Pretty Shop Houses in Singapore

Quaint pretty shop houses are colonial landmarks and an architectural curiosity in urban Southeast Asia. And Singapore is home to many of them.

Shophouses are typically multi-functional, consisting of shops on the ground floor that leads to a public passageway or so called "five-foot way", and residential housing on the upper floor. These low-rise buildings never fail to get the attention of photographers and tourists. They are an interesting feature in the city dense and highrised Singapore landscape and the variety of colours used in their facade decoration are a distinguishing mark. In mid-20th century, pastel colours such as rose pink, baby blue and light yellow were popular and remained the colours that most people would associate with shophouse architecture. Today, many shophouses have been restored and adopted postmodern styles and bold colours such as deep reds, black, silver, and purple. Having stood the test of time, shophouses certainly provide one of the most previous insights into the cultural fabric of Singapore.

Pretty stretches of three-storey shophouses at Lan Kwai Fong, Bugis.

Ubiquitous Peranakan shophouses with beautiful Peranakan pastel coloured glazed tiles and floral, geometric motifs found along Orchard Road.

Bugis Street shophouses. Orange clay roofed shophouses, a shift away from the use of 'attap' in traditional architecture.

More shophouses at Tanjong Pagar Road. While uptown shopping malls beckon, these stretches of shophouses continue to be a major attraction among tourists.

Kampong Glam, Chinatown and Little India are home to these quaint shophouses selling ethnic goods and cuisine.

Louvred rectagular windows with dark grey and deep red - contemporary colours of the 21st century for shophouses.