“It’s instant holiday mode over here.” The taxi driver smiles, gesturing towards the Sentosa Causeway up ahead. It‘s the bridge that links Sentosa Island with mainland Singapore. And it’s a place where, with expansive views of the South China Sea, sits the Capella Singapore.
A 5-minute drive further on, as the car inclines up the steep slope towards the Capella Singapore, it passes two private mansions – which you can choose to stay in too at Capella Singapore – set in the lush grounds. And then, passing along the driveway in front of the stately white colonial building, built in 1880, that used to be the officer’s mess for the British Royal Artillery, you start to believe the driver.
The Infinite Escapism Ahead
In the same warm terra cotta color as the brick, architect Norman Foster has extended the main colonial building into a figure-of-eight. It’s an infinity symbol that’s another premonition – this time of the infinite escapism that lays ahead.
The undulating shape of the building reflects the contours of the terraces below too – stepped like rice terraces – with pool after pool, each lower than the last.
A Conversation Across Time
Fittingly, for a hotel with infinity on its mind, time seems to skip forwards and leap backwards here constantly.
There’s the eye-catching modern art on the stately white walls. Or there’s the tech-driven rooms – room service, and other services, via an app, TVs and sound system in both the living room and bedroom – that have a luxurious, yet timeless charm. Interior architect André Fu, with his team at AFSO, renovated the property in 2021, 12 years after architect Norman Foster and interior designer, Jaya Ibrahim, created it. And André has said that he felt like he was in conversation with late Ibrahim across time.
Summit Special
“Could you take a photo of me and my dad,” someone asks, breaking the spell for a moment. “And make sure you get that in, will you?” he adds, gesturing down at a large golden dial set in the ground.
The Capella Singapore was named Conde Nast Traveler Reader’s Choice Best Hotel In Singapore 2023. And it was also chosen as the Travel + Leisure’s World Best Awards #1 Hotel In Singapore. But it also attracts another kind of traveller besides the sort of serious seclusion seeker who usually checks-in. The hotel was also the location for the high-stakes Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un summit in June 2018.
And he’s pointing down to a dial that features two embossed hands shaking – one Trump’s and one Kim’s below the date, 12 June 2018, and the words ‘Summit In Singapore.’
Sepia Photos Meet Modern Art
They return back to their waiting taxi, contentedly swiping through their photos on the phone. As they do, Capella Singapore General Manager, Yngvar Stray leads us into the reception area. It’s a calming space with white walls, warm rugs and sofas, homely ceramic jars and pots as decoration, and the reverent air of an art gallery. It is a kind of art gallery. There’s a selection of local and regional artists splashing color across the white walls.
Upstairs, sepia photos of the building’s time as an officers’ dormitory and mess line the walls. There are photos of formal gatherings and afternoon teas. You imagine the wives, pictured in their gowns sipping their gin and tonics, looking down snootily and gossiping maliciously about the iniquities of modern art, and the works on the walls below.
There’s four pieces, for example, by young Korean artist Haetem. They’re square canvases with slashes of thick white lines, overlaid with a wide blue or red line or two. Beneath it all there’s a painting that’s she’s obscured almost completely.
In the same way, this main building is a slash of white and terra cotta red. And it obscures (and preserves the privacy of) the resort beyond: like the curved terrace beside Bob’s Bar – a speakeasy perfect for a sundowner as you look out across the South China Sea.
Then there’s Fiamma, a casual Italian restaurant, that, has some refined farmhouse design. And the menu had three MICHELIN-star chef Mauro Colagreco nostalgically plumbing his memory. And also thumbing his grandma’s cookbook for recipes from across Italy. There’s Neapolitan pizzas, dry-aged Bistecca alla Fiorentina and catch of the day done the Genoese way.
Then there’s that three-tiered pool, and 112 rooms, suites and villas behind, in the main curve of the building, and beyond, among the lush rainforest greens.
The one-bedroom villa is immersive – a large living room with antique drinks cabinet, a jungle print painting, and seductive sofa. Through the double doors there’s the bedroom with a plunge pool outside that’s flicked by the suns that darts between the bamboo leaf shade. And finally, the bathroom with another area outside, for al fresco bathing.
“The Same Generosity Of Space”
“That’s the thing about Capella Hotels, I feel. They’re all different, but they share the same generosity of space,” Yngvar smiles.
We’re back up into the main former barracks building for lunch at the modern-Cantonese restaurant Cassia. But, in here, there’s hints of a modern chinoiserie. There’s the use of dark woods, and motif-patterned gray walls. There are private rooms, and a main dining room, the white tablecloths and immaculate white tableware, and ornate overhanging lamps, which give an intimate feeling, unlike the rest of the resort.
Chef Alan Chan sets his opening salvo down on the white tablecloth: signature apple wood smoked Iberico char sui with a rich honey glaze, some delicate parcels of spinach and mushroom, a steamed bun, blackened with charcoal powder, and full of more barbecued Iberico pork, with a hint of black truffle.
And Yngvar is right. Perhaps because of the use of space, or that, combined with their wholehearted embrace of their location, Capella Hotels guarantee escapism and tranquility. The Opera House time capsule that is the Capella Hanoi. Or the lost-civilization, rain-forest encampment of the Capella Bali. The riverside Capella Bangkok that turns it back on the chaos of Charoen Krung Road. Or here, where, once across the Sentosa Causeway, the hubbub of Singapore CBD feels a million miles away.
Instant holiday mode.
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