This vinyl records cabinet was part of an ensemble of six furniture pieces designed by Singapore architect Tay Kheng Soon (b. 1940) while he was pursuing his Diploma in Architecture at the Singapore Polytechnic between 1958 and 1963. It was a personal project he undertook for the matrimonial home of his wife's cousin, a semi-detached house in the vicinity of East Coast Road.Characterised by rectilinear elements and a minimalist colour scheme, this cabinet demonstrates an exploration of modern and minimal formal language inspired by De Stijl and Bauhaus, seamlessly integrated with design sensibilities rooted in vernacular traditions and materials—such as the use of locally sourced teak. These elements would later shape his vision for an architectural aesthetic suited to the tropics. An interesting aspect of this cabinet is how the top and bottom slats extend past the point where they are joined on both ends, resulting in a modular spatial composition that echoes Dutch designer's Gerrit Rietveld’s Red Blue Chair (1918). It was also designed with efficient, multifunctional storage in mind that would anticipate Tay's high-density, multi-tiered and multifunctional architectural designs. It was used by the family to store their vinyl collection, which spanned genres of Jazz, Classical, Folk and Country from the 1960s to 1970s.
