From the designer’s notebook: How Jervois Mansion sold 98% of units on the first day

What made Jervois Mansion such an attractive property? Among other things, the design of the space and how the residents would interact in it played a big part. Here’s a behind the scenes look at Jervois Mansion from the perspective of Studio iF, the team behind the interior design of the development.

About Jervois Mansion

Jervois Mansion is a bungalow-style private apartment residence that features lush communal gardens set in a colonial-inspired setting. Its overall concept is that of sustainable bungalow and community living, with a focus on the quality of life within a home, which is where we spend a large part of our day in. What makes Jervois Mansion so special?

The colonial-inspired façade of the apartment blocks. Image from Jervois Mansion.

Lush Greenery

Since the pandemic, many people have developed an interest in growing plants and immersing themselves in nature. The developer signed on a sustenance consultant for 2 years post completion of the project. The consultant will help ensure plants are easy for residents to maintain.

One of the luxuries of living in a bungalow is having a lush garden. Every unit was also calibrated to maximise exposure to greenery, capturing aspects usually seen in bungalows.

Bungalow-style community living

Building a community is more than just designing beautiful communal spaces and expecting people to strike up conversations on their own. We need to create opportunities and spaces for people to meet, have something to talk about, bond over, and do together.

Thus in Jervois Mansion we created opportunities that spark conversations like the edible gardens, growing a community from the ground up, in a luxury bungalow environment. Having something for people to do together and bond over helps build a “kampung spirit”. They can get more out of their luxury bungalow lifestyle.

Plenty of Space

One of the benefits of living in a bungalow is the amount of space it has. Thus we recreated this bungalow-style living here through careful planning of each unit’s layout. For example the balcony must be at least 1.5m for placement of furniture. We did not scrimp on space in places like the shower either. We even put enough space for toiletries in the shower stall. This extra attention makes residents really feel pampered.

Careful space planning was also done for fittings like the wardrobes too. One of the requirements from the developer was that all bedrooms need to have full-height wardrobes with smart and innovative storage shelving.

Designing for future ways of living

We took the time to understand the new ways that people want to live - thus we had a mixture of different types of units - rental units for expats, small units for young couples, and bigger units for families.

(Left) A loft bedroom space is carved in the 3-bedroom apartment. (right) A small workspace sits beneath the staircase leading up to the loft bedroom.

Understanding the market’s need to live sustainably, the developer engaged an energy sustainability consultant early on in the project’s development process so that the sustainability elements could be incorporated into the building’s core, not just as an afterthought.

Factoring the parameters from the consultant, we designed the required number of windows and openings for cross ventilation. Every unit’s layout was designed to ensure maximum cross ventilation for energy efficiency. The front doors provided proper ventilation, security, and privacy.

Designing for often-overlooked areas in the resident or guests’ user journey

In condominium developments, people go home through basements, as that’s where they park or where they get dropped off if the main drop off point is far from their units. Guests heading directly to the units will get dropped off in the basement too.

To create a welcoming sight of gardens upon reaching home, we extended the gardens into the basement. We carved out voids to bring light and ventilation into the basement so we could include insertions of small garden spaces in every lobby. There is even a link between all the different gardens so you could even have a stroll in the basement in rainy weather. These discussions had to be held together with the developer, architect, interior designer and landscape designer early on - which contributed to the success of the property sales.

Growing the development beyond the completion of its construction

We are grateful to work with a client who is deeply passionate about being a part of the community building spirit post-completion of the property. Thus it was meaningful to engage in deeper conversations with them as it would ensure that Jervois Mansion would have a life beyond completion.

Thus building and designing a development is more than the nuts and bolts, but also creating the experiences that help build a community spirit in a space that creates a sense of belonging.