Cover The heritage hotel’s restored facade features Chien Nien wall reliefs and Cai Hui painting, executed by the same team that worked on the main Blue Mansion
The heritage hotel’s restored facade features Chien Nien wall reliefs and Cai Hui painting, executed by the same team that worked on the main Blue Mansion
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Marking the next chapter in the Blue Mansion’s legacy, the Qing Suites transforms the 1904 servants’ quarters into a thirteen-suite heritage hotel rooted in feng shui, adaptive reuse and Traditional Chinese Medicine
Across Leith Street from Penang’s iconic Blue Mansion, five terrace houses built in 1904 as servants’ quarters have reopened as the Qing Suites in December 2025. Conceived as an annexe within the Cheong Fatt Tze enclave, the project extends the conservation work begun in the 1990s by architect Laurence Loh, who restored the main Mansion. Led by his son, Shen Loh-Lim, managing director of Cheong Fatt Tze Hotels & Residences, the intervention is less about replication than recalibration.
The five-terrace facade on Leith Street at dusk, showing traditional timber shutters, Chien Nien sculptural reliefs and Cai Hui decorative painting on the upper level
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“These were utilitarian houses rather than ceremonial spaces,” Loh-Lim explains. “Their architectural framework and how the terraces sat within the wider compound were shaped by function and by my father’s thinking on heritage and conservation. My focus was on hospitality as spatial experience: how rooms feel underfoot, how sound is absorbed, how light shifts through the day in the courtyards, how air moves naturally through the buildings.”
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Above The ground floor corridor along the courtyard, showing how the arches create sightlines through the connected terraces
The ground floor corridor along the courtyard, showing how the arches create sightlines through the connected terraces
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Façade restoration followed traditional craft methodologies. Chien Nien sculptural reliefs and Cai Hui decorative painting were undertaken by the same artisans who worked on the Blue Mansion. Roofing craftsmen trace their training lineage back to China, bringing techniques handed down across generations. Inside, thirteen suites now occupy what were once working terraces.
Proportions remain modest. Interiors are deliberately contemporary, with an emphasis on acoustic control, generous bathrooms, and materials chosen to age gracefully with use. Hexagonal terracotta tiles remain intact, cracks included. Original timber floors were salvaged where possible. Old clay roof tiles have been repurposed to ground the garden courtyards.
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Above The bar opens to the courtyard, where bonsais function as living sculptures and arches frame views across multiple levels of the interior spaces
Above The central courtyard functions as what Loh-Lim calls “the lung of the hotel,” connecting five once-separate terrace houses with natural light and ventilation
The bar opens to the courtyard, where bonsais function as living sculptures and arches frame views across multiple levels of the interior spaces
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“We conserved what carried memory and spiritual connection: proportion, craft and traditional methodology,” Loh-Lim says. “We made contemporary what mattered for guest comfort: bathrooms, acoustics, lighting and climate control. The aim was to find a cadence distinct from the grandiosity of the main Mansion while addressing some of the challenges we encountered there.”
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Above The Qing Bar features three arched alcoves backed by sage green walls
The Qing Bar features three arched alcoves backed by sage green walls
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That distinction becomes clearer in the interior approach. Rather than mirroring the Blue Mansion, the suites establish a quieter architectural register. “The intention was never to recreate the same experience,” Loh-Lim says. “It was about forming a more contemplative relationship back to the main house. Heritage is not experienced only through ornament or an ‘old world’ aesthetic. The contemporary interiors allow guests to retreat from the city while still feeling the presence of the Mansion across the street.”
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The Tranquillity Room with salvaged hexagonal terracotta tiles and timber panelling, where custom furniture by local makers sits alongside contemporary artwork
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Throughout the design process, Loh-Lim returned to a guiding question: what would Cheong Fatt Tze have done if he were alive today? “It led me towards restraint,” he says. “He was pragmatic and forward-looking, but he embraced the best luxuries of his time. What has changed is who these spaces now serve. They are no longer servants’ quarters, but rooms for our most important guests. Instead of spectacle, we focused on intuitive comfort and quiet luxury, allowing contemporary interventions to sit naturally within a heritage framework.”
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Above Signature Suites offer front-row views of the Blue Mansion
Signature Suites offer front-row views of the Blue Mansion
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The arches linking the terraces emerged as much through circumstance as through intention. At Loh’s suggestion, Italian craftsman Giovanni Santo, who was working on Fort Cornwallis at the time, was brought in. “Architecturally, the idea of arches already existed, but they needed to feel inevitable rather than decorative,” Loh-Lim explains. Constructed using traditional methods and proportion, the arches read as an organic extension of the original structures. In spirit, they reflect Cheong Fatt Tze’s own worldview: globally connected yet deeply rooted, open to external influences when they served longevity and function.
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Signature Suite reading nook with a built-in daybed and timber joinery, with black timber-framed windows overlooking the Blue Mansion across Leith Street
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Feng shui played a significant role in spatial planning. A feng shui master assessed the site, reinforcing what Loh-Lim already sensed within the architecture: an invisible energy axis connecting the main entrance of the Blue Mansion to the central door of the terraces opposite. “By keeping the courtyard open and unobstructed, qi is allowed to settle before moving through the site,” he says. “Guests tend to slow down instinctively when they arrive, even if they cannot articulate why.”
Above A Signature Suite bathroom with custom tilework, marble vanity and freestanding tub
Above Garden Suite bathroom with ceramic-tile wainscoting and a freestanding tub
A Signature Suite bathroom with custom tilework, marble vanity and freestanding tub
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Scale worked in the project’s favour. With only thirteen suites, the former servants’ quarters could retain an honesty shaped by their utilitarian origins. “I wanted the atmosphere to feel residential rather than theatrical,” Loh-Lim says. “Fewer corridors that read as hotel space, more moments that encourage pausing. Natural light that transitions into curated light, bonsai used as sculptural anchors rather than ornamental décor, textures that invite touch.”
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The Garden Suite features exposed ceiling beams, salvaged terracotta flooring and custom timber furniture
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That sensibility aligns with Traditional Chinese Medicine, which underpins the on-site Virtue TCM spa. The concept grew from Loh-Lim’s personal experience after Western medicine failed to provide the answers he was seeking. “It reframed how I understood wellness,” he says. “Traditional Chinese Medicine is also part of the Blue Mansion’s own history — Cheong Fatt Tze’s father was reportedly a practitioner. Integrating Virtue felt authentic rather than imported.” The Qing Suites is the first heritage hotel in Southeast Asia to anchor its spa programme in TCM principles.
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Each Garden Suite includes a private walled garden with a blue accent wall that references the indigo of the main mansion
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Material reuse was approached as a core conservation strategy rather than a sustainability gesture. Existing terracotta tiles were retained; original timber floors were salvaged where appropriate; traditional panel ceilings were repaired; and old roof tiles were reused as flooring in the garden courtyards. “Allowing materials that once sheltered the houses to continue grounding them felt like a natural continuation,” Loh-Lim notes.
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Terrace Suite bedroom with repaired traditional panel ceiling and salvaged timber flooring
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Collaboration with local makers was deliberate. Furniture was commissioned from Penang-based studios, including Dad’s Wood and Pirates Studio’s Ravi. Works by artists Kiah Kiean, Thomas Powell and Pei of Noom Studio appear throughout the suites. A local woodworking team led by Richard, experienced in heritage restoration, fabricated timber windows and doors. “The skills still exist,” Loh-Lim says. “What they require is time, patience and trust — and by default, resources — to execute properly.”
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Above The Virtue TCM dispensary counter, with curved timber detailing and custom shelving displaying herbal preparations, with the traditional apothecary cabinet as the centrepiece
The Virtue TCM dispensary counter, with curved timber detailing and custom shelving displaying herbal preparations, with the traditional apothecary cabinet as the centrepiece
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On extending his father’s work, Loh-Lim is precise about authorship. “The architectural foundation comes from my father’s principles of discipline, proportion and respect for historical context,” he says. “My role was to extend those values into how people inhabit the building today — how they sleep, rest and recover. Continuation is about carrying principles forward, not repeating forms.”
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Jennifer Choo is Regional Managing Editor of Tatler Homes, covering architecture, interior design, and art across Asia. Based in Malaysia, she oversees regional content on luxury residential design and contemporary art collections. Legally trained but choosing to pursue her passion for design, she previously led notable design publications and worked as an interior stylist and art consultant for property developers, design firms, and private clients.
