Centurion ICC Winter 2023

|Places| The

|Places| The intoxicating vista from a guest-room balcony at the new Pan Pacific Orchard hotel The Lion City Roars Bursting with fresh hotels and cuttingedge dining concepts, Singapore proves that the more things change in the always-bustling metropolis, the more they stay the same. By Lee Cobaj S ize isn’t everything: condensed into just 728 square kilometres, Singapore is a financial powerhouse, the world’s busiest transshipment port, an exceptional aviation hub and a tourism hot spot. It’s home to sensational architecture – both colonial-era and cutting-edge – glow-in-the-dark gardens, world-class museums, top shopping and spirited communities of Malays, Chinese and Indians, all of whom have shaped the local cuisine into some of the most lauded in the world – and these are just a few of the attributes that draw more than six million visitors to the city each year. PHOTO MARC TAN / STUDIO PERIPHERY 28 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM

It’s a figure that the Singapore Tourism Board bullishly hopes to double in the coming years, pushing a new year-round calendar of must-do events, from the glamorous Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix and the citywide Singapore Food Festival to the chi-chi Singapore Biennale, plus a roster of must-see concerts from musical superstars such as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. All of these projected visitors are going to need somewhere to stay, which has resulted in a clutch of new luxury hotels blossoming across the city. First out of the gate was the Mondrian Singapore Duxton (ennismore. com), housing 302 rooms and suites in a sleek black and white block inspired by Singapore’s traditional shophouses, afforded with charming views across the surrounding red-roofed neighbourhood. What’s inside is just as intriguing: staff recruited from outside the hospitality industry – a synchronised swimmer, a tattoo artist, an ex-con – interiors bursting with colour and a genuinely interesting art collection (curated by The Artling), including Ian Davenport’s Deep Magenta, Mirrored, which puddles across the lobby floor, and a hypnotic time-lapse of melting ice, Waterfall IV, by Singaporean artist Dawn Ng. There’s also an LA-worthy swimming pool up top, an Italian restaurant featuring PHOTOS FROM TOP: SHAUN TAY, © MANDARIN ORIENTAL SINGAPORE Above: Mandarin Oriental Singapore’s newly made-over lobby lounge, crowned by a series of orchid-inspired crystal displays; top: English Painter Ian Davenport’s Deep Magenta, Mirrored adorns Mondrian Singapore Duxton’s lobby CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 29