Hathaway, in old English, refers to someone who lives by a path across a heath. The word aptly describes the restaurant's location - housed in a charming colonial building sited amidst lush greenery within the nostalgic Dempsey estate.

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The cuisine served at Hathaway is best described as modern Asian; it aims to preserve the cultural cacophony of Singapore's identity, whilst embracing the new food culture and sensibilities of the modern generation. With this in mind, we sought to create a design for Hathaway that resonated with its ethos, and a space that would complement and enhance the experience of dining at Hathaway.

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Most of the materials used at Hathaway are common materials used in local building and furniture-making; wood, rattan, terrazzo, brass and marble. In particular, we chose to showcase the use of rattan as it represents craft, the human touch and the vernacular; all of which are qualities which resonate with Hathaway's dining concept.

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What struck us most deeply when we first visited the site were the huge glass windows that opened to views of greenery and brought a lot of natural sunlight into the space during the day. These windows were an avenue for communication between the indoors and the outdoors, and we knew that they would be the real "star" of the show at Hathaway. To take full advantage of them, we designed a series of curved rattan ceiling panels along the windows. These panels are visible to cars and pedestrians going by, giving away just enough to reveal a special space within; while from the inside, the panels frame picturesque views of the greenery outside.

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This project was featured in Design Anthology: https://design-anthology.com/story/hathaway 

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