Every house saved on your phone belongs to somebody else
This is how the market works.
01
A firm settles on one look and puts it on every project.
02
You scroll the portfolios, find a room you like, and ask for that room.
03
What gets built is a good copy of it.
And the next client asks for that room.
So you sit through the same meeting six times. Same moodboard. Same marble. And you still cannot say what you want, because nobody has asked you anything a photo could not answer.
You are not doing it wrong. The whole industry works this way. A signature style is sold as the mark of a serious firm. Really, it is the firm putting itself into your house. Even the studios that sound different are selling a style. Just a quieter one.
What that costs you after you move in
Big homes rarely go wrong on the build. They go wrong on the idea. You spend a great deal, you walk in, and you feel nothing much. What you are looking at is someone else's idea in your house. It photographs well. It holds nothing of you. And a house built on a look goes out of date when the look does.
Nobody chooses a portrait painter by finding a face they like
A home is the same. A firm that starts with a look can only give you a version of that look. A studio that starts with you can give you something that did not exist before, and could only be yours. Everything else on this page comes from that one difference.
Two houses. Same studio, same year.
One is a landed house. One is an apartment in town. They share nothing: not a material, not a colour, not a shape. Most firms would call that a problem, because a studio is supposed to have a look. This one does not. Each house started with the person who lives in it.
A Sensory House
Landed house, Singapore.
A family asked for light, texture and shade over polish. The idea: a house you feel before you see it.
Photograph 1 of 8
Whisper of Oak
Apartment, Orchard By The Park.
The client made one request: the warmth of oak. Every surface in the home answers to it.
"Our client gave us full creative freedom with just one request. Incorporate the warmth of oak wood into the design, to make his first home feel truly special."
Photograph 1 of 7
Commissioned, not selected
K2SD works the other way round. One idea runs through the whole house, and it comes from you.
We call the method EthosForm™. It turns a client's ethos, lifestyle and psychology into built form.
01
The Ethos Reading. Kelly sits with how you live.
Before anything is drawn, Kelly asks how you host, what you collect, and where you go to be alone. No past project is used as a starting point.
02
The Governing Premise. One idea is written before anything is drawn.
Everything that follows is tested against it, and the house is later named for it.
03
Sculptural Proportion. Shape and light come before materials.
The rooms, their scale and the way you move through them come first. Materials are chosen to serve the idea.
04
Single Authorship. One author for the building and the interior.
K2 Habitus designs the building and K2 Space the interior, both under the same person, so nothing is lost between the two.
05
Limited Commissions. Kelly stays on the house to handover.
A small number of commissions each year, taken in order. The person who read you designs your house.
Three things a signature firm cannot offer
Most high-end firms in Singapore build well. These three need a studio built the other way round.
1. Your house will not be a version of their last one
Kelly refuses to name a style, and the work shows it. Two houses from the same year share nothing but the method. What you get has not been built before.
2. Nothing gets lost between the architect and the interior
Most interior studios inherit a building they did not shape and work around it. K2SD designs both, so the idea has nowhere to leak out.
3. Kelly stays on your house from the first call to handover
There is no pitch team that hands you on. The studio is kept small so this stays true.
K2SD is not a contractor, a package or a showroom. If you want a look copied quickly at a fixed price, there are firms built for that. This is not one of them.
Works
Each house is named for the idea it came from
Each commission is built around a single premise, and titled the way a work is titled.
- The Geometria
- Thomson Ridge
- Dance of the Hues
- Echoes of Abstract
Where the studio works
Offices in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Projects in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Italy, for clients from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Australia, the United States and Switzerland.
Request a first conversation
K2SD takes a small number of commissions each year, accepted in sequence, and clients have waited months for a start date. If the house is coming, write before you have chosen a look.
Three or four lines are enough.
What happens when you write
- 1
Kelly reads it
She replies with a straight answer: whether the studio can take it, and when.
- 2
The Ethos Reading
The first conversation, led by Kelly, before any drawing. It starts with how you live.
- 3
One idea is written
Everything after is tested against it.
Right for you if
Probably not right if
Questions we are usually asked
Are you expensive?
We do not compete on price, and we would rather say so here than in the first meeting. Fees are not published. Each commission is scoped to the property and the brief, and set out in a proposal. Clients come to K2SD for the design, and the fee follows the work.
I already have references and a style I like. Is that a problem?
Bring whatever you have saved. We will ask what it is about those rooms you respond to, and the answer is rarely the room itself. The starting point is how you live, and the first idea for the house is written from that rather than from a reference.
What kind of project does K2SD take?
Landed residences, apartments from 2,500 sq ft, and hospitality, club and development projects, in Singapore, Malaysia and the region. The studio takes a small number of commissions each year.
Do you design the architecture as well as the interior?
Yes. K2 Habitus takes the architecture and K2 Space the interior, furnishing, styling and art collaboration. On a landed rebuild or a ground-up house, both sit with the same person, so the building and its interior carry one intent.
We are not ready to start yet. Should we still write?
Yes. Commissions are accepted in sequence, and clients have waited months for a start date. Writing early is how you avoid choosing a look in the meantime because the clock ran out.
How long does a commission take?
It depends on the property and the brief, and we will not give you a date we cannot hold. When you write to us, we tell you honestly when we could start. Kelly stays on the project from the first conversation to handover.
Who will I actually work with?
Kelly Kawahara Cheah, Principal, and a small studio. The person who reads how you live is the person who designs the house and sees it through to handover.
