Kwong Soon & Co Hotel

Jalan Besar, Singapore
2024 

The design reimagines the Kwang Soon & Company Engineering Works building as a contemporary hospitality destination shaped by memory, craft, and place. Rather than erasing the structure’s industrial character, the architecture amplifies its inherent qualities, using the existing framework as the foundation for a new experiential environment.

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At the podium level, traditional hotel functions—drop-off, concierge, and check-in—are reconfigured as a layered social experience. Four distinct food and beverage venues animate the ground plane, transforming the building into an active civic presence and a living room for the neighborhood. This integration allows the project to operate simultaneously as a hotel, gathering space, and urban connector.

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Through adaptive reuse and programmatic innovation, the building becomes both destination and catalyst—supporting public life while offering refuge, comfort, and discovery. The project establishes a new model for hospitality in Singapore, demonstrating how continuity with the past can generate relevance for the future while reinforcing the cultural identity of Jalan Besar.

The project emerges within the historic Jalan Besar district of Singapore, an area known for its industrial heritage, cultural diversity, and layered urban fabric. The client sought to reposition the former Kwang Soon & Company Engineering Works building—an industrial structure embedded in the neighborhood’s manufacturing history—as a catalyst for urban regeneration and cultural renewal.

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In a city defined by rapid development and continual transformation, the ambition was to demonstrate the long-term value of adaptive reuse as a strategy for sustainable growth and identity-making. The client envisioned a hospitality destination that would appeal to a new generation of global travelers and creative professionals while preserving the architectural and cultural legacy of the site. The project was intended not only as a hotel, but as a precedent for how historic industrial structures can shape contemporary urban experience and neighborhood vitality.

The work presented here was completed during Andy Lantz’s tenure at RIOS where he led the practice as Global Creative Director & CEO. This project is a demonstration of that leadership either through the active participation in a paid commission with a client or the efforts associated with an invited or open competition.

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Project Team:

Andy Lantz , Ruen Qing Wong , Jenny Myers, Andy Magner , and Teng Yuan Wee

The commission called for the transformation of an industrial heritage structure into an experience-driven hospitality environment that balances historic character with contemporary expectations. The project needed to preserve the identity and material legacy of the existing building while introducing a new programmatic framework capable of activating the surrounding neighborhood.

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A key objective was to rethink traditional hospitality models by dissolving the separation between private hotel functions and public urban life. The design was tasked with creating an arrival experience that functions as a social environment rather than a purely transactional sequence, integrating food, gathering, and cultural exchange into the ground plane.

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The project also sought to establish a new hospitality identity within Singapore—one rooted in place, craft, and cultural continuity while supporting broader ambitions for district revitalization and long-term urban relevance.

“The project transforms industrial heritage into a living hospitality experience—where history becomes the foundation for renewal.”

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