I was not aware of the International furniture fair Singapore (part of the Singapore design week) until I arrived in Singapore, and so I did not register beforehand. I visited the show on its opening day and a few hours before my flight with my suitcase (since the exhibition centre is situated next to the airport), and it turned out that many others had the same idea! The queue for the storage and registration took more than 1/2 an hour, but thankfully, things went more smoothly once inside.

The fair was about 4 times bigger than Maison et Objet and with more Asian companies participating, but I spent the most time wandering the hall curated by Singaplural which featured many up-and-coming designers and young design brands from Asia.

Top left: the long queue for registration; Top right: The Green Pavilion: Main & bottom row: Designer’s field

One booth that caught my eye was Designer’s Field, a Thai/Danish company that designs, sources and produces home interior and furniture products based in Bangkok. Inspired by the delicate Asian style and Scandinavian simplicity, their products are minimalist, modern, functional, and well-made too.

Another brand inspired by the Japanese/ Scandinavian simplicity is Hinika (see above), a new Singaporean brand of outdoor and indoor furniture launched last year by Austrian/ Singaporean industrial designer, Jarrod Lim. The wooden furniture collection is well-crafted, understated and highly functional.

Top left & 2nd row: Super&Co/Supermama from Singapore; 3nd row left & bottom row: SWBK from Korea

I always enjoy talking to designers about their work and here I met Priscilla Potts, an associate designer at Super&Co/ Supermama, a Sinagporean brand founded by industrial designer, Edwin Low. Although their products are designed locally, they have collaborated with several traditional Japanese crafts and textiles manufacturers to produce various lines. Singapore Icons porcelain collection is a collaborative project that won them the President Design Award 2013. Designed by 5 design studios in Singapore, the collection was crafted by Japanese porcelain company KIHARA INC.

Like Desinere (see my earlier entry), the brand also collaborated with Japanese metal casting company, Nousaku to produce Familiar objects, a set of pencil paper weight made from solid brass, bronze or copper. Their new line is a range of textiles printed and produced by a traditional fabric company, MARUJU LTD. based in Nagoya, Japan.

S W B K is design firm in Korea, co-founded by Sukwoo Lee and Bongkyu Song in 2008. The firm’s products are often inspired by nature and made from natural or recycled materials using traditional craftsmanship. This philosophy can be seen in their new stationery line, Matter and Matter.

 ‘Design as it is’ curated by Eisuke Tachikawa from Nosigner

Nosigner is one of my favourite Japanese design firms; a few years ago, I attended a talk given by their chief desigber Eisuke Tachikawa and was very impressed by his design philosophy and attitude. Hence I was very happy to see him curating ‘Design as it is’ for Ambassadors of Design Japan, which showcased beautiful objects designed by him and other Japanese designers.

‘Design as it is’ was about design that do not create forms/shapes, and it examined the relationship between design and its environment. This is probably what good design is about: design that is in harmony with its surroundings without looking like it has been ‘designed’. Yet in this day and age, although we are surrounded by designed objects around us everywhere, how many can claim to be in harmony with its environment? Sadly, not a lot.