Inside Lo & Behold Group’s new office in New Bahru

These set the context for The Lo & Behold Group’s new office. The lifestyle and hospitality company is the bold genius behind New Bahru, as well as several beloved F&B spots in the building such as Bar Bon Funk and Somma. Its former office was on the second storey of a shophouse in Kampong Glam. Lee Ying-Ying, head of brand concept and marketing at Lo & Behold Group who leads me on a tour of the new office, tells me that space was running out for the now approximately 50 staff, with every usable space brimmed with desks. 

Nice Projects, who has designed many of the Lo & Behold Group’s recent restaurants as well, was tasked to create an inviting office from the old shell. The UK-based firm is led by Simone McEwan and Sacha Leong, who have the Midas touch in conceiving brilliantly tactual spaces that do not shout but whisper magic.   

The Lo & Behold Group office is divided into two parts: the reception area and boardroom located on New Bahru’s fourth floor, dubbed the HQ. This boardroom doubles as a tasting room for Clink Clink, the Lo & Behold Group’s wine partner. Thus, it has the ambience of a dining space with a plush, blood-red carpet, Tekio pendant from Santa & Cole and vintage Cesca chairs.

Items such as a cream-coloured Pumpkin sofa from Ligne Roset, Flotation pendant from Ingo Maurer and a print by Richard Deacon for the Singapore Tyler Print Institute give the reception area a hotel lobby character.

Red metal-framed doors and windows, translucent curtains, rug, corrugated stainless steel, cork walls and burnt red-stained timber joinery recalling New Bahru’s brick facades make up the mood board of both this space and the main office, which is located a level up. The latter takes up a portion of the former library, with the other part given to Somma.

“We wanted to use a more sophisticated material palette to reflect the more established nature of the brand while keeping the warmth of the natural materials,” explains Leong. With the main door of the former library used for Somma, The Lo & Behold staff enter their office the more fun way—ambling from the reception area, up a flight of steps—slightly glossed with stone cladding on concrete—and out to an open terrace before they reach the office entrance. 

At this open terrace, one cannot help but pause to survey the land, observing the activities across New Bahru’s central courtyard. Then, through the door, a second pause, at the voluminous ceiling and barrel vault ceiling of the original architecture. As the former school library, what an alluring space to lose time over books this must have been. 

Today, it is another place of connection and growth for The Lo & Behold Group’s team. Leong has used colour and furniture to demarcate zones in the large open plan, with meeting rooms and C-suite offices tucked to one side. A small reception area is graced by Singaporean artist Dawn Ng’s artwork, where the image of frozen pigments becomes a poignant parallel to the narrative of the architecture. 

“We wanted an interior that was different from the traditional office and complemented the architecture. The key for The Lo & Behold Group was connectivity and creativity, so we zoned the open-plan office with a social lounge space in the middle, flanked by informal communal desks for hot-desking,” says Leong.

White task chairs from Steelcase and light timber custom desks with Forbo linoleum tops and integrated storage accentuate the light-toned ambience. Bar stools from Normann Copenhagen are used at higher desks at the windows as well as the bar counter. “We wanted a variety of spaces for staff to gather and collaborate,” Leong comments. The meeting rooms are more intimate, with ambient lighting and vintage chairs from Aeae store.  

The office is washed with natural light from the tall windows, with glass louvres above and fixed glass panels below. “The glass louvres are original. The glazed panels are new, with textured glass at low level so there is enough privacy when the team sits down. Clear glass is used at high level so that the spaces don’t feel so small,” says Leong. 

In this office, there is alchemy—of the architecture as the protagonist, the sunlight the deuteragonist, and Nice Project’s mixture of texture and forms, the tritagonist. It is certainly well-suited for Instagram, but even more so for everday creative work.   

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