Minotti comes along, drawn by Libeskind

Published March 9, 2007

Minotti comes along, drawn by Libeskind

By CHEAH UI-HOON


WHEN it comes to high-end residential properties, developers continue to raise the bar on things that make you go 'wow' - so that a property can stand out in the sea of new property launches.


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The Minotti look: The premium Italian furniture brand will do up a 4-bedroom apartment in the $8m show suite for Reflections on Keppel Bay


It helps to have a prominent name like world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind stamped on your project, for instance.

In fact, leveraging on the Libeskind name helped Keppel Land score a design coup by getting premium Italian furniture brand Minotti to do up a four-bedroom apartment in the $8 million show suite for Reflections on Keppel Bay that will be unveiled in early April.

The showflat will also be furnished with Minotti's new 2007 collection - 'unveiled' to visitors just days ahead of the Milan Furniture Fair, the mecca of the design world.

It's also the first time in Minotti's six-decade history that the Italian marque is designing an interior space for a client. 'Minotti doesn't do customised interiors, much less for a show suite,' says Bert Choong, managing director of Nobel Design Holdings, which is Minotti's Singapore distributor.

'But they were excited at the prospect of working on a Libeskind project,' he explains.

The proposal was broached to the Minotti brothers when they were here for the opening of the brand's mono showroom last year, and the collaboration was finalised just in January.

Potential owners and serial showflat viewers will get a chance to see how Minotti's chief designer, Rudolfo Dordoni, will furnish the interior space of an actual apartment.

All this will no doubt put the Keppel Bay project on the world real estate map, believes Albert Foo, Keppel Land's deputy general manager of marketing (residential).

'This is the most important residential development for Keppel Land yet, and we wanted to make sure that the show suites did justice to the project,' says Mr Foo.

He added that the 1,129-apartment development is Libeskind's biggest residential project to date, and also the architect's first residential project in Asia.

Already, at the cost of $8 million, the temporary 30,000 sq ft show suite is the most expensive to be built for a property launch, which Mr Foo says was necessary to 'showcase Libeskind's architectural language'. In the show suite, examples of Reflections' two, three and four-bedroom showflats, ranging from 1,000 to 3,500 sq ft will be done up.

Minotti will also put together a design guide specifically for Reflections on Keppel Bay owners: a look-book of interior furnishings and space layout that owners can use as a template for their decor.

According to Mr Foo, more than 700 people from all over the world have shown interest in the development.

'With a Libeskind design, and now this collaboration with Minotti, Reflections is going to project world-class waterfront living,' says Mr Foo.