Inside a Kempas Road Smart Home
A good smart home shouldn't look like a technology showroom.
You shouldn't walk into the living room and immediately notice sensors, hubs and switches everywhere.
You should notice the home.
For this completed project at Kempas Road, we worked alongside Jason from hifi studio to integrate smart-home technology into a carefully designed interior, while keeping the technology largely in the background.
And after the homeowners had settled in, our team returned to the home for a photoshoot and some system optimisation.
Because installing smart devices is only half the job.
Getting them to behave naturally around the people living there is where a smart home starts becoming genuinely useful.
A Smart Home Should Complement the Interior
One of the easiest mistakes to make when planning a smart home is treating technology and interior design as two separate projects.
The interior designer plans the lighting.
The electrician installs the switches.
The homeowner buys smart devices later.
And suddenly there are multiple apps, mismatched controls and automations fighting with one another.
For this home, the smarter approach was to consider how the technology would actually fit into the finished space.
Working with hifi studio, the home's smart functions were incorporated around the design rather than becoming a visual distraction from it.
The result is a warm, clean interior where smart lighting and automation quietly work in the background.
What Makes This Home Smart?
Instead of focusing on how many devices were installed, it is more useful to look at what those devices actually allow the homeowners to do.
The setup primarily brings together smart-home products from Aqara, Flexify Concept and Wiz. Alongside compatible devices within the wider smart-home ecosystem.
Three parts of the system are particularly important.
1. Presence Becomes the Trigger
Traditional motion sensors are useful, but they have one obvious limitation:
People don't constantly move when they're at home.
You might be sitting at a desk.
Reading. Getting dressed. Or simply standing still.
Modern presence sensors can provide much more useful information for automation by allowing the smart home to understand whether someone is still occupying an area.
In this home, presence detection helps determine when lighting should remain active rather than relying solely on a simple timer.
Why does this matter?
Imagine walking into your wardrobe.
The lights switch on automatically.
You stop moving while deciding what to wear.
With a poorly configured motion automation, the lights could switch off while you're still standing there.
Not exactly the futuristic smart-home experience you paid for.
Proper presence detection allows the automation to behave much more naturally.
2. The Automation Logic Matters Just as Much as the Device
Buying a sensor doesn't automatically make a home intelligent.
The important question is:
What should happen after the sensor detects you?
That is where automation logic comes in.
For example:
IF someone enters the wardrobe
AND presence is detected
THEN switch on the lights.
But a proper automation can go much further.
The behaviour might change depending on:
- whether someone is still in the room
- the time of day
- whether another scene is already active
- how bright the room is
- whether the homeowner is arriving, relaxing or preparing for bed
This is one reason we spend time testing completed smart homes.
A technically working automation isn't necessarily a good automation.
Good automation should feel almost boring.
You walk in.
The right thing happens.
You leave.
The home responds.
No phone required.
3. Different Devices Can Still Work as One Home
One of the interesting parts of this project is that it isn't simply a collection of products from one manufacturer.
The home brings together products across the smart-home ecosystem.
Standards such as Matter, alongside compatible smart-home platforms, are making it increasingly possible for different devices to communicate within the same home.
That matters because homeowners shouldn't necessarily have to choose every single appliance from one brand just to make their home smart.
Lighting may come from one ecosystem.
Sensors from another.
Switches from another.
The important part is making sure they have been selected and configured to work together properly.
This is also why we generally recommend planning the ecosystem first and the individual products second.
Otherwise, it is very easy to end up with five smart devices...
…and five different apps controlling them.
Shop the Kempas Road Smart Home
① Smart Lighting
Create adjustable lighting scenes for everyday activities, entertaining, relaxing and winding down at night.
Seen in this project:
Smart bulbs / connected lighting
Shop:
→ Smart Bulbs
→ Smart Ceiling Lights
→ Smart Lighting
② Presence Detection
Let the home respond based on whether someone is actually occupying a space rather than relying entirely on basic motion detection.
Seen in this project:
Aqara presence sensing
Shop:
→ Aqara Presence Sensors
Optional exact product once confirmed:[Aqara Presence Sensor model]
③ Smart Controls
Physical smart switches and controls give homeowners familiar wall controls while still allowing lighting and scenes to be automated.
Shop:
→ Smart Switches
→ Scene Controllers
④ Smart Home Hub
The hub acts as part of the home's smart ecosystem, allowing compatible sensors, switches and devices to communicate and automate.
Shop:
→ Smart Home Hubs
→ Aqara Hubs
⑤ Matter-Compatible Devices
Matter can help compatible smart-home products from different ecosystems work together more easily.
Shop:
→ Matter Smart Home Devices
The Part You Don't See: Fine-Tuning the Smart Home
Our visit wasn't only about filming the finished project.
We were also there to optimise part of the home's automation.
One of the presence-based lighting behaviours wasn't responding exactly as intended.
And this is an important part of smart-home installation that rarely makes it into glossy project photos.
A smart home exists in the real world.
People stand still. Walk between rooms. Leave doors open. Change routines. Use manual switches. Have guests over.
The automation has to account for all of that.
During the visit, we reviewed three areas:
1. The Trigger
Is the sensor detecting the right event?
2. The Automation Logic
Are the conditions telling the home to respond correctly?
3. The Ecosystem Integration
Are the different devices communicating as expected?
After adjusting the setup and testing the automation again, the lighting responded properly to occupancy.
This is exactly why our work doesn't end the moment the devices are installed.
Smart Homes Work Better When They're Planned Together
Interior design determines how a home looks and feels.
Smart-home planning determines how parts of that home behave.
The best results happen when those conversations aren't happening independently.
For interior designers, that could mean planning for:
- smart switch requirements
- lighting circuits
- sensor placement
- curtain automation
- Wi-Fi coverage
- power points
- hubs and control panels
- future automation requirements
before renovation decisions become difficult or expensive to change.
And for homeowners, it means fewer compromises after moving in.
Planning Your Own Smart Home?
You don't need to know which hub, sensor or switch to buy before speaking to us.
In fact, we'd rather you didn't randomly buy them first.
Bring us your floor plan, renovation ideas and the things you'd like your home to do.
Our team can help you work backwards from there.
Whether you're:
Designing a smart home from scratch,
Choosing the right devices,
Installing an existing setup, or
Improving a smart home that's already completed,
we can help you plan the system around how you actually live.
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Project Credits
Interior Design: Jason, hifi studio
Smart Home Setup: Smart Living Gallery
Project: Kempas Road, Singapore
Media: GAJER LAB