64 / Education
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View from the East
Frazer Macdonald Hay is founding Director of the Glasgow School of Art Singapore. He gives his perspective on Asia’s emerging interior design industry
I
t is not at all surprising that Maison & Objet is launching its first foray in the Asian market. MAISON & OBJET ASIA makes its debut in Singapore in March.
The market for interior design is growing at an extraordinary rate across Southeast Asia, fuelled by a buoyant economy.
In Singapore, that rate of growth is heightened by our geographic location and importance in terms of the region’s global shipping, not to mention the tax free status of the port.
Many established brands in interior design in the West have woken up to the potential of the emerging markets of the East.
What is now developing is the second wave of that
interchange between East and West, with Western interior design markets getting really excited by the talent emerging from this part of the world.
In the past the design process across the region had been matter-of-fact and Western-centric. Interiors were mainly delivered by overseas talent, bought in by clients wishing to display their status and sophistication by mimicking a European or American style.
The other major design influence was the large overseas corporations wanting to promote a global brand and stamp a visual language that owed little to the region.
What makes the interior design sector in Southeast Asia so unique now is that it is evolving and finding
its own identity at an astonishing pace.
Singapore is the perfect place to observe the startling emergence of confidence, creativity, energy and new design.
This tiny corner of Southeast Asia has a rich and utterly unique multi-cultural history and make-up. Only now are all those intermingling influences coming to the fore. The emergence of this interior design talent cannot be viewed in isolation: It has to be seen as part of a larger picture of growth in arts and creativity in the region.
Architects, artists and performers are forging ahead with bold new ideas and invention driven by curiosity and tenacity.
Local characters are finding their own style. Crucially
many are collaborating with international names to create interesting and fresh design opportunities.
Typical of the new talent is Kelley Cheng, founder and creative director of The Press Room, a publishing and design consultancy.
Like many of the emerging houses, the Press Room is multi- disciplinary in its work. Kelley and her team see no boundaries in terms of their creative output, and are as comfortable designing books as they are large interior spaces.
Other Singapore stars likely to make an impact on the global scene include artists like Jackson Tan who created PHUNK, an art and design collective, with three of his friends. The studio has achieved
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