Renowned K-beauty brand Jungsaemmool debuts its global flagship store in a 4,972 sq ft colonial bungalow on Scotts Road. This heritage site is the chosen location for K-beauty brand Jungsaemmool’s first global flagship store outside South Korea. The space is envisaged to integrate beauty brands, services, and academies under one roof, a first for the Korean beauty company. According to founder and celebrity make-up artist Jung Saem-mool, she deliberately selected a heritage space to convey the brand’s identity and values. Jung emphasized that a mall would be “restrictive” as it would only showcase their products, which, according to her, is a misinterpretation of the K-beauty brand.
In Singapore’s retail landscape, where real estate is scarce, more brands are choosing heritage spaces to create unique retail experiences. For instance, French luxury brand Hermes collaborated with social-impact hub Temasek Shophouse in April 2023 to host HermesFit in a heritage shophouse at 16 Orchard Road. The event transformed the shophouse into a boutique “gym” with an interactive exhibition on fitness and wellness, attracting 14,000 visitors.
Such creative uses of heritage buildings are part of a broader trend. Temasek Shophouse, for example, leases three adjacent shophouses and is expanding to add about 4,100 sq m of space. This move underscores the potential of adaptive reuse in offering novel retail experiences while preserving Singapore’s built heritage.
(Source: The Strait News)
