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Nami

Twelve guest rooms in a pre-war shophouse, each a timber box set inside the old walls.

George Town, Penang 鈥?Hospitality 鈥?2025

Nami: timber-lined guest room with linen curtain and a low chair
Fig. 01 鈥?An airwell room in the late afternoon.

01

Two shophouses

Five metres wide, forty-two deep, and a hundred years old.

A shophouse five metres wide and forty-two deep, restored and turned into a small hotel. Nothing new touches the historic masonry: the rooms stand free inside it, lined in timber and lit from the airwell.

Two adjoining shophouses in the heritage core, each with a front block, an open airwell and a rear block. Each guest room is a box of timber standing inside the old masonry: the walls can breathe, and the next restorer can lift the boxes out.

Long sectionStreet01010202030304060708±0.00+4.20 First floor+7.80 Eaves+10.00 RidgeFirst floor0101020203040501010202030408StreetN012510m
Dwg A-301NamiLong section and first floor planScale 1:200Noma / KL01 Street room ×402 Airwell room ×403 Garden room ×404 Airwell, open to the sky05 Bridge06 Reception and lounge07 Breakfast room08 Rear court

02

From the street to the back

A walk of forty-two metres.

0 m01

Weathered timber doors, the old paint showing through, in a plastered masonry wall
Five-foot wayThe covered walk along the street. The old doors are kept, and open onto a dark, cool hall.

9 m02

Lounge corner with timber joinery and a leather chair
Reception and loungeOne long room under the original timber floor, the guest rooms above it.

16 m03

An open courtyard with pale walls, stepping stones and grass under the sky
AirwellOpen to the sky. Rain falls straight into it; every room borrows its light from here.

22 m04

Looking through a timber doorway into a guest room
Airwell roomThe door is the only opening in the box. Everything else is timber.

33 m05

A sculptural stone bath beside a timber wall and a tall window
The bathEach garden room has one, cut from a single block.

← Swipe from the street to the rear court →

03

Twelve rooms, three kinds

Room types

  • A timber-lined guest room with a low bed and a chair by the window

    Street room

    脳4 路 19 m虏

    At the front, over the five-foot way. Tall timber shutters to the street, closed by day.

  • Timber-lined guest room with linen curtain and a low chair

    Airwell room

    脳4 路 16 m虏

    Facing the airwell through louvres. The quietest rooms; rain is the loudest thing you hear.

  • A bed in a timber room, a woven rug on the floor and daylight from the side

    Garden room

    脳4 路 21 m虏

    At the back, over the rear court and its two trees, with a deep stone bath.

04 鈥?Light and material

The airwell is the lamp.

No room has a window to the outside. Light comes from the airwell, through louvres of kapur timber, and changes the colour of the rooms through the day 鈥?grey at nine, gold at five.

  • Kapur timber linings
  • Lime render
  • Relaid terracotta tiles
  • Linen
Warm evening light falling across a wall beside a bed
Fig. 08Five in the afternoon, a garden room.

05

Facts

Project facts

Location
George Town, Penang
Type
Hospitality
Year
2025
Scope
Interior + FF&E
Area
640 m²
Status
Completed
Rooms
12, in three types
Buildings
Two pre-war shophouses
Approach
Reversible: no new fixings into historic walls
Materials
Kapur timber linings, Lime render, Relaid terracotta tiles, Linen