Cover The Khoo Kongsi compound lane at Soori Penang, where Soo K Chan has transformed the shophouses of his childhood into George Town’s most exclusive boutique hotel
The Khoo Kongsi compound lane at Soori Penang, where Soo K Chan has transformed the shophouses of his childhood into George Town’s most exclusive boutique hotel
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SCDA founder Soo K Chan returns to the George Town shophouses where he grew up to create Soori Penang, a 15-suite boutique hotel that transforms adaptive reuse into something far more personal
Architect Soo K Chan has never forgotten the light in the Khoo Kongsi shophouses. It came through the airwells in narrow shafts, sharpened against the cool darkness of the interior. “Darkness and lightness,” he says. “That translates quite directly to the design.”
That childhood memory now runs through Soori Penang, Chan’s most personal project in 30 years of practice. The boutique hotel occupies a cluster of heritage shophouses within the Khoo Kongsi compound in George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where Chan spent his earliest years.
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Above The landscaped courtyard, converted from a former car park, where guests can dine and have cocktails
The landscaped courtyard, converted from a former car park, where guests can dine and have cocktails
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As founder of SCDA Architects, recipient of Singapore’s inaugural President’s Design Award, and a practice with projects across more than 80 locations worldwide, Chan has spent three decades working on hospitality projects spanning the Maldives to China, including work with luxury brands Janu and Aman. Soori Bali, which he designed and runs to this day, is where he discovered what it means to be both architect and hotelier. None of those commissions required him to transform the buildings where he once ran between courtyards as a young child, part of a close-knit community of related families.
“This is where it all began,” Chan says. “Soori Penang is more than a hotel. It’s a living tribute to place, to memory, to design.”
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Above The common areas look upward through original airwells, a spatial device Chan describes as one of his most vivid memories of shophouse living
The common areas look upward through original airwells, a spatial device Chan describes as one of his most vivid memories of shophouse living
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Soori Penang’s 15 shophouses had previously operated as The Clans Hotel, which subdivided the buildings into approximately 40 rooms connected by internal corridors. Chan’s first act was spatial: he returned each shophouse to the coherence of a single dwelling. “I restored them to individual houses,” he explains. “While the previous owner combined the 15 units to create a hotel with many rooms, I restored them to 15 houses, with 13 of those primarily used for suites.”
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Above The restaurant embodies the play of darkness and punctuated light that Chan traces back to his earliest memories of shophouse living
The restaurant embodies the play of darkness and punctuated light that Chan traces back to his earliest memories of shophouse living
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Each suite now functions as a complete unit with its own airwell, veranda, and internal reflecting pool, rather than a partitioned fragment of a larger structure. For Chan, the airwell was never an abstraction. He recalls monsoon rains overwhelming the granite-floored wells, the drainage unable to keep pace, water pooling across the courtyard. “To me, that was a moment where I would actually go in and play in the water,” he says. “It was living inside and yet outside. That indoor-outdoor quality is reflected in many of my designs.” The contemporary suites retain this quality: light filters through classic shutters, and internal reflecting pools echo the flooded airwells of his memory.
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Above Light through original black-painted shutters cuts across the interior, the contrast between darkness and sharp illumination that runs as a constant thread through Chan's design
Light through original black-painted shutters cuts across the interior, the contrast between darkness and sharp illumination that runs as a constant thread through Chan's design
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Above A reinterpreted rice grinder repurposed as a water fountain in the suite airwell, one of several Peranakan references Chan translated into contemporary form, rather than a literal reproduction
A reinterpreted rice grinder repurposed as a water fountain in the suite airwell, one of several Peranakan references Chan translated into contemporary form, rather than a literal reproduction
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Many heritage hotels in George Town lean heavily on Peranakan iconography: opium beds, decorative screens, dense accumulations of antiques. Chan took a markedly different position. The interiors are finished in a restrained palette of wood, granite, travertine, and porcelain. The Khoo Kongsi temple itself had previously been restored by heritage specialist Lawrence Loh Architects, whose meticulous, authentic approach Chan explicitly credits. His own scope covered the shophouses, and the register there was reinterpretation rather than reproduction.”
Above Each suite is entered through its own airwell, where a reflecting pool and stone lions reinterpreted from the Khoo Kongsi’s iconography translate Chan’s childhood memories into contemporary form
Each suite is entered through its own airwell, where a reflecting pool and stone lions reinterpreted from the Khoo Kongsi’s iconography translate Chan’s childhood memories into contemporary form
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Above Rattan panels and bespoke timber joinery in a guest suite: Chan’s design language strips back ornament to let material and light do the work
Above A daybed positioned toward the airwell, where natural light filters through cane screens, capturing the indoor-outdoor quality Chan describes as central to his design philosophy
Rattan panels and bespoke timber joinery in a guest suite: Chan’s design language strips back ornament to let material and light do the work
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“You’ll feel the essence,” he explains, “but you won’t be directly referred to in terms of objects and furniture. It won’t be literal.” Certain Peranakan references do surface, but in transformed form. Oversized rice grinders, the kind Chan remembers from the communal kitchen, have been enlarged and repurposed as landscape water features. Stone lions derived from the clan house's iconography were remade by craftsmen in southern China. “I tried to capture the essence of what I remember without translating it literally,” Chan says. “There are no Peranakan screens or too many Peranakan objects, but you can still feel it’s part of that era, just in a more distilled way.”
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Above A guest suite at Soori Penang, where warm timber, pendant lighting and a restrained palette replace the Peranakan iconography typical of George Town's heritage hotels
A guest suite at Soori Penang, where warm timber, pendant lighting and a restrained palette replace the Peranakan iconography typical of George Town's heritage hotels
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Above The bathrooms continue the elegant palette of the suites, with stone vessel basins and warm timber joinery that echo the quiet material order of the spaces throughout
The bathrooms continue the elegant palette of the suites, with stone vessel basins and warm timber joinery that echo the quiet material order of the spaces throughout
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Beyond the suites, Chan designed a sequence of settings that unfold across the day. A former car park behind the hotel has been converted into a landscaped courtyard with shady trees, where guests can take breakfast or evening cocktails. The rare privilege, however, is access to the Khoo Kongsi compound itself. When the gates close to the public at five o’clock, the compound becomes the hotel’s private domain, the setting for cultural performances including Teochew opera. At that hour, as the fading light catches the temple’s gilded carvings and ceramic figures, the full weight of the compound’s history becomes palpable in a way no daytime visit quite allows.
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Above The ornate Khoo Kongsi temple, meticulously restored by Lawrence Loh Architects, anchors the historic compound where Soo K Chan spent his earliest years
Above The two rows of restored shophouses facing each other across the Khoo Kongsi compound lane, a spatial arrangement that mirrors Chan's childhood memory of a multigenerational community where families lived across from one another
The ornate Khoo Kongsi temple, meticulously restored by Lawrence Loh Architects, anchors the historic compound where Soo K Chan spent his earliest years
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For Chan, Soori Penang is also a personal reckoning. He grew up in these shophouses, left to study abroad, and built a career far from George Town before returning to take on its most intimate restoration project. “The underlying way I design hasn’t changed,” he reflects. “It responds to each place culturally, but there’s a common thread that’s quite clear.” In George Town, that thread runs all the way back to childhood.
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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.
