Old Chang Kee Launches First Flagship Store in London

You can now bite into Singapore’s signature golden brown curry puff at Old Chang Kee’s London flagship store.

Making its debut on June 2, this is Old Chang Kee’s first foray into the international market. As one of Singapore’s oldest local brands bringing a classic taste of Singapore, three things were key to the design brief of its shopfront. Its aesthetic set up must reflect its brand image back home. It must also be nuanced with the Singapore flavour. It must simultaneously relate to its global site and context.

Coming onboard to formulate the conceptual design framework of this flagship, DP International (UK) applied a global but local approach. 60 years in the making since its first store on Mackenzie Road, the key design challenge for the team is to adapt the rich Peranakan culture that has infused with the familiar local Singapore coffee shop flavour. This ensures better communication of the brand to its customers in London. By distilling the key essence of the Old Chang Kee’s heritage brand story and design language, the design team carefully calibrated it to fit the London context. Through careful appropriation and visioning, this work allowed the subsequent designers to deliver the successful outlet that looks truly remarkable while fully contextualised to a very central part of touristy London.

The final design output achieves global appeal while standing proudly Singapore. This presents itself through the quaint Singapore coffee-shop aesthetics and pastel yellow façade, which aligns the flagship store with its brand image.