New Bahru
A Creative Cluster for Singapore

When presented with a derelict 1960s school campus, most saw a redevelopment project. We saw the potential for a cultural ecosystem.

Before a single brick was laid, our team defined the core concept and positioning. We framed New Bahru as a creative cluster—an environment for independent brands and makers to coexist and grow. Not a mall, not a retail strip, but a platform for ideas.

We fought (hard!) for the name New Bahru which balanced both global ambitions with a sense of place. The positioning was clear: New Bahru would represent the next chapter of Singapore’s creative economy.

Our marketing strategy rejected traditional real estate tactics. It was built around a simple provocation—in a saturated landscape, people don’t just visit places, they rally behind movements. We set out to turn passive preference for local brands into active participation, making every dollar spent at New Bahru the easiest, most meaningful vote for Singapore’s creative future.

Our role extended well beyond brand and communications. We operated as placemakers who curated and approved tenants to ensure both commercial viability and cultural coherence. We worked closely with FARM Architects and Nice Projects to preserve the architectural character of the former school while defining a contemporary design language across touchpoints. We collaborated with operations on spatial flow and footfall logic, and remained involved in board-level discussions tracking commercial performance.

Strategy informed tenancy. Brand informed design. Culture informed commerce. New Bahru reflects our belief that brand is not decoration. It is direction. And when embedded at the core of development, it becomes a long-term competitive advantage.

Brand Concept Trailer

View of a modern building with unique architectural design featuring large arch-shaped roof structures, a yellow lattice facade, and surrounded by trees and greenery.
A modern urban building with a parking garage in front, greenery, trees, and street lamps, with tall skyscrapers in the background.

Building Mural

Brand Logo

To translate this strategy into a cohesive identity system, we partnered with OMFGCO, working closely with them to develop a brand language capable of holding a diverse mix of tenants while remaining distinctive and culturally grounded. The identity was designed to act as a container that was strong enough to lead, flexible enough to recede.

Bahru by Poet Pooja Nansi

And this too, is a love letter to our city.
This too is how we dream about who we are becoming.
This is how we give our hopes flight
so that they may sing of a time before ours
but also teach us new songs of our own.

Not all those who wonder are lost.
What if we see possibility in an old stairwell,
laughter in abandoned halls?
community in empty corridors?

This too, is how we return to each other and to ourselves,
how we remember where we have come from,
as we pave roads for where we need to go.
Our tomorrows are built from our yesterdays.

In this city where we make and rest and eat,
where we laugh, and explore and believe.
Come. Stop a while. Be at home.

This too is how we unfold into our vastness,
our courage, our fierce light, our voice.
How loud, how fearless & how bold -
to see the future
in the beauty
these old bones hold.

  • Orange block with the words ''NEW ARRIVAL'' in large block letters in front of a coffee shop, with two people walking past and one person sitting behind the block.

    Logo Bench

  • Outdoor billboard advertising a new exhibition with the message 'Discover the Different @newbahru' and abstract art in warm colors.

    Billboard Banner

  • Urban residential building with a pink facade, multiple balconies, and a colorful rainbow glass elevator in the center. Surrounded by trees and a small garden area.

    Lift Mural

School Hall Concept Trailer

The dreamers, creators, hustlers, rabble-rousers,

Assemble.

Here, in this hallowed hall of history—
We welcome the Class of Tomorrow—

Here, we make our own moves.

Here, ideas big or small have 8,000 square feet to stretch

Here, 700 voices find their own space to roar

Here, the unlike-minded find common ground

Here, even tiny dreams stand tall

Here, we build a new world for the old new school

A space to craft
create
transcend
The history that came before it.

Class of Tomorrow, are you ready?

  • Modern interior with concrete stairs and white walls, ceiling lights, and ventilation system.

    School Hall Mezzanine

  • School Hall Entrance

  • Empty indoor auditorium with wooden stage, beige walls, curtains, and overhead lights.

    School Hall Interior

Public Art Programme — Now Now

Now Now is a series of 6 arresting photographic works of billboard stature and scale commissioned by New Bahru and curated by Dawn Ng.

Featuring 6 local artists that represent a zeitgeist of Singapore’s here and now, the works form a bold yet intimate tapestry of moments across this city fossilized by the camera.

The intentional placement of each work piques a visual dialogue with specific structures of the old school building, transforming large walls into time portals that freeze-frame moments both real and imaginary.

newbahru.com/nownow

  • Empty multi-story building with a large, blurry digital billboard on the side, located in an urban area with trees and parked outdoor seating.

    Artist, Jovian Lim (b.1984)
    Artwork, Waltzing In

  • Artist, Sean Lee (b.1985)
    Artwork, Young Love

  • A large mural of a sidewalk with a striped beach ball hanging from a pole outside a building.

    Akai Chew (b.1987)
    Artwork, When we were together

  • Interior room with orange and dark gray walls, featuring a large mural of a building facade and greenery on the back wall.

    Artist, KHOOGJ (b.1985)
    Artwork, Space between Giants

  • Interior view of a staircase with a beige and dark brown wall design, with a window showing green trees outside, and a small speaker mounted on the wall.

    Artist, Liu Liling (b.1993)
    Artwork, Dying Blush

  • An art gallery wall featuring a large portrait of a woman with dark hair lying on her side with her hand touching her face, in muted colors.

    Artist, Lavender Chang (b.1983)
    Artwork, Eldest Daughter #6

Next Project

Odette
Terroir to Table, Heart to Plate