Hotel Mono is a striking new landmark in the historic Chinatown area in Singapore, the result of an extensive refurbishment of six early-1900s heritage shop buildings. The project transformed a once squalid budget hotel into a chic haven of 46 rooms which radiates a minimalist, yet assertive design language. It does not conform to the expectations of what hotels should look like. For this project, the designer had to contend with the challenges of limited time and budget, and had to work within the inherent restrictions of the existing retail architecture, room sizes, and poor site conditions.