Kitchen Tour: A Cat-Friendly Culinary Zone Made For An Architect's Family And Their Pets

Words by Hong Xinying

August 27, 2020

Cover Woei Woei prepares a meal in the family's wet kitchen

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Architect Rene Tan of RT+Q designed his new home in Singapore with pet-friendly spaces while making ample room for culinary experiments and family bonding

“The kitchen is an important part of the house, usually conceived as the centre and heart of the household,” says Rene Tan, the co-founder of RT+Q Architects. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that this culinary space takes centre stage in his new home—which holds plenty of clever surprises, for both the family and their pets.

Architect and co-founder of RT+Q Rene Tan, pictured in his new home, dubbed the House of Spice

Tan's wife Chuah Woei Woei puts the finishing touch on the dishes prepared using the V-ZUG appliances

Dubbed the House of Spice, the architect considers the home as “a series of experiments”—it was designed to celebrate cabinetry work while being a low-energy emission house that will be shaded from the sun and rain. The family also wanted to experiment with landscaping and created a thriving garden with spice terraces that features herbs and vegetables such as chili, dill, basil, pandan and vegetables like ladies’ fingers; edible plants that Tan's wife Chuah Woei Woei enjoys incorporating into their family meals.

In the video below, the architect and his wife explain more about the kitchen design of their home:

Above See the dream kitchens designed by architect Rene Tan of RT+Q for his family home, which features V-ZUG appliances; it makes room for family bonding while being pet-friendly, too.

The dry kitchen in their family home was designed as a minimal space and furnished with a coffee maker, combi-steam oven and dish warmer from Swiss appliance brand V-ZUG; these sleek appliances were selected for their streamlined design that fits beautifully with the cabinetry work installed. These appliances include the V-Zug Combi-Steam MSLQ (Microwave, Steam and Oven), the Supremo XSL 60 coffee machine and the Warming Drawer (a dish warmer).

The wet kitchen is an unusually large space, designed to accommodate large group gatherings while making more room for their fur kids—a dog and a kitten—to roam about the first storey of their home.

Chuah, who enjoys cooking, loves the appliances' ease of use; even her self-dubbed “kitchen-phobic” husband is now game to give baking a try soon.

The family's dry kitchen features the Combi-Steam MSLQ oven, coffee machine and a dish warmer from Swiss brand V-Zug

Woei Woei prepares a meal in the family's wet kitchen

The family cat Debussy, pictured at the blue service window that connects the dry kitchen to the wet kitchen

A service window, more commonly seen in restaurants than a home, is among one of the spots that the cat particularly enjoys using; it was initially designed to pass dishes and tableware between the dry kitchen to the wet kitchen. Painted in blue, the opening is a favoured passage of the family feline, which is often spotted traversing between the wet and dry kitchens.

Altogether, the culinary space serves as a cohesive part of the house that the family is now proud to call their home.