Multimillion-dollar lake views in Sentosa Cove

KASARA, located in the exclusive waterfront enclave of Sentosa Cove, has 13 individually designed villas with unrivalled views of a man-made  lake and the award-winning Serapong golf course in Sentosa. Launched in January 2010 by Malaysian-listed conglomerate YTL Corp, it saw its units fully sold within a few short months.

The properties and the views at Kasara may be hard to improve on, but Edmund Ng, a partner of Suying Metropolitan Studio, a design practice behind many of the high-end condos and private homes of the super rich, was engaged to make design modifications to the interiors of one of the villas to suit the idiosyncratic needs of the owner, a 34-year-old Singaporean private-equity firm owner and his wife, as well as their two children, a seven-year-old daughter and three-year-old son.

The three-storey villa in question has a built-up area of 11,000 sq ft and sits on a 99-year leasehold plot of 9,000 sq ft. Ng had left the façade of the house largely untouched. The highlight is the entrance walkway leading to the living and dining areas, with a wall lined with full-height glass sliding doors and windows opening out to greenery and water features. The north-south orientation of the house and the bank of windows and glass sliding doors allow cross-ventilation and natural light to flood in. These design elements were left unchanged too.

"The owners wanted something trendy and contemporary to reflect their personality and lifestyle," says Ng. The powder room near the entrance was ripped out and completely redesigned, complete with new tiles and fittings in monochromatic tones. The guest bedroom on the first level was converted into a study room with a wall lined with floor-to-ceiling dark wood shelves. "The room has a very clean feel, like an art gallery," he adds.

A neutral palette in earthy tones with accents of dark wood cladding was chosen for the whole house, says Ng. These colour tones create a cool, calming effect that is also sophisticated and refined, he adds. As the existing timber flooring in the study room and all the bedrooms on the upper floors are of teak wood, which has a natural reddish hue, Ng had them stained dark, with a smooth finish for a more contemporary look.

Walls in the living and dining room were removed to create more open space. For instance, the original kitchen, which features a wet and dry kitchen and a wine cellar, was designed by world-renowned Italian architect and designer Antonio Citterio, who also designed the Bvlgari

Hotel Milan and Bvlgari Resort Bali. However, the wine cellar adjoining the dry kitchen made the space a little too cluttered, and the owner wanted it removed so the kitchen could be extended. The dining room's central feature is a 7m-long dining table that can seat 18, which was made from a single tree trunk of a Balinese raintree and had to be hauled into the house by a crane before the construction of the house was completed.

The living room opens out to a lap pool and a spacious patio with a pond and cantilevered deck to better enjoy the views of the lake and the golf course across the waterway. On the second level of the villa is the family lounge, the children's bedrooms and the master suite, which opens out to an outdoor entertainment deck. Here, Ng built a trellis over the deck, which also boasts lake views. He would have liked to have extended the master suite so the views of the lake could also be enjoyed from there as well.

While the owner and his wife chose the furniture for the living room and the children's bedrooms respectively, Ng handpicked the pieces for the rest of the house. In keeping with the owners' taste, he shopped for contemporary Italian furniture from established brands such as B&B Italia, Giorgetti and Poliform.

The house is less than a year old and on the market for $23 million, or around $2,500 psf. As the furniture in the house was specially selected for it, the owner is selling the furniture along with the house. Sueann Lye of Nixon Realty is the exclusive marketing agent for the property.


This story first appeared in The Edge Singapore weekly edition of Apr 01-07, 2013.