Curated Collections
A trove of stories glimpsing luxurious obsessions, desires and peculiarities
Issue № 4 –
Wine Cellars
Wonderful evenings of entertainment are made complete when a sumptuous meal is paired with a good bottle of wine. It goes without saying that in Singapore’s climate, wine storage is important. More than a place to preserve a collection, the wine cellar can also be elevated to a beautiful space for entertainment, and appreciation of wine. Here’s how the wine cellar can be curated to go beyond its practical function and create meaningful experiences for homeowners and their guests.
Giving More Attention to Wine Cellars
The Marina Bay Residences (MBR) encapsulates luxury in the sky – at more than 50 floors up overlooking stunning views of Marina Bay. The home features a massive floor area; merging several adjacent units and multiple storeys in the residential stack. Its expansive area evokes grandeur. For a client who envisions this space to be a family abode as well as a venue to host guests and business clients for entertainment, Marina Bay Residences truly lends itself to a luxurious narrative of dining and drinking in the skies.
At both plan and cross-sectional views, we demarcated and designed key entertainment areas. Often, in high-rise residential apartments that come with built-in wine cellars, they are first and foremost designed to offer basic functions, and aesthetics are secondary. Since wine appreciation as a form of entertainment takes focus in Marina Bay Residences, we designed the wine cellars in great detail to elevate the luxe factor and tailored them to the lifestyle and various needs of the client.
There are two wine cellars in Marina Bay Residences, with each serving a different purpose. When planning for a wine cellar in a home, the lifestyle of the occupants and how they would like to entertain guests should be considered.
Designing for Dinner Service
The first wine cellar inside Marina Bay Residences was designed to complement the dining experience. It is strategically located to serve two key areas on either side as shown in the extracted floor plan on the left: the main function space comprising the living lounge and informal dining area, and the formal dining room. The wine cellar serves as an intermediary space and provides easy access from either side, as shown in the video below.
Formal dining area in Marina Bay Residence
As this wine cellar is mainly used for dining service, its primary design consideration was not only to flaunt the display of the wines, but also to ensure easy flow of usage. To dispel the feeling of an enclosed room and to amplify the impressive wine collection, a mirrored ceiling is used to convey a sense of infinity.
A Vault of Treasures
Further into the apartment, there is a dedicated and more private entertainment area that caters to more exclusive guests. This zone was designed for business and entertainment, and links directly to the Gentlemen’s Lounge. As this entertainment area is more exclusive, the design takes a more detailed and intimate approach.
Entering the space, one’s attention is immediately drawn to the wine cellar. Much like a vault of treasures, the cellar here showcases fine and exquisite wine. While the inside of the cellar was designed for the intensive storage of wine, we allowed for part of the collection to form a tantalising backdrop to be appreciated from the lounge.
As this entire entertainment area conveys the essence of a Gentlemen’s Lounge, masculine details such as leather are applied, a unique material not usually found in wine cellar designs.
The Wine Cellar as a Conversation Piece
In the case of a client at Peirce Hill, their wine cellar celebrates the experience of curating fine wines and wine tasting. The first noticeable thing about the wine cellar at Peirce Hill is the shimmer of wine bottles from the glass-encased space. This stunning conversational piece forms the backdrop to the casual dining area and dry kitchen.
Unlike regular displays, the wine bottles in this wine cellar are tilted outwards such that the labels of the wine bottles can be seen from the outside - enabling the impressive wine collection to be better appreciated without having to step inside the cold wine cellar.
The inside of the wine cellar uses the same dark wood veneer as the dry kitchen, drawing parallels between the two spaces. The wine cellar doesn’t feel like a storage room, but is a part of the dining area as well.
More than Just Storage
Beyond its functional purpose, the inside of the wine cellar can enhance the wine appreciation experience too. We curated an exquisite selection of materials and fittings for the cellar, creating a space that’s like a jewel box.
The owners’ extensive collection of wine is organised with a state-of-the-art shelving system from Celsius, a Singaporean wine cellar systems supplier. We worked with Celsius to hide and manipulate the lighting of the shelves to subtly shine on the bottles without being too glaring to the eyes or too hot for the wine bottles.
Continuing the selection of exquisite materials used in the cellar, the wall that the shelving sits on is made of Panbeton Graphite wood panels, using a traditional handcrafted Japanese technique called Shou Sugi Ban, which preserves wood by charring it.
The use of a chrome finish for the shelving system and sliding ladder exudes a luxe and polished look, making the cellar feel like a refined gentleman’s bar or lounge. To further emphasise this, the table in the centre of the wine cellar allows for the client and their guests to taste and mingle over a glass of wine, or decant bottles.
The left side of the island table is made of “Retro Grey Petrified Wood” from Antolini (material close up pictured on the left). The luxurious stone material not only makes the table look like wood, but also serves as a practical and usable solid table top.
As a homage to the wood from wine barrels, the woody accents throughout the wine cellar lend warmth and texture, providing a counterpoint to the sleek metal details. More than just a space for storing and displaying wine, the wine cellar is a special place for the owners to impress and entertain intimate guests, maximise the enjoyment of their home, and elevate wine appreciation.
