POSKAD: Glen Goei

The Blue Mansion director’s white house.

Glen Goei is one man with many moves. In his 48 years, the film and theatre director has moved house at least 21 times.

His work too has gone places. Forever Fever (1998) enjoyed a worldwide commercial release, a first for a Singapore film. 2009’s The Importance of Being Earnest became a globally celebrated, locally controversial play. And his 1989 turn in David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly in the West End – opposite Anthony Hopkins – garnered an Olivier Awards nod.

Being of multiple places comes naturally to Glen. Born to two generations of property developers – the Goldhill Group – he was raised on “family dinners where the only talk was of property”. It’s little wonder, then, that his previous addresses include: three Cambridge dorms, a Hampstead bedsit, five Hong Kong apartments, and one Primrose Hill house. It was in the last where he stayed for 14 years. Upon returning to Singapore, however, he sold it to finance a different sort of house – The Blue Mansion (2009), the whodunnit that gathered the who’s who of Singapore and Malaysia’s acting worlds.

Glen’s current house, in the Botanical Gardens area, is a coming home in more ways than one. “I grew up on Buckley Road, rising to roosters’ crowing,” he recalls. “Now, the house behind me has seven cockerels, so every morning I hear the same nostalgic sound.”

1965 was the year this house was built, a point not lost on Glen, who studied history. With perfect stage management, he completed the move to this 56,000 square feet property within a day – August 8. So on Glen’s first morning here, he woke not only to roosters crowing, but also to the anniversary of Singapore’s independence.

It’s a place with especial ties to history. This used to be the residence of Lim Kim San, HDB’s first chairman and a formative PAP minister (you wonder about the white colour scheme). The spacious house features the thoughtful details modern HDBs curiously lack. It’s climate-sensitive – foyer walls are fitted with wooden slats that invite both light and air in. Within, you feel perennially surrounded by our tropical garden. The floor-to-ceiling glass doors provide ready views of the fruit trees at hand, whose jackfruits, for instance, go into the house’s curry.

“Nowadays, developers want to maximise square footage and make as much money as possible. But architecture and interior design must create spaces for living, spaces that make us feel human.”

To do just that, Glen brought in art. His collection consists of pieces by Singapore-based, mostly Western-educated artists. One of his favourites is an abstract painting in yellow by Tay Bak Chiang. “Everyone thinks pop art, but it’s actually Chinese ink and brush.” This East-meets-West aesthetic flows through the house. From the outside, it looks Californian, but you enter across a bridge, which by feng shui principle leaves bad luck behind. Glen’s words describe both his place and person: “The mind is Western, yet the gut is Asian.”

He’s still awfully British in some ways, though. After a day’s work – recently after preparations for Into the Woods – Glen reclines in an Eames lounge chair, cigar in one hand, sundowner in the other. Parties here mark seasons: Spring starts with Chinese New Year, Summer has Pink Dot, Autumn the Moon Cake Festival, and Winter Christmas and Glen’s birthday. The best party these four walls have seen? This year’s Chinese New Year, where in true theatrical bent, Glen put his twist on traditional gambling: Drag Jack.

Despite his fabulously propertied past, Glen is hardly proprietorial. “After a while, houses are about the people who live in it, the friends who come by, and the parties you have. I’ve acquired things in my life, and at this stage I only want to give them away.” Peeking into his wardrobe full of suits, you can only pray this is true.

And then, as quickly as he arrived, Glen is in his car, moving off to yet another place.