23 Amber Road, the Butterfly House
Not every colonial house story here is from Seletar. 23 Amber Road in Katong, on Singapore’s east coast, is one of the best-known cases of a colonial bungalow caught between conservation and redevelopment.
A unique plan
The two-storey bungalow, off the Amber Road roundabout next to the Chinese Swimming Club, was commissioned by A.W. Cashin and designed in 1912 by R.A.J. Bidwell — the architect behind Raffles Hotel, Goodwood Park Hotel and Victoria Concert Hall.
Its convex, semicircular plan, with two curved “wings”, earned it the nickname the Butterfly House. It was the only historic residence in Singapore built on this plan and was considered unique in Southeast Asia. The house once looked directly over the sea, until land reclamation in the 1960s and 1970s moved the coastline.
What was kept
Most of the house was demolished. To keep its most visible part and its place in the streetscape, the entrance porch, stair hall and part of the boundary wall facing Amber Road were conserved and built into a new high-rise residential development. The site was gazetted for conservation on 3 September 2007, and the retained frontage can be seen today at The Aristo@Amber.