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“Viewing Design As A Collaborative Journey”

To me, the concept of "home" extends far beyond mere physical structures. It represents a sanctuary where individuals can seek solace and witness their lifestyles undergo transformation.

DOTM JUNE - “Behind the Professionalism”

I am deeply honoured and overjoyed to receive this nomination once again. It is truly rewarding considering the immense competition within the industry. 

Interview with Kelvin Cai: “Meet A Humble Designer”

A home is a lot like a fingerprint - there are no two alike. Each and every one is unique to their owners even within family. 

Interview with Pearlin Soh: Essence of you

You got a new home, and you want it to be uniquely yours. Your hand reaches for a magazine for inspiration, when, out of the blue, SMACK!

Interview with Carmen Tang: Anything but mediocre

&nbsp; More is less. Or is it less is more? Or just more or less? Sometimes, too many things and thoughts get in the way of actually getting things done. However, you if want someone who&rsquo;s laser-focused about what&rsquo;s important and getting it done, See Wee&rsquo;s your guy. See Wee is the Design Director of Wee Studio, and it was founded in 2012. A true-blue interior designer from the very beginning, he received his degree training from Nanyang Academics of Fine Arts (NAFA).&nbsp;&nbsp;Being a founder and director, it was hard to reach him but, fortunately, he left his office window open. So, we let ourselves in and wrangled an interview out of him. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1678165033685-Article85-1.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> What was it that got you into interior design? My interest in tools-making and hands-on activities was piqued through lion dancing, which I participated in since young from watching seasoned performers do their act during Chinese New Year celebrations.&nbsp; Wow, really? Lion dance? Yeah, we&rsquo;ve been at it for close to 30 years now. I started out young. It was through lion dance that I had the opportunity of prop-making. I&rsquo;d say that ever since, I&rsquo;ve always had an interest in the technical and design aspect of things. After high school, I chose to go into the interior design course which would allow me to pursue this interest. I find lots of satisfaction with completing end-products and spatial experiments in this line of work.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1678165074178-Article85-2.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> Safe to say that it&rsquo;s had a big impact your life. I would say that, partly, this has helped to streamline my thought process &ndash; the thought process of design and prop-making are similar, and so is the satisfaction that comes with a job well done. It was really what got me started down the path to becoming an interior designer. What were some of the challenges of starting up your own business? When I started out, it was a unique situation as there weren&rsquo;t many young designers who had their own practice. Many relied heavily on connections and word of mouth to reach out. So, for us young designers, we used social media &ndash; which was relatively new at that time &ndash; to showcase our profile. I was surprised at the positive responses we received. How have you grown? In the past, I had my much-respected mentors who &ldquo;tekan&rdquo; trained me, old-school style &ndash; very army-like. They used to throw us into the sea, let you figure things out by yourself, and then they provide feedback. They drilled me a lot; do it a hundred &ndash; no, a thousand times. That said, I&rsquo;m pretty glad I survived this. Hand-sketching was another thing that was prevalent. Every day, even today, I&rsquo;m sketching daily &ndash; it is part of my thought process. If you ask juniors to do the same, they&rsquo;ll show you a digital sketch instead. Their way of expressing things are different these days. The old-school style really helped in my training.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1678165105733-Article85-3.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> Who are some people that you look up to &ndash; your heroes? Jean-Marie Massaud and Mies Van de Rohe. Their design directions inspire me &ndash; the way they are minimalist in their approach. I lean towards that. I like clean cut, uncluttered designs.&nbsp; What about your first experience doing interior design? Before National Service enlistment, I spent half a year as an exhibition designer. It was my foundational training. I was learning the ropes from very experienced professionals.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1678165124729-Article85-4.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">&nbsp;What would you say is your most memorable work? I would say my own apartment which I&rsquo;ve been living in for some time now. It&rsquo;s experimental and unconventional. There are some things that has been in the back of my mind which I wanted to try but couldn&rsquo;t because of practical reasons and such.&nbsp; One of the things we experimented with, was mounting a mirrored ceiling that weighed at least 300kg. It was a huge liability &ndash; I wouldn&rsquo;t be able to let my end user shoulder the responsibility without scheduled routine checks. Design, in most cases, must solve basic design challenges. For example, my bathroom basin mixer, instead of being mounted on the tabletop or basin, was mounted from the ceiling. For others, they&rsquo;ll worry about knocking their heads trying to wash their face in that sort of sink. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1678165144080-Article85-5.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> What&rsquo;s your design philosophy? Unique-selling Point (USP) and Keep It Simple and Straightforward (KISS). With USP, I&rsquo;m thinking about how jobs often end up being a problem-solution type project &ndash; you&rsquo;ve got a problem, here&rsquo;s how we solve it. Bear it in mind that it is equally important to have positive talking points in a project. For example, we were working on an F&amp;B project in a shophouse. Most shop-house will have airwells in the centre of the house, but this one didn&rsquo;t. What we did was to put a light box that was flush with the ceiling to create an &ldquo;airwell&rdquo; effect. It really stood out and the shop owner would often invite customers to have all day dining under the &ldquo;natural skylight&rdquo;.&nbsp; On the flipside, if you have too many USPs, you lose the &ldquo;wow&rdquo; factor.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For KISS, sometimes common sense isn&rsquo;t so common. If you think too deeply about everything, you lose focus. Keep it simple. Focus! It&rsquo;s a simple strategy to tackle design problems. You may lose sight of the overall theme if you keep focusing on the small things.&nbsp; Where do your ideas come from?&nbsp; One of our approaches is based on site observation. At this point, it&rsquo;s second nature, instinctual for us. It helps us understand the contextual requirements of each project. Other times, it&rsquo;s right from the design briefs when we meet our clients and vibe off each other. Or it can be from a photograph, a certain mood, a certain colour theme. There is no hard and fast rules on this one.&nbsp; What&rsquo;s your advice for up-and-coming interior designers? Have passion. It can be challenging in this career. You must have an eagerness to make your way through and see the end-product. Posted on 3 March 2023 Kenny Tan,SIXiDES Editorial Team&nbsp;

More is less. Or is it less is more? Or just more or less? Sometimes, too many things and thoughts get in the way of actually getting things done. However, you if want someone who’s laser-focused about what’s important and getting it done, See Wee’s your guy.

Interview with See Wee: Keeping it Simple

It’s easy to get lost in the glitz and glamour of what others have. So much so that it usually takes something, or someone, to get you find out who you really are and what you really want. For property owners, that someone might be Leon Luo.

Interview with Leon Luo: Being authentic

When it comes to show rooms, it&rsquo;s more than a pretty face. It&rsquo;s a pretty face with a deep and resonant story to tell. A story that speaks to the soul. And that it takes a special storyteller to bring out that tale. And that person is Hilary Loh. Co-founder of 2nd Edition, Hilary began life as an architectural assistant, but her love for the minute details saw her make the jump from that career into interior designing. And since then, she&rsquo;s just been sweeping up accolades after accolades.So many that they would require their own article, but some of them include the Singapore Good Design Award 2022, winner of the Taiwan Interior New Talent Award (TITAN) 2021, and the Luminary Award for Best in Exhibition Design at Singapore Interior Design Awards (SIDA) 2020. She also served as one of SIDA 2022&rsquo;s Youth judges. We had to send in a team to encircle and trap her just to get an interview with her. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1671758709634-2nd+Edition+-+Ki+Residences+-+19.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Photo: Ki Residences Every artist has their humble beginnings. What was yours? What got you into interior design? I&rsquo;ve always been fascinated by the composition of objects in shapes, colour and texture since I was young. I grew up in Ipoh, a town in West Malaysia, and left for Singapore at 18 to continue my tertiary education at Singapore Polytechnic. After that, I stuck around here and I moved between architectural firms for 10 years as an architectural assistant. I detoured from that path to follow my inner voice to follow my passion &ndash; interior design. I really like to examine things in a micro way, so I thought interior design was a good fit. It was then that I got recommended to Park of Park + Associates Architectural Firm (we would eventually form 2nd Edition in 2005). He was looking for someone to look at his project and I suspect that he didn&rsquo;t know that I had, at the time, zero experience in interior design. So he asked me to just go for it and I started work with one of his clients, a developer. That&rsquo;s how I started on my first show flat and I never turned back. I figured things out along the way and the client had trusted me to get the job done. That&rsquo;s how I got started. Even to this day, show flats are still exciting; there&rsquo;s always something new. It&rsquo;s quite different from doing residential or commercial work. It&rsquo;s fun to create. Show flats are a lot like staging; creating a story. That&rsquo;s what makes it exciting. It never gets tiring. The journey from founding a boutique studio, organically growing it for 17 years, and getting recognized through accolades and portfolios, validates my continuing balance of authenticity, style, and functionality in design statements.&nbsp;If you were to redo your life, would you skip interior design altogether? Yeah, I think so. I never tire of what I do. When you see a space, how do you design and compose it? When you can&rsquo;t work it out, it weighs you down, but once you get it, the satisfaction is amazing. Usually the solution is all very simple, not complicated. Good design is all about simplicity and being authentic. That keeps me going. Just like writing, you&rsquo;ll get to a point and you go, &ldquo;Yes!&rdquo;. With writing, there&rsquo;s no true satisfaction &ndash; just constant self-criticism. Then you and I have something in common (laughs).&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1671758784897-2nd+Edition+-+3+Orchard+by+the+Park+-+26-min.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Photo: 3 Orchard by the Park Who is your inspiration in interior design? Sue Carr. She&rsquo;s a co-founder of Carr Design Group based in Melbourne, Australia. A client paired us up with her company as their local build partner for a local project. The longer I worked with them, the more I was sure that I wanted to adopt her as my role model. She&rsquo;s in her 70s but her work remains consistent. Quiet and strong. The lines in her work look so simple but so hard to achieve. I follow their Instagram and every time I look at their new posts, they just strike me speechless. She&rsquo;s been running the business for over 50 years so, in comparison, we&rsquo;re still very young (laughs). That&rsquo;s one way to make ourselves feel young for much longer. Yeah! And we shouldn&rsquo;t complain about being tired! But seriously, for her to still have that energy to continue to tirelessly do what she does? You want to know why. That&rsquo;s why I look up to her. Another inspiration is Patricia Urquiola, a Spanish architect, industrial designer and art director. She designs quirky pieces. She&rsquo;s basically the complete opposite of Sue. She&rsquo;s a typical Spaniard that celebrates life with colours and approaching work with a sense of humour. I think we all need that in life (laughs). How has she influenced your work? It depends on the work. With show flats, we role-play; we have scripts. Different scripts work with different people. Roleplay? Scripts? Tell me more! When designing a sales gallery and show flats , you&rsquo;ve got to create a story&hellip; a script. Think of contexts, experiences and audiences. In that way, that makes the job of designing a show flat meaningful and exciting. So you&rsquo;ve been talking a lot about show flats. Do you do any residential work? Only 10% are residential projects for end users and 90% are project development, sales gallery and show flats.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1671759000915-2nd+Edition+-+MORI+Showflat+-+33.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Photo: MORl Showflat Every artist has their proudest work. What would you say yours is? Presently, that would be MORI. Mori brings you on a journey through two show units which are presented in contrasting light and dark themes, centred around the main philosophy of Wabi-Sabi. The light unit represents a home in its most natural and authentic state, designed to reflect a love of handmade quality , with clay tiles, sandy textured paint, and terracotta tones. The dark unit embodies the art of finding beauty in imperfections and the natural cycle of growth and decay of materials over time. The scheme is a darker, more rugged and textured finish, with selections of burnt wood and tarnished metal to represent the timelessness and fortitude of such materials. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1671759029376-2nd+Edition+-+MORI+Showflat+-+28.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Photo: MORl Showflat What guides your work? What would you say your design philosophy is? Stay true to my values, being sincere with emphasis to create unique and distinctive solutions organically. Projects should maintain a balance of authenticity, style and functionality with subtlety and boldness whilst preserving any essence of discovered beauty and purity. It is said that no idea ever comes from a vacuum. What inspires your work? Where do your ideas come from? By being a good listener to the design brief and react instinctively, be open minded, and contextual. I like to approach things organically. First instincts, impressions, or ideas are always the best. And that&rsquo;s where we begin, fine tuning it along the way. Having to force an idea onto a project often ends badly. What is one advice you&rsquo;d like to give up and coming interior designers? Be unwavering, unrestrained, unconventional, and unconditional. Posted on 23 December 2022 Kenny Tan,SIXiDES Editorial Team

When it comes to show rooms, it’s more than a pretty face. It’s a pretty face with a deep and resonant story to tell. A story that speaks to the soul. And that it takes a special storyteller to bring out that tale. And that person is Hilary Loh.

Interview with Hilary Loh: More than just a show

It takes a special kind of person to just roll with it when things go sour. With Dennis Cheok, when life gives him lemons, he doesn’t just make lemonade; he turns it into an Avant Garde sculpture with a story to tell.

Interview with Dennis Cheok: A Series of Serendipitous Circumstances & Sweat

Some who become interior designers are in it for the money. Others because their parents told them to. And then you have the passion-driven ones; totally and madly in love with design, taking up impossible jobs for the love of it. Jackie Lai is one such person. Founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/jia-studios"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/jia-studios">JIA Studios</a>, a multidisciplinary design studio in Singapore with projects in multiple nations. However, that&rsquo;s not all. His accolades and responsibilities are myriad; he&rsquo;s got awards from all around the world &ndash; Germany, Italy, Taiwan, and, of course, Singapore &ndash; AND is a council member of both Society of Interior Designers Singapore (SIDS) and Singapore Interior Designer Accreditation Council (SIDAC). A true believer in the future, he is an Adjunct Lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic to train up and coming interior designers. There&rsquo;s really no space here for everything else about him &ndash; there&rsquo;s just too much. And everyone wants a piece of him. Which is why we drove up to him in a van and dragged him in to force an interview out of him before somebody else did. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1667523496181-1667523496181.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"> Every artist has their humble beginnings. What was yours? What got you into interior design? Who is or was your inspiration in interior design?My initial education wasn&rsquo;t interior design but in Marine Engineering from Singapore Polytechnic. It was through the module called Naval Architecture in the course that I took interest in design and architecture. What made ID stand out in the course? What exactly was it that you liked?From an engineer&rsquo;s point of view, a lot of things have to do with mathematical solutions, forces, thermodynamics... that sort of thing. But with naval architecture, it was all about playing with spaces and structures that conforms well to the shape of a ship. It was different from the usual engineering stuff which I ended up liking. From there, I ended up chasing the dream of being an interior designer instead of continuing with engineering. How did you end up in engineering in the first place?My family business was in the marine industry; enrolling in Marine Engineering was a natural progression for me. However, it didn&rsquo;t hold my interest and I decided to pursue design instead. What then?I applied for further studies in architecture at universities in Australia, namely University of Canberra and Curtin University. I passed their entry test and got offers to study. Unfortunately, I couldn&#39;t afford to study overseas at that time. So I took up an internship at an interior design firm that allowed me to study interior design part-time. I ended up doing it locally at Lasalle College of the Arts to pursue my passion and got my diploma in interior design. Every designer starts somewhere. What was your first hands-on interior design work?The firm that I worked at got a job to design an exhibition booth for a company that was going to be at the Singapore Expo. I was selected to curate the exhibition space despite there being other capable designers around. It was pretty exciting. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1667523496204-1667523496204.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"> Do you have an interior design project that you&rsquo;re proud of?I would say the Marina One Residences. That one won a lot of awards. This project was unique because the owner came up with the concept: living in the future domain. I wasn&rsquo;t the first choice; I was the fourth. The owner had met three other interior designers before me. Apparently the previous the first three refused to take up the project because it was too challenging and there weren&rsquo;t many craftsmen locally who could fulfil the task. However, I took up the project without a second thought.I spent a lot of time doing research, getting inspiration for the perfect form, and interviewing craftsmen and contractors to do it. &nbsp;Not many were willing to take up the job. The standard I had set seemed impossible to them. Needless to say, I did find someone, and the residence is now one of my proudest achievements. Who do you look up to?I look upon Zaha Hadid for her forward-looking designs. The curves in her work are particularly sexy and served as the inspiration for my Marina One Residence project. I also aspire to be like my teacher and mentor &ndash; Peter Tay. He taught me at La Salle and later, after I graduated, became Designer of the Year 2014 at the President&rsquo;s Design Award. I remember being the only one to graduate from his course because it was too tough &ndash; the course catered to those who wanted to study while working but it proved to be too difficult for many to juggle. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1667523496222-1667523496222.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"> What&rsquo;s your design philosophy?A design philosophy defines what a design should be able to achieve or accomplish, design should be able to feel and enhance human experience or even evoke human emotions. I hope to inspire and offer great design that can impact the environment and the community. What inspires your work? Where do your ideas come from?They come from everywhere. It&rsquo;s an occupational hazard. As an interior designer, I think I&rsquo;m more observant than the usual person. I observe everything in day-to-day life and the environment for inspiration. Nature is a great source of it. Even from a young age I&rsquo;ve been drawn to great designs surrounding us. Beautiful things inspire me. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1667523496275-1667523496275.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"> What is one advice you&rsquo;d like to give up and coming interior designers?Designing an indoor environment is a huge responsibility for an interior designer.An interior designer must plan, research, coordinate, and manage these projects to obtain an adequately healthy and aesthetically pleasing environment for the people who use the space.Passion is what would keep your fire going in this pursuit of excellence, stay hungry for knowledge and stay passionate!&nbsp;Posted on 31 October 2022&nbsp;Kenny Tan,&nbsp;SIXiDES Editorial Team

Some who become interior designers are in it for the money. Others because their parents told them to. And then you have the passion-driven ones; totally and madly in love with design, taking up impossible jobs for the love of it. Jackie Lai is one such person.

Interview with Jackie Lai: Passion for Design and the Future

Old habits die hard, they say. But did you know that, with just a few design tweaks to the home, you could change your entire lifestyle? You didn&rsquo;t? Then you should really talk to Averse on how you might redesign your life. Meet Averse Yau: Founder, Director, and Creative Director of A Blue Cube Design Pty. Ltd. (or just ABCD). Beginning his career as a sales designer for an interior design firm before deciding that he wanted to do more &ndash; he wanted to change lives for the better. When no one was looking, we quietly snatched him away for an interview.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1664435151276-1664435151276.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/a-blue-cube-design">A Blue Cube Design&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;Where did you start? How did you get into interior design?I came to Singapore looking to get into sales 13 years ago. My first job here just happened to be for an interior design firm and I took on the position of, what I termed, a sales designer &ndash; I didn&rsquo;t see myself as an interior designer then. What I did then was sell renovation packages. What changed?Doing sales was like selling a set meal. Copy and paste. Doing the same thing. I didn&rsquo;t think my career was progressing. However, I met this client, &shy;and he really inspired me to change &ndash; he had put a lot of trust in me. It was through our relationship, where he treated me more as a friend than a contractor, that I truly appreciated the value of a dream home designer. So, I worked towards becoming one.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1664435151300-1664435151300.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/a-blue-cube-design" id="isPasted" style='box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit; user-select: auto; font-family: "Work Sans"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>A Blue Cube Design</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;What was the journey to becoming an interior designer like for you?Well, I was inspired to learn a lot more about design so, on my own time, I researched things like materials, design language, and ways that design can improve households and change lives. What would you say your proudest work is?My two work studios. Singapore Interior Design Society (SIDS) awarded both as the Best Workspace Award in 2021 and 2022. Is there a part of the studios you particularly love?Pretty much all of it. It was designed by my team and me. One was designed when it was just me and the other when I had expanded to a three-man team. I&rsquo;m really proud of them because, for the first one, I took my time designing it &ndash; a few months. For the second, I knew what I wanted for it from my experience with the first one but it still took me a year to plan and come up with it. Being an interior designer, we usually design to homeowner requirements, working towards functionality and budgets, which can be tedious. The budget and quality don&rsquo;t usually meet. For myself, I understand the function and quality of all the materials, so it was easy to work out the budget for everything. Because of that, I can get materials that I want, understanding their pros and cons. For example, marble is porous and typically not a good material for tabletops. Understanding that I still pushed to use it for my own purpose. While I can&rsquo;t promise my clients that they won&rsquo;t damage marble, I&rsquo;m willing to install &ndash; anything that happens to it is on me. I&rsquo;m responsible for my own design, so I&rsquo;ve got free reign over it.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1664435151320-1664435151320.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/a-blue-cube-design" id="isPasted" style='box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit; user-select: auto; font-family: "Work Sans"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>A Blue Cube Design</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;How did you end up starting your own outf<span id="isPasted" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 500; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;">it?I never thought about starting my studio until Covid-19. The firm that I was working at didn&rsquo;t survive the pandemic. So I got together with some friends and, after some discussion, we started ABCD. What guides your work? What would you say your design philosophy is?Designing a home is like designing a lifestyle for an individual or family. Good design determines a good lifestyle, while bad design does the opposite. Therefore, understanding a homeowner and their family&rsquo;s lifestyle, and their good and bad habits, is very important to designing a home. I&rsquo;ve had the pleasure of knowing housewives who&rsquo;ve never cooked until they&rsquo;ve got a very nice kitchen, children who would never come home early now willingly do so because it&rsquo;s more comfy, and a couple who loves travelling but now can&rsquo;t wait to come home every time they&rsquo;re away. I believe in this thing called art therapy. I had a late friend who found peace through performance arts despite having to fight cancer. Art can heal emotions. That&rsquo;s why design is really important because good art can help people. What inspires your work? Is there a favourite place you like to go to for inspiration?Everywhere. I kind of have a poor work-life balance. The two have merged so well that I don&rsquo;t realise whether I&rsquo;m living or working. The moment I step out of my room, office or bedroom, I will just absorb things all around it. So I like travelling. I always find that Mother Earth is the best designer in the world. There&rsquo;s inspiration in things like the unlikely colour combination such as chicken feathers where you get brown and blue together. In marble, you can book-match (matching grains so that both sides mirror each other) them and see things like cow heads. After I&rsquo;ve stored all this inspiration in my head, I use it in my work. That&rsquo;s not to say that I don&rsquo;t get inspired by other designers too!&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1664435151343-1664435151343.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/a-blue-cube-design" id="isPasted" style='box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit; user-select: auto; font-family: "Work Sans"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>A Blue Cube Design</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;What is your advice for up-and-coming interior designers?Interior design has changed. Consumers are more knowledgeable and tend to surf the internet to get information and ideas. Do not be afraid of what&rsquo;s coming next. And do not avoid doing something because you&rsquo;re afraid of making mistakes. Bravely embrace your mistakes, learn to admit it, understand it, fix it, and then improve it.&nbsp;Posted on 30th September 2022Kenny Tan,&nbsp;SIXiDES Editorial Team

Old habits die hard, they say. But did you know that, with just a few design tweaks to the home, you could change your entire lifestyle? You didn’t? Then you should really talk to Averse on how you might redesign your life.

Interview with Averse Yau: Designing Therapeutic Homes

You thought about it. Then thought about it again. And again. You can&rsquo;t quite get rid of the bothersome feeling that something&rsquo;s missing&hellip; missing a little bit of you. Then you should book an appointment with Kelvin, a professional small details expert on making places feel like&hellip; you. Director and founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/the-local-project"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/the-local-project">The Local Project</a>, he and his team have been around the block for two years. Highly experienced, he&rsquo;s sensitive to the needs of the owner and ensures that, in every job, he&rsquo;s mindful of making homeowners&#39; homes distinctively their own and not designed like cookie-cutter ones. To learn more about what makes Kelvin tick, we kidnapped him (temporarily!) for an interview.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1661230198527-1661230198527.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">&nbsp;Who are you and what&rsquo;s your position in The Local Project?&nbsp;I am the founder as well as the director of the,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/the-local-project"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/the-local-project">The Local Project</a>.I oversee every running project and day to day operations.&nbsp;Every artist has their humble beginnings. What was yours? What got you into interior design? Who is or was your inspiration in interior design?&nbsp;I have always been drawn to designing and art since young.Unfortunately, I wasn&rsquo;t able to enrol into an art school as my family couldn&rsquo;t support the school fees financially.&nbsp;Did you always know that you were going into interior design?&nbsp;Not at all! In fact, I studied IT engineering.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1661230198561-1661230198560.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">&nbsp;So what happened after that?&nbsp;I was actively looking for a job to financially support myself once I completed NS and that&rsquo;s when I came across a lucrative job where you could earn up to $8000 a month at an interior design firm.&nbsp;That was quite the promise! Did you get the job AND that salary?&nbsp;Definitely, but I only managed to earn $800 per month instead of the lucrative deal which was posted. (Laughs)&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1661230198592-1661230198592.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">&nbsp;How did you feel about that?&nbsp;Well, it wasn&rsquo;t a problem for me back then as I was inexperienced.This job opportunity was a big learning curve for me as I was required to physically be on site every day. That allowed me to&nbsp;build a rapport with the contractors as well as subcontractors. This made it easy for me to ask them a lot of things that I was unsure about and curious about.&nbsp;I definitely learned a lot right from them.&nbsp;How did you transition from being employed to being an employer? What was the drive?&nbsp;It was the passion I&rsquo;ve always had for designing and art. (Laughs)Being able to follow my dreams and starting entrepreneurship is super exciting for me as&nbsp;I can shape my company to be something I&rsquo;ll be proud of. I may even pass my legacy on to my children someday.&nbsp;Starting a business is a big step. Was there any hesitation?&nbsp;Not at all as I always knew what I wanted.&nbsp;What was your first ID job? What was it like?&nbsp;The first was a really memorable&nbsp;bedroom makeover at Mei Hwan terrace.&nbsp;The owner was a pink lover and this was a makeover to turn her entire bedroom into pink.&nbsp;The bed, Study table, and display cabinet were customized to pink. (Laughs)&nbsp;How about the most influential job &ndash; one that changed how you do things?&nbsp;It was to manage an architect&rsquo;s home renovation where the design and drawings were done by the owner himself. The entire renovation process was extremely tedious as every little detail including tile placement had to be exact. From this, I&rsquo;ve learned that no details are too small and this also taught me to be meticulous and detailed orientated to this day.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1661230198614-1661230198614.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">&nbsp;Every artist has their proudest work. What would you say yours is?&nbsp;I always give my best creativity to fit each and every homeowner&rsquo;s requirement as well&nbsp;as their budget. Therefore, every house which I&rsquo;ve designed is my proudest achievement.&nbsp;Kinda like asking you to pick your favourite child?&nbsp;(Laughs) Exactly that.&nbsp;What guides your work? What would you say your design philosophy is?&nbsp;&ldquo;Your home should tell the story of who you are, and be a collection of what you love, brought together under one roof.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s a quote from Nate Berkus that I carry with me all the time. That&rsquo;s why I always ask my clients about their lifestyle, about family preferences, and their hobbies, and try to integrate all that into their home design.&nbsp;How do you conceptualise your design ideas?&nbsp;I insist on being on-site to feel the space out. When I&rsquo;m on site, I&rsquo;d close my eyes to visualise everything around the house, thinking of how the space should look like.It works for me every time. What is one advice you&rsquo;d like to give up and coming interior designers?&nbsp;Treat every house as your masterpiece. Focus on both the little details and big picture to craft cohesive spaces. Posted on 26 August 2022&nbsp;Kenny Tan,&nbsp;SIXiDES Editorial Team

You thought about it. Then thought about it again. And again. You can’t quite get rid of the bothersome feeling that something’s missing… missing a little bit of you. Then you should book an appointment with Kelvin, a professional small details expert on making places feel like… you.

Interview with Kelvin Cai: Making homes that tell the story of you

You&rsquo;ve done your homework. You&rsquo;ve planned your home. But there&rsquo;s this really annoying space you don&rsquo;t know what do to with. Enter Jordan. He eats spaces for breakfast. Jordan Toh, director and founder of Zenith Arc, has been in the business for six years. More if you count from his first ever job when he was 20 where he picked up all the tricks of the ID trade. Whether it&rsquo;s landed, HDB, industrial, or commercial property, trust him to maximise space in ways most don&rsquo;t think of. We grabbed Jordan when he wasn&rsquo;t looking and squeezed an interview out of him. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1659007002253-1659007002252.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/zenith-arc"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/zenith-arc">Zenith Arc</a>&nbsp;How did you get into interior design? Who or what was your inspiration?Basically, it was money-driven. (Laughs) Back then, if you wanted to make money, you&rsquo;d go into property, selling insurance, and dealing in cars. What they had in common in that they&rsquo;re sales driven. Interior design was slightly different but, ultimately, it&rsquo;s sales-driven. I wanted to decide how much I got to earn; I didn&rsquo;t want to be stuck with a fixed salary all my life. It was by chance I got into my first interior design firm and started my on job training with the team involved.&nbsp;You mentioned that ID was kind of like sales but different. How is it different?&nbsp;You see, insurance agents sells policies. Car agents have a physical product, the vehicle. In property, you have a flat or something to sell. However, in ID, there&rsquo;s no physical product. You&rsquo;re selling yourself.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1659007002286-1659007002286.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/zenith-arc" id="isPasted" style='box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit; user-select: auto; font-family: "Work Sans"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>Zenith Arc</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;So there&rsquo;s more flexibility in what you do?I don&rsquo;t think so. It&rsquo;s far more challenging. Interior design isn&rsquo;t a job; it&rsquo;s a profession. You need a lot of technical and material knowledge. You need to know how to do a flat that meets owners&rsquo; tastes. You can&rsquo;t know these things just by reading books or going for courses. It&rsquo;s all about hands-on experience, communication, and getting down into the dirt at the jobsite. It&rsquo;s not even a single transaction; it&rsquo;s a three to four month process. That includes everything from planning to implementation. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1659007002316-1659007002316.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/zenith-arc" id="isPasted" style='box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit; user-select: auto; font-family: "Work Sans"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>Zenith Arc</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;How else is ID different from the other sales-driven fields?The thing with other jobs is that your seniors are the ones that judge your work. But with ID, homeowners look up to you for expertise and advice. When I got my first customer, he was this really well-off guy. A property developer with a Ferrari and all. However, despite him having a better social standing, he still looked up to me for advice.&nbsp; Tell me more about your first job with this property developer. Well, he came to me for a solution to resolve the clutter in the space he was living in. Since he&rsquo;s a property developer, I would eventually end up designing seven other projects for him including places at Caribbean at Keppel Bay and The Sail at Marina Bay.&nbsp;Every artist has their proudest work. What would you say is yours is?It was for the same person. It was a very small place he bought and wanted to rent out. Space was an issue; the potential tenants wanted more. So we resolved it. Increased the space around key rooms. Within a month of completion, he managed to secure a tenancy.&nbsp;What kind of challenges were there?&nbsp;Every project has its issues and hiccups but usually they&rsquo;re not usually an issue. The management and security were quite tight; smack in the middle of the CBD and lots of expatriates there. So we had manage our time well to work within very small time frames we were allowed to work.&nbsp;&nbsp;What guides your work? What&rsquo;s your design philosophy is?&nbsp;Design is largely dependent on client requirements and we work around their requests. But no matter what the design involves, the space should be convenient to use and functional. Home or business, space must be fully utilised.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1659007002344-1659007002344.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/zenith-arc" id="isPasted" style='box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit; user-select: auto; font-family: "Work Sans"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>Zenith Arc</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;No idea ever comes from a vacuum. What inspires you? Where do your ideas come from?Ideas come from my past projects, areas that I&#39;ve visited, or images that I&#39;ve seen across many platforms, like Google and Pinterest. They&rsquo;re products that I can see and envision. They kind of create thoughts and images that blend together in the subconscious mind.&nbsp; &nbsp;What is one advice you&rsquo;d like to give to up and coming interior designers?Interior Design is a profession not just a job. There&rsquo;s a lot of material, technical, construction, coordination and presentation knowledge involved. There will never be a single project without hiccups and issues. One must be ready to accept challenges before they step in as interior designers because clients will be entrusting them with their life savings to fulfil their dream space.&nbsp; Posted on 29 July 2022&nbsp;Kenny Tan,&nbsp;SIXiDES Editorial Team

You’ve done your homework. You’ve planned your home. But there’s this really annoying space you don’t know what do to with. Enter Jordan.

Interview with Jordan: Envisioning fully utilised spaces

Minimalist. Industrial. Modern. Scandinavian. With all those styles, and more, how does one choose how to design their home? Or maybe, just maybe, that&rsquo;s the wrong question to ask. It should all begin with concept first, according to Ebenezer Yoon. Founder and Creative Director of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/mynmyn-studio"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/mynmyn-studio">MynMyn Studio</a>&nbsp;(pronounced &ldquo;mine-mine&rdquo;), Ebenezer has had eight years of being an interior designer, three of which under his own design firm. A graduate of <span id="isPasted" style='color: rgb(112, 112, 112); font-family: "Work Sans"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;'>Temasek Polytechnic, he has since been helping folks, both homeowners and business owners, find concepts unique to themselves instead of just picking styles off the shelf. We pounced on Ebenezer while he wasn&rsquo;t looking and dragged an interview out of him. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1655986381414-1655986381414.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-11-sophia-residence"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-11-sophia-residence">MynMyn (Sophia Residence)</a><h1> </h1><h1>What got you into interior design?</h1>Interior Design has been my passion since my youth. It started with Habbo* where I crafted spaces and hung out with friends. That led on to me giving Interior Design a try. I found that I really liked it. The more I explored, the more I fell in love with it &ndash; the whole idea of something coming out of seemingly nothing. The most fruitful thing about it is seeing homeowners or businessowners use my creations and giving good feedback. Gives me a sense that I&rsquo;ve done a good job.&nbsp; *Note: If you&rsquo;re a little older and don&rsquo;t know what Habbo is, think of The Sims. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1655986381443-1655986381443.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-11-sophia-residence"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-11-sophia-residence">MynMyn (Sophia Residence)</a><h1> </h1><h1>So this was kind of a childhood dream then? No struggle to pick a subject after school?</h1>I got pretty good grades back then and could&rsquo;ve gone to the JC or uni route. However, I decided to try something hands-on and went into the design field. Because of my background, things like liking Habbo and all that, I decided to try Interior Design. From there I got to learn a lot about the concepts, materials and all that, which really made me fall in love with what we can do with spaces. My true inspiration came from my poly lecturer, Derek, who was very patient in guiding us. Really good at teaching concepts. For example, when dealing with design concepts, people think of styles: Scandinavian, modern, and contemporary. However, concepts go beyond that. You need to have a big idea. Only then you decide on the style, taking into consideration of space, planning, materials, and user experience. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1655986381478-1655986381478.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-60-dakota-crescent"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-60-dakota-crescent">MynMyn (Dakota Crescent)</a><h1> </h1><h1>What would you say was your first dip into interior design?&nbsp;</h1>During my poly days, I used to tag along with my friend&rsquo;s father who&rsquo;s a contractor. I was merely helping with simple AutoCAD and 3D drawings. As a poly kid, everything was textbook. No real life experience. But tagging along allowed me to see the real world of interior design, from site visits to client meetings. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1655986381507-1655986381507.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-kafe-mode-842g-tampines"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-kafe-mode-842g-tampines">MynMyn (EA Tampines)</a><h1> </h1><h1>What would you say your proudest work is?</h1>I&rsquo;d say an EA (Executive Apartment) HDBs at Tampines, where I had to manage my differing clients&rsquo; expectations. One wanted dark, while one wanted light. And I came up with a proposal which they both loved.&nbsp; <h1>What was the proposal? How did you mesh the two seemingly opposing ideas together?</h1>I gave them something that had a mix of black tones and white ones throughout the house. When they first came to me they showed me photos of rooms that were either VERY black or VERY white. However, after some discussion, I realised that what they&nbsp; ACTUALLY wanted weren&rsquo;t rooms that were exclusively black or white. The one who wanted dark tones didn&rsquo;t mind lighter highlights and the other wanted the reverse of that. When I showed them the concepts, they were quite happy about the results.<h1> </h1><h1>Were you nervous about presenting the ideas?</h1>Not really. I really love to solve problems especially for clients with strong ideas of what they want. It helps to guide the design. It&rsquo;s a lot harder with clients who have no idea what they want &ndash; there&rsquo;s no direction there. Having problems is actually helpful. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1655986381532-1655986381532.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-whisky-rose-104a-bidadari"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-whisky-rose-104a-bidadari">MynMyn (Bidadari Park Drive)</a><h1> </h1><h1>What&rsquo;s your design philosophy?&nbsp;</h1>Always sticking to my principals and offering my true perspective to my clients. If what my client originally wants doesn&rsquo;t make sense, or doesn&rsquo;t suit the style, I&rsquo;ll advise them otherwise and do my part to educate and guide them. <h1>Have there ever been a &ldquo;horrifying&rdquo; faux pas styles proposed by clients?</h1>Quite a few. One I remember was with a close friend. It involved a loose shoe cabinet near the entrance. I told them to get an IKEA one. However, they felt that it was cheap and fragile and proceeded to shop all over the place for an alternative. But, in the end, they still went with my suggestion.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1655986381556-1655986381556.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-whisky-rose-104a-bidadari"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-whisky-rose-104a-bidadari">MynMyn (Bidadari Park Drive)</a><h1> </h1><h1>Do you have any style that you love working with?</h1>I don&rsquo;t have a particular style that I work with, but I believe a good interior reflects the personality of the homeowner or the brand of a business. That&rsquo;s where concepts come in.&nbsp; <h1>How about yourself? What would you go for in your own home?</h1>I don&rsquo;t have a specific style. Like what I&rsquo;ve said before, I&rsquo;m more of a concept person. Generally, I like to design things that are clean, clutter-free, and easy-to-maintain. Those are more functional.&nbsp; <h1>So no specific design style like Scandinavian, minimalist, or modern?</h1>Yeah, that&rsquo;s correct. It&rsquo;s like how a slab of marble as a feature wall in a space is considered luxurious but others might say it&rsquo;s contemporary. However, it really depends on everything else around the space. For us, in some modern settings, we did away with false ceilings and installed track lights instead. Most consider them quite industrial but we managed to make it work in a modern setting. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1655986381576-1655986381576.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit :&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-whisky-rose-104a-bidadari"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/spaces/view/mynmyn-whisky-rose-104a-bidadari">MynMyn (Bidadari Park Drive)</a><h1> </h1><h1>What inspires your work? Where do your ideas come from?</h1>I draw inspiration from everywhere, from my surroundings and from online, such as Pinterest, Behance, and other design-related editorials. Sometimes, I&rsquo;m working on a project and it so happens that I see something relatable when I&rsquo;m travelling or having a stay cay. In those times, I&rsquo;ll take photos or videos so that I can show my team or client. <h1>Do you have a book and collection folder for these ideas?</h1>I do. There are online editorials that I follow, some Behance pages, and things on Pinterest that I&rsquo;ve saved. I&rsquo;ve also got an album with snapshot of things I&rsquo;ve seen or jobs I&rsquo;ve done &ndash; makes it easy to refer back to those things and show them off.&nbsp; <h1>Have you ever had a memorable inspiration, a spark of genius, in the course of your work?</h1>Not really because it&rsquo;s really organic. To paint a scenario, one client wanted to do up the whole bathroom. Wanted to resell it. Concealed shower set, sit down structure in the shower, and all that. I couldn&rsquo;t find a photo to demonstrate that idea. However, it just so happened that during a staycation, the hotel I was at had that exact thing. I videoed the whole thing and sent it to the client. There are so many like these that no moment stands out over the rest. <h1>What is one advice you&rsquo;d like to give new interior designers?</h1>It&rsquo;s a stressful job. You&rsquo;ve got to find the joy in the work you do so that you won&rsquo;t feel like it&rsquo;s work every day.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Posted on 24th June 2022&nbsp;Kenny Tan,&nbsp;SIXiDES Editorial Team

Minimalist. Industrial. Modern. Scandinavian. With all those styles, and more, how does one choose how to design their home? Or maybe, just maybe, that’s the wrong question to ask. It should all begin with concept first, according to Ebenezer Yoon.

Interview with Ebenezer Yoon: Concept first, style later

&nbsp;What do you do when you&rsquo;re trying to have a fresh new take on life but you&rsquo;re too comfortable with the familiar? You call in the cavalry who can remake the familiar into something exciting. You call Melvin Keng. Founding principal architect at Kaizen Architecture, Melvin&rsquo;s been leading this young practice of four folks since 2019 (yes, just prior to Covid-19 lockdowns). He&rsquo;s got 11 years of architecting under his belt, amongst which he has worked for such illustrious companies such as RT+Q Architects Pte Ltd, residential home specialists, under Rene Tan. Kaizen Architecture does everything from Architecture to Interiors to Furniture.Melvin&rsquo;s a busy individual, but we managed to ambush him for this interrogation interview.&nbsp;Every artist has their humble beginnings. What was yours? What got you into architecture?Myself. My parents didn&rsquo;t encourage architecture (laughs). At the time when we were deciding on courses at university, we had a neighbour who was one. Life was hard for him. He worked long hours and didn&rsquo;t get to see much of family. My mom said that shouldn&rsquo;t be the trajectory I should be heading for. My parents wanted me to take up biomedicine or bioscience instead. Most parents did at the time.That said, I applied for architecture as my first choice anyway, against their wishes (laughs), and biomedical/bioscience as my second. I didn&rsquo;t get my first choice, to my parents&rsquo; delight. However, I finally got in after I secretly reapplied for architecture the following year. I don&rsquo;t know if that&rsquo;s considered humble (laughs).&nbsp;What did your parents think?At the end of the day, I think most parents would respect what their children have decided on. But, obviously, mine weren&rsquo;t too pleased. If I had continued on with biosciences, I would probably be in pharmaceutical research by now. And earning more too (laughs). However, I&rsquo;ve always imagined myself to be in design in some way. When I was young, I would draw burning buildings and firemen saving them. I also studied art. I was from Victoria School and took the art elective. When it came to university, there wasn&rsquo;t really a specific design course, but there were two design-related courses; architecture and industrial design.&nbsp;So it all started with drawing buildings on fire?(Laughs) Followed by pursuing art at school.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1653615770842-1653615770842.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit : Khoo Guo Jie (Ally Singapore) Where did you end up studying at?The majority of my education was at the National University of Singapore &ndash; the Architecture School. Then I did a short stint at Melbourne University in an exchange programme. The university has an amazing campus. Super beautiful. At the time, around 2006, I felt that Melbourne was the design capital of the region. It was eye-opening. Every shop there had a concept. There was this brand, Crumpler, and they had shops everywhere but each one was different. One which I stepped into had a carpet of grass throughout the shop. For me, Australia was really cool.&nbsp;Who is or was your inspiration in architecture and interior design?In school, I was still figuring things out, so I didn&rsquo;t really have anyone that I looked up to. Not even historical figures. However, I was very fascinated by Japanese modern contemporary architecture, but that was about it.It was only after I graduated that I got a mentor that I really look up to &ndash; Rene Tan. He was a huge inspiration. We&rsquo;re still friends now even after moving on. I&rsquo;m a big believer in a &ldquo;master and student&rdquo; relationship, especially in architecture, to help build up your skills, mentality, and exposure. He was my historical basis reference point on how architecture can be perceived. It was then that I was inspired by the modern greats like Mies van der Rohe and Richard Meier &ndash; people who gave birth to modernism.&nbsp;Speaking of inspiration, what&rsquo;s the inspiration behind your Instagram layout?We&rsquo;re very fortunate enough to have had someone who&rsquo;s very good at social media. Instagram can be a medium to show nice photos, but it should be a way to tell stories. In our practice, it&rsquo;s not just about good work or design. Can it be expanded beyond the physical space into the digital space? It has to tell a story.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1653615770866-1653615770866.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit : Khoo Guo Jie (Kernel Furniture Showroom) What would you say was your first real foray into architecture?People would naturally say that their first build is their proudest or most important because it&rsquo;s the first one they did. However, to me, the first one I was truly proud of was one I completed in 2016. I had been in the company since 2010, so it took me six years before I found a project that I could really say I was most happy with. It was a bungalow off Holland Road. It was called the House with Shadows.&nbsp;Sounds ominous.It&rsquo;s actually quite poetic. It&rsquo;s a house that&rsquo;s really brought to life when light streams in. You won&rsquo;t miss this house if you Google it up. At the time, the company principal didn&rsquo;t micromanage projects, especially when you&rsquo;re matured enough, so you could express yourself. The House with Shadows project was an expression of who I am as a person and how I approach architecture and materials.<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1653615770895-1653615770895.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit : Kaizen Architecture (Good Chance Popiah)&nbsp;What guides your work? What would you say your design philosophy is? As a practice, Kaizen looks at three aspects.&nbsp; First, we are precedent researchers. We go back and focus on the fundamentals of architecture and design. Scale, proportion, and composition are things that you can&rsquo;t mess with. They are what we fall back on which makes for good use of space and design.&nbsp;Second, with the fundamentals in place, we consider how we can create a different perspective on the common. For example, when we were designing a popiah place, we didn&rsquo;t just create a place that sold popiah. We asked ourselves, &ldquo;Could we make this like a ramen stall in Kyoto?&rdquo; That&rsquo;s not the usual association but it presents interesting alternative results. It&rsquo;s not to say that we&rsquo;re trying to break the norm, but we always thinking about alternatives to familiar things.&nbsp;Lastly, by extension of the previous two points, like our namesake, we practice &ldquo;kaizen&rdquo;: that we&rsquo;re always improving. The word came from Toyota when they were trying to rethink the way their business would run. We adopted the word to mean that we improve how people perceive how they live and see spaces.For any project, we keep these three ideas in mind. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1653615770926-1653615770926.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit : Fabian Ong (Ribbon Apartment)&nbsp;It is said that no idea ever comes from a vacuum. What inspires your work? Where do your ideas come from?Anywhere. However, my most interesting ideas come when I&rsquo;m in the shower. Sometimes we get stuck looking at a problem. That&rsquo;s when I tell my staff that we&rsquo;ll all go back and think about it. For days, we might not get an answer and then oddly, a spark happens when I&rsquo;m showering. That&rsquo;s when something always appears and usually it&rsquo;s the day before a presentation. My poor team, I have to thank them for bearing with my idiosyncrasies because we&rsquo;d be toiling over a project and it&rsquo;d be my last-minute shower-idea that gets selected.&nbsp;Personally, I&rsquo;m very into the culture around us. When I say that, it&rsquo;s not the pretentious thing where you go to museums to enjoy art. I&rsquo;m talking about pop culture. What&rsquo;s happening around us? Can we get inspired by the latest TV show, like Squid Game? People don&rsquo;t think about it that way. Sometimes, when you see things, it gets digested and comes out in a different way, so I don&rsquo;t limit myself to where I get my inspiration from. Just by living, you&rsquo;ll experience many things. They may seem very superficial, but they can turn out to mean something.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1653615770950-1653615770950.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit : Khoo Guo Jie (Terrace Flat) Is Kaizen an advocate for sustainable design?That&#39;s a very broad question, to be honest! As part of our design process, we consider issues that help to feed the larger picture of Singapore&rsquo;s Green Plan. When we interview our clients, we also intentionally ask questions that get them to think about sustainable choices. In that sense, we are advocates for sustainable design and materials, but it&#39;s not necessarily our starting point. An example of that would be the design of my own home &ndash; Terrace Flat. We stripped away as much of the final finishings as possible as a means to reduce the carbon footprint and emissions within a single project. So while we won&#39;t label ourselves a sustainable design practice, we always consider sustainability.&nbsp;What is one advice you&rsquo;d like to give to up and coming architects?Be very intentional about your life and choices in design. That doesn&rsquo;t mean micromanaging. Whatever you do, if there&rsquo;s an intention behind it, it has to be expressed. It should be apparent in the design you do. Posted on 27th May 2022 Kenny Tan,SiXiDES Writer

What do you do when you’re trying to have a fresh new take on life but you’re too comfortable with the familiar? You call in the cavalry who can remake the familiar into something exciting. 

Interview with Melvin Keng: Making the common uncommon

Mark Teo is an Assistant Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology. He obtained his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Melbourne and, later, attained a Master of Science in Environmental Management at the National University of Singapore. 

Interview with Mark Teo: Every space a story

Luxury and affordability rarely see eye to eye. Choose one or the other. Just the other, most of us say. The former&rsquo;s too rich for us. However, Rashi Tulshyan would say, &ldquo;Why not both?&rdquo;.&nbsp;A design graduate from Parsons School of Design, New York, and founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/home-philosophy">Home Philosophy</a>, Rashi turns everything into gold with a bit of clever spending and zero compromise. So much so that homes she&rsquo;s touched tend to look far more luxurious than their actual price tags would suggest. Either she&rsquo;s a sorceress or she&rsquo;s just really good at accenting the affordable with the luxurious.&nbsp; We managed to corner Rashi to dig up the secrets to her interior design sorcery/expertise.&nbsp;&nbsp;Every artist has their humble beginnings. What was yours? What got you into interior design? Who is or was your inspiration in interior design?My design inspiration began with my mum, who is a property developer and has had a keen design eye for many years. She&rsquo;s built some beautiful landed homes, and I got to accompany her from a young age to understand the ins and outs of this industry.&nbsp; What exactly was your mom&rsquo;s job?&nbsp;She was really into developing GCBs and terrace houses &ndash; individual projects. She&rsquo;d do a bit of everything; the development, the architecture, the design. <img border="0" src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1648696984056-1648696984056.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit : Home Philosophy&nbsp;&nbsp;Was there any one development that stuck with you from all these &ldquo;field trips&rdquo;?There wasn&rsquo;t anything in particular. However, I got to see somebody master the whole process from envisioning the space to picking out the materials, maximising a living space to reorganising the walls. So, from a young age, I understood how making small changes could have a big impact. It might just be moving a window from here to there or changing the facing of the walls. So by the time you went on to study ID, you already had real life experience?Yeah. Since then, I was always passionate about design and studied Design Management at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/">Parsons School of Design</a>&nbsp;in New York. Here I learnt the vastness of the design world, and that inspiration can come from anything really- it&rsquo;s all around us, everyday.&nbsp; Design Management? What&rsquo;s that about?It basically focuses on how to run a business in the design field and the ins and outs of it. It could be anything design related; product, communication, or interior design. It helped me a lot. But you also did a bit of interior design on the side?Yeah, I did. Next big question: Why New York?New York is the hub of design.There&rsquo;s a deep-rooted understanding and excitement about design in all senses, from fashion to interiors to product. There&rsquo;s just so much energy there. I go there once a year for inspiration. <img border="0" src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1648696984072-1648696984072.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit : The Straits Times&nbsp;What would you say was your first real foray into interior design?&nbsp;My own home! My first home with my husband was really the &ldquo;prototype&rdquo; for my entire business. I wanted to test if indeed interiors can be done affordably without compromising the look and style. I also had the chance to create the high-low philosophy that we believe so strongly in and having my first home featured in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/home-design/high-on-style-low-on-cost">The Straits Times</a>&nbsp;was such a validation of my vision for Home Philosophy.&nbsp; How much did you save?Well, it&rsquo;s not how much we save but how we applied the high-low philosophy to the design. For the look, most people assumed that we had spent about 25% more than what we actually did. We went for the overall expensive designer look without actually spending as much as people would guess. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;You mentioned this high-low philosophy twice now. Tell me more about it.Sure. The high-low philosophy is basically like how we mostly eat at hawker stalls but splurge on a really expensive restaurant once a month. It&rsquo;s a mix of having an expensive and desirable life but doing it in a sustainable way. That means finding &ldquo;low&rdquo; or cost-effective alternatives. If you can find something in Ikea and repurpose it or find a great-looking way of using it, then why not? Better than spending tens of thousands on custom wardrobes. <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VuDU1Ts4Sjk?autoplay=1&mute=1&wmode=opaque&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" style="width: 100%; height: 50vw;"></iframe>Check out this video on 37 Nims designed by Rashi!&nbsp;Every artist has their proudest work. What would you say yours is?I&rsquo;m truly proud of all my work, no matter the size of the project, if I am able to capture and create a home that my clients feel reflects them- there is no greater moment. I really enjoy the challenges of working on bigger homes, for example, the home at 37 Nims has five bedrooms and lots of outdoor spaces- I feel proud when I can create something unique in design that also feels warm and welcoming. I love this home because it also reflects closely the style that I love and feel is not captured too well&ndash; which is this modern aesthetic without it being &ldquo;cold&rdquo; and disconnected.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img border="0" src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1648696984117-1648696984117.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit : Home Philosophy&nbsp;&nbsp;So what&rsquo;s your personal style?My clients always say I live life in colour and I design in colour. So I would say that it&rsquo;s a warm modern home with lots of color. Lots of functionality. Lots of hidden bits and pieces that double up as something else.&nbsp; <img border="0" src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1648696984143-1648696984143.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit : Home Philosophy&nbsp;&nbsp;What guides your work? What would you say your design philosophy is?&nbsp;My work is guided by everyday things that inspire me- sometimes I am walking outdoors and see how certain colours layer on each other, or walking past shop houses and realise a pastel pink and blue work beautifully together! I believe there&rsquo;s no one source of inspiration. My design philosophy is that each space should be unique, I don&rsquo;t believe in cubby-holing any of my work in a single &ldquo;style&rdquo;-- style and aesthetic is fluid, and as designers if we don&rsquo;t keep changing then there is no growth in our designs and work.&nbsp; Do you have a workflow or ritual when you first get a job?For us, the starting point is always to dig deep and dive into what our clients are thinking. Understanding their lifestyle and preferences. That shapes a lot of design. Homes are a reflection of their own personal space and personality. So we meet with them to chat and understand what makes them tick, spending time with our client- even grabbing a quick coffee gives us great insight into their lives. Do they gravitate to a certain place for vacations or like a certain food? These little cues tell us so much about our clients. Any particular place for coffee?(Laughs) Anywhere! Singapore&rsquo;s great for coffee places. What is one advice you&rsquo;d like to give up and coming interior designers?I always tell budding designers to find what makes them come alive, be it colour or texture, or a kind of home- when they work on design they must think about it 24/7. In our minds&#39; eyes we must always be refining our design ideas and that can only come when we take time to look up from our phones (or Pinterest) and notice the world of design that surrounds us. My other advice is also to not copy- be inspired, sure! But don&rsquo;t blatantly copy, always think of a design you love and find how to improve it, make it better, make it a reflection of you as a designer.&nbsp;&nbsp;Posted on 31st Mar 2022&nbsp;Kenny Tan,SiXiDES Writer

A design graduate from Parsons School of Design, New York, and founder of Home Philosophy, Rashi turns everything into gold with a bit of clever spending and zero compromise. So much so that homes she’s touched...

Interview with Rashi Tulshyan: The Midas Touch

If you&rsquo;ve ever wondered what a self-made man looks like, just look at that portrait up there. That&rsquo;s self-made, right there. That&rsquo;s Ethan Goh. Ethan is what they call a technical interior designer: one with no formal industry education, but loaded with real life work exposure. Passion got him there but it wasn&rsquo;t easy. He had to start in IT marketing but sheer tenacity was what landed him where he is today. Armed with a truck-load of experience, practical knowledge, and, most importantly, a sterling reputation for amazing work, he became the founder and lead designer of Ethan Interiors. Honestly, all that is just the tip of the iceberg. We caught up with Ethan to wrangle the rest of his humble beginnings out of him. Now that we&rsquo;ve got you seated down, tell us about your beginnings. Every artist has one. What got you into interior design?(Laughs) My dad is to blame. He used to drive past Yio Chu Kang after school and I admired the buildings as we went by. I didn&rsquo;t have the words to describe it then, but I guess I loved the clean lines back then. &ldquo;Why so different?&rdquo; I used to ask. I&rsquo;ve since fallen down that rabbit hole. However, it took a long time to get there. Why? What happened?Grades. I wasn&rsquo;t doing great at school and didn&rsquo;t get enough to enter into polytechnics to study interior design. So I ended up with an IT diploma instead.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1645772509317-1645772509317.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Mr Chow(left) and Jolin(right) were my colleagues who helped me a lot back then. Hang on&hellip; really? That&rsquo;s got nothing to do with interior design. Or art.Tell me about it. &nbsp;My career started with IT marketing for some multinational companies. Which wasn&rsquo;t too bad, really. I got good enough that I tried my hand running my own marketing gig. Several times. After one too many false starts, I asked myself, &ldquo;Why not try interior design again?&rdquo;&nbsp; That&rsquo;s when you got into interior design?Not immediately. But I did get a marketing role at one of the local interior design firms. A year later, I put in a request for an internal transfer to the interior design team. My boss at the time graciously approved. I&rsquo;d be transferred in six months. Six months of hell as I juggled between marketing and visits to the national library learning everything from lighting, ID culture, and the differences between contractors and ID (there&rsquo;s a lot!).&nbsp; It almost hurts just to listen to that. Did you ever regret the journey?No. Never. If I hadn&rsquo;t slogged through all that, I wouldn&rsquo;t have picked up what I know now. I don&rsquo;t just have the ID know-how, I&rsquo;ve also got marketing experience.&nbsp; Which, I understand, you put to great use.Yes, but not quite in the way most see it.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1645772555521-1645772555521.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Mr Salleh(far left) and Ms. Aini(second from left) helped me along when I first started EI. How so?My success wasn&rsquo;t just me. It was due to the goodwill of homeowners I once worked with. When I was out of work due to the pandemic, homeowners I had worked with suggested I start my own ID firm. It started with one; they offered their own home as a showcase for my work. I don&rsquo;t really know how, they became the first of many others who would eventually help me get on my feet. Through their satisfaction and faith in me, I started Ethan Interiors at a time when most businesses were closing shop. Within a year, we had so many inquiries that my pioneer team of eight couldn&rsquo;t keep up, and we had to expand. You&rsquo;ve got killer people skills. Should&rsquo;ve gone into PR!I think I like where I am now. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1645772663224-1645772663224.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Karin Bohn&rsquo;s YouTube Channel printscreen&nbsp; Nonetheless, that&rsquo;s a super inspiring story. Speaking of inspiration, who is or was your inspiration for interior design?I&rsquo;d have to say a YouTuber from Vancouver, Karin Bohn. She pretty much formed the foundation of my design philosophy. I think why she resonates so much with me is her beginnings: passionate about interior design but had to struggle to get where she is today. She stood out from the rest with how adaptable she was, easily putting together amazing designs with whatever&rsquo;s at hand. Really good at recycling materials and keeping homes sustainable.&nbsp; <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iAd2gnmeLu8?autoplay=1&mute=1&wmode=opaque&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" style="width: 100%; height: 50vw;"></iframe>Check out the video of Ethan&#39;s Segar Road project! What&rsquo;s your proudest work? Every artist has one.474 Segar Road.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1645761575200-1645761575200.png" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Yeah? Why&rsquo;s that? Give us the deets!Personally, I love black with gold accents. This was pretty much an excellent excuse to indulge in that with this home, simple as that. The dark theme worked really well with the blend of modern elegance and classic European look. Let&rsquo;s just say the owner was completely floored by the results.&nbsp;The other thing that I really love about this one, is how everything came together so neatly. No other project met the time frame as perfectly as this one did. There were so few unexpected surprises we were starting to get a little worried; we thought we missed something. I&rsquo;d say only 5% of the work had unexpected challenges (Editor: 10% is typical for most interior design projects. At 5%, this was far better than average.). Everything was on the dot. This project essentially became the benchmark for all future projects.&nbsp; What guides your work? What would you say your design philosophy is?&nbsp;Steve Jobs once said &ldquo;Design isn&rsquo;t just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works.&rdquo; I firmly believe that. Art of interior design is all about how we experience spaces. I have always loved design with clean and crisp lines, where textures and accents speak the designs, but it has to be functional too. With that in mind, I really want Ethan Interiors to be trendsetters, always applying modern approaches to familiar challenges.<img width="602" src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1646382994868-1646382994868.png" class="fr-dib">Photo by Daria Shevtsova from PexelsIt is said that no idea ever comes from a vacuum. What inspires your work? Where do your ideas come from?Nature, really. Organic stuff. At present, dark gray rocks with gold linings appeal to me the most; akin to veins of gold found in the earth. The Japanese art of kintsugi (the art of mending broken pottery with lacquer mixed with gold or other precious metals) comes to mind. Come to think about it, I guess you could say that both nature and art work together to inspire me. <img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1646382942935-1646382942935.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Day to day work Ethan and team And you are very inspiring! Before we part ways, what is one advice you&rsquo;d like to give up and coming interior designers?Be passionate, and never let your circumstances stop you from exploring new ideas. It&rsquo;ll never be a bed of roses. And there will be thorns. The interior design industry is really tough where only the most resilient thrive. <span style='font-size: 16px; font-family: "Work Sans", ui-sans-serif, system-ui; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;'>Posted on 25th Feb 2022 <span style='font-size: 16px; font-family: "Work Sans", ui-sans-serif, system-ui; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;'>Kenny Tan,<span style='font-size: 16px; font-family: "Work Sans", ui-sans-serif, system-ui; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;'>SiXiDES Writer

If you’ve ever wondered what a self-made man looks like, just look at that portrait up there. That’s self-made, right there. That’s Ethan Goh.

Interview with Ethan Goh: Self-made Designer

After earning his degree in architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Leon Yap began his career as an Architectural Associate. In that time, he was part of a prestigious architectural firm that won several awards including the World Architecture Festival Award 2019 for their work on Oasis Terrace. In his nine years in the architectural field, his work was often integrated with interior design work, where he developed his passion for it. Now Head of Creative at Sixides, we catch up with him about what got him here to his inspirations behind his designs. <h2>Every artist has their humble beginnings. What was yours? What got you into interior design?</h2>Well, I was just really into arts and crafts and building stuff. Something about how they looked on the outside that genuinely captivated me. Probably got it from traveling around in and out of Singapore(pre covid days of course).&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1643350330960-1643350330960.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"><h2>Oh? What was your favourite place you visited before?</h2>There wasn&rsquo;t actually a single favourite one. However, the most recent one was in Spain. The architecture there was rich in culture and simply amazing, so different from modern Singapore. It was like traveling to scenes you can only find in the movies!<h2> </h2><h2>So you mentioned how you liked the look of how buildings looked. Which buildings are your favourites?</h2>The one that stands out for me is the Burj Khalifa.<h2> </h2><h2>Boy, does that ever! That&rsquo;s the tallest building in the world, second to none.</h2>It is! And it&rsquo;s not just how the building looks, which in itself is pretty awesome, but also how they built it. I loved how the tower cranes rose up with the building, how they brought it down. Things like these which we do not think about normally when a building is being constructed. &nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1643350330983-1643350330983.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"><h2>You&rsquo;re not just into building design and interior design, you&rsquo;re kind of secretly an engineering geek too! So how did you turn out to be an interior designer?</h2>Well, I DID say I started out with traveling, sketching and doing artsy stuff. But buildings are my jam. Naturally, I started out with architecture, got my degree in it, and started working on all things to do with buildings. I guess, as a natural course of my work, I got exposure to interior design as well. <h2>What would you say is the biggest difference between the two disciplines, architecture and interior design?</h2>I see architecture more as the large-scale, macro-level of things, while interior design is like the cherry on top, focusing on the finer and intimate details that is the individual spaces.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1643350331020-1643350331020.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"><h2>What would you say was your first real foray into interior design? Any particular job to mark the occasion?</h2>It was a job in a part of Singapore with a whole lot of conserved historical buildings in Amoy Street. It was super challenging to work with because, as with all conserved buildings, there was a massive list of things we couldn&rsquo;t do to the building. Things like the fa&ccedil;ade and supporting structure. That said, that project holds a special place in my heart: despite all the restrictions, we didn&rsquo;t just work around them, we worked with them.<h2> </h2><h2>Every artist has their proudest work. What would you say is yours is?</h2>I&rsquo;ve got to unabashedly say my own home. I completed it last year and it&rsquo;s the culmination of all the work and experience I have put into my own personal project. There&rsquo;s something to be said about working on jobs versus making something for yourself. I give my 100% to my projects for sure, but when it&rsquo;s something personal, and you know you&rsquo;re going to live with for the next 20 to 30 years, there&rsquo;s real heart in it. It&rsquo;s given me a greater appreciation for the work I do, particularly with homes.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1643350331047-1643350331047.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"><h2>What&rsquo;s the theme of your home? And what would you say is its pi&egrave;ce de r&eacute;sistance?</h2>I went with the minimalist look, with plenty of whites and neutral colours. As for its feature piece, definitely the bomb-shelter feature wall. The standard ones were just ugly; there&rsquo;s no polite way to put it. So what I did was to turn it into a hidden door. You know those hidden doors in mystery movies, the kind you pull on the candle holder, and it opens? That&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s like. <h2>What guides your work? What would you say your design philosophy is?&nbsp;</h2>To me, design is a powerful tool to drive positive changes to cultivate the surroundings, environment, and community. If it doesn&rsquo;t do any one of those things, it just feels wrong.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sixides/uploads%2F1643350331065-1643350331065.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"><h2>It is said that no idea ever comes from a vacuum. What inspires your work? Where do your ideas come from?</h2>Everywhere! To be more specific, it&rsquo;s travelling around the world. Singapore is a relatively young country and doesn&rsquo;t have quite as rich a history as a lot of other places. Places in Europe, Japan, and Korea, to name a few, have centuries and centuries of stories and culture built into their architecture and design. I like bringing elements of these into my design because it has character based on history we can&rsquo;t find anywhere else.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s been a real pleasure having this time with you. Before we go, what is one advice you&rsquo;d like to give up and coming interior designers?Don&rsquo;t be afraid to be bold. Try new designs; do things out of the norm. You&rsquo;ll never know what your client will be impressed by.&nbsp;&nbsp;Posted on 28th Jan 2022&nbsp;Kenny Tan,SiXiDES Writer

After earning his degree in architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Leon Yap began his career as an Architectural Associate...

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