A 1969 Singapore school became New Bahru, the city's design-first creative mall

Teng Wen Wee of The Lo & Behold Group saw a rare post-independence 1969 school building — Singapore's conservation usually targets colonial-era stock — and wanted something community-led, creative-led.

An alternative mall inside a 1969 school: local founders matched with ten Singapore design studios, so every shop unit is itself a designed work.

The Corbusier-inspired fabric was kept and founders were 'matchmade' with ten Singapore studios: Open Studio restored the school hall, Nice Projects did Bar Bon Funk and The Coconut Club, Parable clad Parlour in handmade tiles, and the Somma branding came from Lo & Behold's in-house team.

95% of New Bahru's brands, makers and creatives are Singapore-based, and the enclave has fast become the alternative 'mall' Singapore's creative community lacked, with its Factory wing newly opened.

New Bahru is a three-storey, blush-pink, Corbusier-inspired school building from 1969 — post-independence, not colonial — that The Lo & Behold Group regenerated into a creative cluster of homeware, stationery, fashion, food and wellness tenants. Founder Teng Wen Wee called buildings of this era increasingly rare in Singapore, where the average building dies at 33 years and malls such as JCube and Bedok Point were torn down after 11.

The system is the idea. Ten of Singapore's strongest studios were first shown the bare bones of the building, briefed on its tone and mission, then 'matchmade' with founders — in Teng's words, 'putting the entrepreneurs with the right designers and supporting the ecosystem-building'. Ninety-five per cent of the tenants are Singapore-based, which was the point: give local founders the ecosystem — designers, audience, location — they usually have to build alone in a small market where art and design graduates earn less than half the top programmes.

The matchmaking shows unit by unit. Open Studio restored the old school hall to its former glory; Nice Projects gave cocktail bar Bar Bon Funk illustrated lightboxes and the eatery The Coconut Club rattan and bent bamboo; Parable studio clad the gelato spot Parlour in handmade ceramic tiles with Gaudi-inspired stained glass; the former library became Somma, branded by Lo & Behold's in-house team; Woods in the Books sells picturebooks under Mike Foo's murals; and Stacked Store's homeware sits on scaffolding shelves that roll on wheels.

In a city of identical malls and 33-year building lifespans, keeping a 1969 post-independence school intact is itself a position against the default.

Ten studios were briefed on the whole building before being matched with founders, so architecture, brands and interiors share one ecosystem.

The 95% local quota turns retail curation into ecosystem-building for a small market where art and design graduates earn less than half the top programmes.

A place can be the product: curating who sells next to whom, and designing every unit, makes the venue itself the creative work.

It's Nice That's October 2026 feature describes New Bahru as having fast become the alternative 'mall' Singapore's creative community had been waiting for, with the Factory wing — home to the homeware store Stacked Store — recently opened. The picturebook shop Woods in the Books reports the response has been overwhelmingly positive, overcoming the preconception that picturebooks are only for children, even as its founders note it has been hard to shift.