Seminar Review : Shared Future | Agents of Change
On 15 April 2016, I attend the forum that organize by MKPL Architect at the URA centre 5th storey Function Hall. This forum is intended to investigate the multiplicity of potentials, business models, and approaches to architecture, design, entrepreneurship and curation in an increasingly multi-disciplinary contemporary society. Moderated by Razvan Ghillic from MKPL Architect and the attended panelist (left-right) are Karen Tan from the Pocket Projects, Javier Perez from Series of Intention , Kelley Cheng from The Press Room, and last Pan Yi Cheng from Produce.
The Talk
The forum is open by moderator followed by the designers, one by one, share their story and opinion behind their ideas & evolution.
Karen Tan and Javier be-known as someone who transform old places into great potential space for community around. They share their story about how they could think out of traditional way of Singapore model with the desire to inject some flexibility against the run-down. What they do is that they observe the city. They see how they live, what is the culture, and seeing themselves as Singaporean, people of the nation itself. They gather it, recycle, then reinvent into something new that makes it a unique and connected.
Pan Yi Cheng also an interior designer & entrepreneur that focused more on carpentry. He stated that the industry haven't ready of fabricated. He explained that people often think about using machine in his industry gives them more cost compare to traditional carpentry that using manpower. This should be explain as all of this will change and people need to get to used to it. He wants to demonstrate to industry, same method in carpentry technique like bending also could be done by machine. He himself try to help client reduce the cost in a way reduce manpower.
In this era, has the way people think about 'design' mature yet? Kelley who runs a publishing & design consultancy company answered that education these days has been giving the change for it. Like in graphic design, for example student in 70-80's will got scolded by parents if they want to study design, but now a lot of people study it which means it has evolution.
They also stated that being pioneers is not easy, it has some struggle. They should put the element of trust for the community because everything they have created has through the deep planning and it is all become an experiment, they need to take risk and accept the fact that it couldn't be the solution that can always work.
After seeing the panelist with their vision in creating a design that feels 'different' it is obvious to mark them as the pioneers for this AGENTS OF CHANGE as we look at how they put their heart & brain to make a design to be a 'design'. Everything is not easy and there is no shortcut to the success, it must go through a PLAN and those plan will not always work as what we wanted.
In case you would like to know about them, here are a little bit information about their background.
Founded by Karen Tan, this company has their first project in 2012 to become award winning. They designed the Lorong 24A Shophouse in Singapore. What they have done is they regenerate and reposition of Geylang street which is also gives a big impact with the increased of the rental value until 4-5x in that area. Karen Tan has background as Masters graduate in Real Estate Economics and Finance from the London School of Economics, and has worked in London before open her own firm in Singapore. If you want to transform your old-building, contact them soon. They will turn it into wow!
Pan Yi Cheng is the chief creative of Producer. He graduates from the Architectural Association in London as top honours and becomes 1 of the top 8 graduates in UK in 2006. His design which is Xtra's Herman Miller Shop at Park Mall won the best retail building of the year award at the 2012 World Architectural Festival. You can locate their showroom which also double as the workshop where the magical moment of pieces of wood turn into amazing things happen at Eunos Ave.7 #01-45, Singapore.
The Press Room is a publishing and design consultancy company founded by Kelley Cheng who is a pop culture junkie. What they do is they make things like books, objects, and even interior spaces. Kelley once work as creative director of Page 1 Group. In her leisure time, she will do activity that promotes human right. Check it out yourself to see a lot of their inspiring work through their website.
Meet Javier Perez from Series of Intentions who design and double up as founder of the famous Kilo Restaurant. He creates Kilo with the vision that create experiences in seeing how places could come together and see how people could feel pleasure & satisfaction from both the food and places at once. His philosophy as interior designer is that "we see ourselves as being in the business of creating memories."
