“One of the best ways to introduce New Bahru is by explaining its name,” begins Wee Teng Wen. Wee is the founder of The Lo & Behold Group, the hospitality company behind some of the most exciting brands in Singapore’s cultural and culinary landscape today. Over the past two decades, the group has brought to life concepts that include Odette, Fico and The Warehouse Hotel. Still, when it comes to scale and ambition, nothing compares to New Bahru. Undoubtedly the group’s biggest project to date, New Bahru transforms the former Nan Chiau High School into a creative cluster that places its focus entirely on local talent.
“Bahru is Malay for ‘new’ and ‘new new’ is a reference to how Singaporeans like to say the same word twice. For us, it signals a new community and a new path that we want to build for Singapore’s creatives,” Wee explains.
You won’t find any large international franchises within these walls. Instead, a line-up of local businesses, ranging from dining and lifestyle to wellness and enrichment, showcases the strength and diversity of our creatives. Housed in a site indelibly tied to local culture, New Bahru is like nothing we’ve seen before in Singapore’s retail landscape.
“It really starts with falling in love with the space—it’s like seeing a frame and crafting the art piece that goes into it”
“New Bahru is a dream project for us,” reflects Wee. “It’s a combination of all the work we’ve done over the last 20 years. It’s a project that will bring together some of the most talented creatives and entrepreneurs across the different fields of lifestyle in Singapore, and it’s what we feel is the first concept to be able to assemble this kind of talent in one place.”
Ahead of its opening, Wee shares how New Bahru came to become what it is today, what visitors can look forward to and how he hopes it will help Singapore’s creative scene grow.
How did this particular project come about? Was New Bahru something you always knew you wanted to do or did the idea develop along the way?
We’ve always been deeply interested in projects that add vibrancy and offer something new to the Singapore scene—and with each of our projects, whether it’s a beach club or Singapore’s first rooftop bar, there’s a constant obsession with activating interesting spaces. As an extension of that, we’ve always felt that Singapore needs neighbourhoods that are distinctive and exciting, and that we need to celebrate our own brands. There was this deep ache that we felt we wanted to address, but didn’t know exactly how to. And then, about eight years ago, I saw the space and fell in love with it, in particular with the school hall. It was a stroke of serendipity. The remaining years were spent trying to connect the dots to see if we could do something about it.
What did the space look like when you saw it then?
Back then, it was about 80 percent offices, a tiny bit of F&B and a trampoline studio. My wife, Dawn, had her first art studio in that complex. That’s when I started to explore and poke my head into the different areas. When I first went in, a lot of the spaces were not even inhabited yet, so I saw them in their raw form. Just like a lot of our other projects, it really starts with falling in love with the space. It’s like seeing a frame and crafting the art piece that goes into it. I also started to appreciate the hidden potential of the site, the stories that could be told and the fact that it’s situated in a wonderful neighbourhood. It’s a neighbourhood that is very close to my heart. When I was in my late teens, we first started clubbing here. It used to be such a vibrant place. Now, it’s largely residential and it lacks a nucleus for the neighbourhood to convene. Those were the things that spoke to me and made it the perfect site.
What were some things you knew for certain that you wanted to keep or to change about the site?
There’s so much texture and history in the space, and that’s something that we wanted to keep and allow as many people as possible to experience. The classrooms are the dominant space, and they are beautiful, high-ceiling boxes that are very functional, many of which look out to green spaces behind them. The school hall is just so special and made us all feel a sense of nostalgia. There’s also the library on the top floor that we’ll be converting into a restaurant; it has beautiful arched ceilings that are architecturally quirky and unique. The one big change we made was inserting a central lawn where the parade ground and car park used to be. This is also our way of giving back to the neighbourhood because it’s a densely built residential area that doesn’t have much green space. What we’ve done is to carve out a space under these beautiful rain trees to transform it into a lawn with a playground that the community can enjoy.
What sets New Bahru apart from existing retail concepts in Singapore?
There is a lot and it’s hard to put it into words, but I hope you get to experience it for yourself and tell me. The simplest is the fact that it’s housed in an upcycled school as opposed to a new, gleaming glass building. There’s a strong thread of history that we’ve not just retained, but celebrated. There’s a lot of soul. Next is the incredible amount of talent that we’ve packed into one space. We see this as, hopefully, a turning point in how Singaporeans think about local brands. So we’re giving brands the opportunity to be more ambitious, take larger spaces, experiment, evolve and ultimately, put their best foot forward for Singapore.
“What we do stems from a belief that, as a leading city and a creative nation, we have a lot to offer, and that our people and our ideas can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the world’s best cities”
How did you curate the brands to bring in?
For each brand, we looked at the changemakers in their own space and found those who shared a similar vision to us—the ones who were trying to push boundaries, experiment and tell a compelling local story. Those were the tenants that we tried our best to bring into the space. Now, more than half our brands are new-to-market concepts, so they are either existing operators creating new brands or they are setting up shop for the first time, which makes this really meaningful because then you’re giving people a chance to create.
Of course, the thing about curation is also that the sum has to be stronger and greater than the individual parts. We didn’t want to be defined by one vertical, so you’ll see that there’s everything from wellness to retail to F&B. Even within each domain, we’ve taken great pains to ensure diversity. There was a lot of thinking about how to ensure that they were all truly complementary to each other. We wanted to put together an intentional and distinct line-up where, as a guest, you could spend the day there with a lot to discover across different verticals.
How does New Bahru fit into the wider concept of what Lo & Behold does?
What we do stems from a belief that, as a leading city and a creative nation, we have a lot to offer, and that our people and our ideas can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the world’s best cities. With each project, we’ve tried to add a little bit to the fabric of the city, and New Bahru is taking that to the next level in terms of boldness, scale and ambition.
How do you think New Bahru will transform the retail and creative landscape of Singapore?
I hope it will change the way that people perceive local talent. Retail and F&B is tough everywhere, but in a small country like Singapore, it’s even more important that we celebrate our brands. I hope that, beyond New Bahru, there is a reverberation that helps to spark and accelerate this movement.
Associate lifestyle editor Chandreyee Ray
Photography Sayher Heffernan
Styling Nicholas See
Grooming Sha Shamsi
Story Jesslyn Lye
Visit the New Bahru Sneak Peek on 22 and 23 June 2024 for a first look at the space.
