About Pendora
The studio and how it came to be
Pendora began with a single project on Lebuh Armenian — a narrow mid-century shophouse whose owner wanted to understand what was worth preserving before anything was touched. The work that followed was more careful than most interior commissions: slow, note-taking visits; long conversations with a tile restorer from Ayer Itam; a written report that the owner still has pinned to a wall in the property.
That first project shaped everything about how Pendora works. The studio has never approached a heritage shophouse as a renovation brief in the ordinary sense. The question is always what is already there — what the building holds in its tilework, its air well proportions, its original timber stairs — and how an interior plan can be built around that rather than across it.
Pendora is based on Lebuh Pantai in George Town, within walking distance of most of the properties it works with. The studio's reach is intentionally local. George Town's heritage shophouses are specific objects — Peranakan, Straits Chinese, colonial British, sometimes all three — and reading them well requires familiarity with the area, its trades, and its regulatory context.
The studio does not take on large-scale commercial fitouts or residential new-builds. The focus is narrow: heritage shophouse interiors, in George Town and the immediate vicinity of Penang island. That focus allows a depth of practice that broader studios rarely develop.
Studio focus
- Heritage shophouse interiors only
- George Town and Penang island
- Written documentation on every engagement
- Working relationships with specialist trades
- No financial stake in contractors or suppliers
The people
Who works at Pendora
Siew Ling Tan
Studio Principal
Siew Ling has worked with heritage shophouses in George Town since 2011, developing the studio's written documentation approach and its network of specialist restoration trades.
Radzwan Ahmad
Interior Documentation
Radzwan produces the studio's measured drawings and 3D views, with a particular interest in how original joinery elements can be integrated into contemporary spatial planning.
Yi Ching Loh
Site Coordination
Yi Ching manages on-site coordination, maintaining the written progress logs and liaising between owners and the specialist trades throughout the build period.
How we work
Standards that shape every engagement
Written deliverables
Every Pendora engagement produces a written record. No verbal briefings without a follow-up document. Owners can share, archive, and refer back to everything the studio produces.
Independence from trades
Pendora receives no referral fees or commissions from contractors, suppliers, or specialist trades. Recommendations are made on the basis of quality and fit for the specific property.
Paced timelines
Heritage work does not respond well to arbitrary deadlines. Pendora agrees realistic project timelines with each owner at the outset and communicates any changes clearly and in advance.
Owner confidentiality
Property details, photographs, and plans are not shared beyond the immediate project team without explicit owner agreement. Client information is handled with discretion throughout.
Scope clarity
Pendora is clear about what falls within the scope of interior design practice and what does not. Where a project requires a registered architect or structural engineer, that is stated directly and early.
Heritage zone awareness
The studio is familiar with the UNESCO World Heritage Site buffer zone conditions in George Town and can help owners understand the design implications before works begin.
Studio expertise
Heritage shophouses in George Town represent a specific and well-documented architectural tradition. The Straits Chinese — Peranakan — shophouse developed over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, absorbing Hokkien, Malay, and British colonial influences into a building form that is remarkably consistent across the northern Malay states while also being highly particular to each street, each row, each individual lot.
Interior work in these buildings requires a reading of that particularity. The tilework on Lebuh Armenien differs from the tilework on Jalan Pintal Tali. The air well proportions on a pre-war five-foot-way shophouse on Lebuh Pantai carry different spatial implications from those on a post-war infill. Pendora's engagement with these buildings begins with that kind of close reading — understanding what each property holds before making any recommendations about what it might become.
The studio's documentation practice draws on measured survey, photographic record, and written material analysis. The output is a document that an owner, a contractor, or a future caretaker of the property can refer to. It does not belong to Pendora. It belongs to the building.
On-site coordination in heritage work requires relationships with trades that are difficult to find through standard sourcing channels. Lime plasterers who understand the behaviour of traditional render in Penang's humidity. Tile restorers who can source matching encaustic stock for repairs without visual disruption. Timber joiners who know the difference between a replacement that looks right and one that actually is. These relationships take time to build, and Pendora has built them through sustained practice in the same neighbourhood.
Work with Pendora
A conversation about your shophouse is always a good place to begin.
Whether you are at the stage of assessment or already thinking about documentation and trades, Pendora is willing to talk through what makes sense for your property.
Begin an Enquiry