Several landmarks surrounding the station include KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Tekka Market, and the Land Transport Authority headquarters.

First announced as Kandang Kerbau MRT station in 1996, the construction required the use of metal decks to maintain traffic flow in the area.

Woven Field by Grace Tan features a geometric tessellation of metal plates embedded into the baffle wall above the DTL platforms.

[17][18] A few speculated the skeletons to be massacred victims during the Japanese occupation, or unidentified cadavers from a mortuary given the station's location at the old campus of Kandang Kerbau hospital, or part of a nearby cemetery at Kampung Java.

Hence, the open-face tunnelling method was adopted, with metal decking built over the site that avoided traffic disruption of Bukit Timah Road.

[22] When tunneling between the Little India and Farrer Park stations, the heritage buildings along Race Course Road required protection against ground settlement.

[34] At the DTL station site, a boulder about the size of a double decker bus was also broken into smaller pieces using specialised hydraulic machinery.

Equipment essential for the operations in the CD shelter is mounted on shock absorbers to prevent damage during a bombing.

[46] The DTL station was designed by Architects61, which adopted a flowing fabric theme reminiscent of the Indian sari to reflect the vicinity's heritage.

[51] S. Chandrasekaran's artwork in the NEL station, Memoirs of the Past, consists of several sepia-coloured pieces honouring traditional Indian folk art.

The work includes intricate bronze and granite floor designs and stylized animal paintings on the walls, referencing the area's historical buffalo stables.

Characterised by raw, simplistic lines and exaggerated proportions, his work combines a child-like appeal with stylised abstraction.

[53] Chandrasekaran said he initially proposed a more "abstract and intense" artwork for the station akin to his previous works; however, the "religious undertones or sexual connotations" were deemed unsuitable for a public space.

[54] Grace Tan's Woven Field is a geometric tessellation of metal plates embedded into the station's aluminium baffle wall above the DTL platforms.

[48] Triangular motifs within the work produce more complex imagery, including diamonds, butterflies, fish, and eight-petalled lotus, while blending with the station design "to form a single entity", according to Tan.

[51][55] The flowing white baffle panels of the station's architecture induced Tan to think of vertical yarns on sari weavers' looms.