Located at the InterContinental in Singapore, Idlewild’s name comes from the original name for John F Kennedy Airport. Inspired by the Golden Age of Travel (1940-1960), think clipper ships and Pan Am Airways. The fictional narrative for the design talks of an American man who lived in Singapore working for the Shaw Bros studio. The bar was created for his wife, a former leading lady of iconic Cantonese films.

So the design narrative was created based on a Cantonese film actress who immigrated to Singapore in the 1930s with her American husband, a film producer. In the imagined story, he built and created this bar for her to host.

This retro-luxe cocktail bar’s design themes were therefore more feminine, transporting us to a romantic era of luxury travel and glamorous movie stars. Luxurious velvet curtains conceal a discrete VIP entrance. The performance stage at the rear hosts a live jazz music band. The rest of the scheme is rich with the use of plush velvet, leather, mahogany and brass detailing, mother-of-pearl tabletops and chandeliers. There’s a display cabinet of rare bottles, antique collectables, old paper cuttings and even luggage tags.

Please note that this project was completed while Paul Semple and Matthew Shang were Principals at Hassell.