Mingle with artists at Singapore's eclectic Hotel Vagabond

With its opulent interior and its artists-in-residence programme, Hotel Vagabond is a first in Singapore, a city that is rather conservative and skittish when it comes to hotel concept and design. There are plenty of large luxury hotels in the Lion City's gleaming steel and glass central business district, but the five-star, 42-room Vagabond is located in a still colourful area that has an authentic local feel. The hotel is housed in a restored art-deco shophouse with a seedy history: it has been a brothel, drug den and bike shop. The reborn interior is a mind-bending amalgamation of styles: Moorish North Africa, princely Rajasthan and fin de siècle Paris. Open only a few months, the hotel has already become a place where international and local artists of all genres mingle with arts-loving guests from around the world. The dramatically designed Vagabond Salon is the hotel's all-purpose space for dining, live performances and films. "Art," says Harpreet Bedi, the hotel's chief operating officer (and wife of owner Satinder Garcha), "is in the DNA of this hotel."

When the couple decided they wanted to create the "visually edgiest place in Singapore", they sought out design-world royalty, Jacques Garcia. The French architect has brought his romantic and charmingly excessive vision to the Vagabond, his first project in Asia. At the entrance, two life-size gold elephants (top) flank the lift. A 2,300-kg brass rhinoceros, crafted by Rajasthani armourers, doubles as reception desk. The languorous salon area (below) is a field of rich velvet crimson and mauve textures, punctuated by a half-dozen handcrafted brass banyan trees whose glittering branches appear to grow out of a leopard-patterned carpet. In the filtered light of the glass ceiling sits a large gold relief of a monkey staring out over the salon's hammered brass bar. Video installations on the walls and in the lift seem to wink at passers-by. Are we in Casablanca or Jaipur? Manhattan's Chelsea or a 19th-century Paris salon? Or, as one guest asked, "Are we in a hallucinogenic zoo?"

Depends on whether you're carnivorous or not. Hotel Vagabond's restaurant, 5th Quarter, specialises in nose-to-tail cooking. The charcuterie/grill serves up offal and offcuts prepared using traditional smoking, curing and pickling techniques. The eatery's Italian-Australian chef, Andrew Nocente, admits some of his creations have made diners "flinch … at first". But his duck tartare, salt-and-pepper tripe and pork tail confit have already become local favourites. For those hankering for something more familiar, Nocente also turns out his nonna's home-made pasta every day. As an alternative, he suggests, pay a visit to his favourite nearby snack joint, Swee Choon Tim Sum, a late-night chefs' hangout.

The hotel is hugely popular with the young grandees of Singapore business, who find the edgy design coupled with five-star service a seductive weekend escape from a more strait-laced Singapore. At the nightly "Artist Hour" in the Vagabond Lounge, guests can hobnob with an intriguing collection of visual artists, writers and musicians who are either in residence or drawn to the hotel's bohemian ambience.