant neo-classical building, QT Singapore blends playful design and modern luxury in the heart of the city’s Business District
-
Odem, Singapore’s first craft Makgeolli bar has arrivedAn extensive collection of Makgeolli, also known as Korean rice wine, can be enjoyed at this new bijou bar and restaurant in Singapore
-
Inside Na Oh, Hyundai and Corey Lee’s experimental Korean restaurant in SingaporeAcclaimed San Franciscan chef Corey Lee is the driving force behind Na Oh, a new Korean restaurant at the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore
-
AIR is a new OMA-designed Singapore restaurant and cooking clubAIR is a Singapore restaurant, circular campus, and cooking club, designed by OMA and inspired by a ferverous approach to innovation, sustainability and food
