A First of Its Kind Wellness Resort in Malaysia for IndesignLive

An ambitious undertaking spearheaded by the MB Group brings together international design industry experts for a wellness-oriented resort in Malaysia, writes Olha Romaniuk.

For the first project of its kind in Malaysia, Dimensi Panorama Sdn. Bhd., a member of MB Group, unveiled plans for the Sungai Pulai Wellness Resort in Southwest Johor. The resort, designed by ONG&ONG and Coen Design International, is an extensive exercise in coalescing all aspects of physical and mental wellness into an environmentally friendly development for families and residents of all ages.

“Sense of wellness for us means fresh air, adequate sunlight, lush greenery. Sense of wellness is when these basic elements are well integrated within our living environment. That is exactly what the design is trying to achieve,” says Senior Associate at ONG&ONG, Tong Pey Haw.

The strategic choice in selecting the site due to its proximity to the RAMSAR Mangrove and Nature Reserve positions the project close to the natural surroundings, integrating nature with wellness and residential facilities. As one of the major aims for the design of the project is the preservation of the environment within the development, the design of the resort features low-rise, low-density buildings to maintain visual connections to the adjacent greenery. “Design interventions are made to ensure any elements introduced can be well connected to its eco-system and natural environment. Lush landscape designed with surrounding indigenous species helps to create a seamless connection to its surroundings,” explains Tong.

The symbiosis between the wellness of the residents and the wellness of the environment is at the core of the development. Planned as an eco-park, the master plan of Sungai Pulai Wellness Resort incorporates aspects of healthy, active living and eco-tourism, creating strong connections between them. As a result, this self-sustaining coastal resort, aside from providing a designated clubhouse that offers a multitude of healthcare services, also incorporates such eco-tourism activities as organic farming, mangrove planting, horse trail and a boardwalk.

Slated to include a total of 1,351 apartment units and landed properties upon the resort’s completion, the first phase of the development, Canopus Residence, is scheduled to be ready by 2018. The residence’s design integrates passive design strategies that include deliberate spatial layouts to facilitate good air ventilation, strategic fenestration design for adequate sunlight and incorporation of vertical green elements to soften the building mass and to serve as heat insulation. Moreover, the residence makes use of premium green materials like non-toxic and anti-bacteria paint, ionised wood flooring and ionised plaster ceiling board for residents’ health and comfort.

Other planned units will follow the lead of the Canopus Residence in their design. “In Sungai Pulai Wellness Resort, the designs are derived through inspiration from nature and constantly referencing to what nature has to offer,” says Tong, “The almost biomimicry approach to our design will be consistent throughout our interventions.”

The Cappellini Capsule Project for IndesignLive

Five local designers reinterpret five furniture staples of Italian furnishing brand Cappellini, with the works to be shown at DREAM. Olha Romaniuk reports.

Having cemented its name as a furniture trendsetter, Italian label Cappellini has been known to work with gifted designers over the years on unique products and furniture pieces. This year, to coincide with the SG50 campaign, Cappellini and furniture retailer DREAM have collaborated on a unique project where five home-grown talents in the creative industry have been invited to design one-of-a-kind art pieces inspired by iconic Cappellini products.

Having selected their Cappellini product of choice, the chosen five – PHUNK (contemporary art and design collective), Darren Soh (landscape and architectural photographer), Ian Woo (artist and painter), Desinere (design consultancy studio) and Vincent Leow (contemporary imagist) – will showcase their reinterpretations of the selected pieces during an exhibition, which opens on 12 March. True to the collaborative nature of the Capsule Project, the artists’ main aim is to capture the ethos of Cappellini’s avant-garde spirit in their creations, while also providing their distinct stamp on the chosen designs through their craft of expertise.

Ahead of the exhibition opening, the artists offer insights into their pieces. Having selected the Cappellini Proust Geometrica Chair as their design muse, PHUNK have taken cues from the bold colours of the chair’s fabric upholstery originally designed by Alessandro Mendini. Photographer Darren Soh has selected Cappellini’s Revolving Cabinet, designed by Shiro Kuramata, to serve as a basis for his collage of public housing images. Known for his abstract paintings, Ian Woo has been inspired by the minimalist lines of the Cappellini Sekitei Chair for the structural foundation of his work. Similarly to how the Cappellini Ribbon Stool’s form mimics the laces of a ballet shoe, Desinere has used the form and movement of ballet dancers for a sculpture piece. Lastly, Vincent Leow’s design has drawn inspiration from the Cappellini Fish Chair, seeking to become a companion piece to the original, designed by Satyendra Pakhale. We find out more.

PHUNK

Your firm is multidisciplinary and draws influences from many different sources. Given that you had to design an art piece based on your craft of expertise, how did you decide to approach this project? What is the concept for your piece?

We have always loved the Proust Geometrica Chair by Cappellini. It is quirky and eclectic, a contemporary icon. When the guys from DREAM approached us for the project, our first instinct was to choose it as the chair to work on. We are currently working on a new series of artworks based on the alphabet letters A-Z. They are inspired by our collective childhood memories of the colourful animated alphabet from Sesame Street – a children’s television programme. Each alphabet has its own personality and quirk. As an extension to the A-Z series, we re-imagined and illustrated a customised alphabet that is inspired by the vibrant colours and graphical shapes of the Proust Geometrica Chair.

Melvin Ong (Desinere)

How have your previous experiences influenced your design for the DREAM + Cappellini project?

I come from a furniture/product design background and, when I was approached by DREAM, I felt it was a good opportunity to re-look at some of the fundamentals that I learnt during my course of study and work. I’ve always been very interested in line work and in this design project I wanted to express this flow of lines in a rather fluid manner spatially.

What were some of the key features that you took away from the Cappellini Ribbon Stool, and how did you make them your own in your design?

The Ribbon Stool drew its inspiration from the laces of a ballet shoe, so naturally I looked to dance as my inspiration. Each swirl and stroke in my sculpture represents the unadulterated movement of a dancer as a freedom of expression. Whilst the Ribbon Stool found inspiration in the structure and pattern of the ballet shoe, I wanted to complement this by expressing the fluidity and emotion that’s seen and felt in a ballet dance.

Darren Soh

What techniques did you decide to use to translate Shiro Kuramata’s design, which is a 3D installation, into a 2D reinterpretation?

Although Shiro Kuramata’s design is 3D in nature, it has a very strong 2D silhouette when viewed directly from the front. In a way, this is similar to many of our HDB flats: they are 3D spaces but their façades present an almost endless permutation of mixed and matched possibilities due to design as well as appropriation by the residents – the hanging of clothes, the growing of plants, etc. Similarly, the revolving cabinet can be configured and reconfigured to the user’s liking. It is because of this similarity between the cabinet and HDB flats that I decided to create the artwork in the manner I did.

What message do you hope to convey with your art piece?

I am a strong champion of the documentation of Public Housing in Singapore, because I feel they are often overlooked and not given the attention they deserve as really successful and even beautiful pieces of architecture. Here, I’ve used them in a different way and, at first, you don’t realise they are what they are, but upon closer look you will come to a realisation. I hope that this will lead more people to go out and look at HDB flats in a different light, perhaps.

Ian Woo

How did you reinterpret the Sekitei Chair into an abstract form?

I took the lines from the chair as a starting point. I was thinking about the fluidity of water and made several drawings with diluted acrylic colours. I came up with two versions – one that was like an emblem and the other made up of fragmented lines. The lines ‘caught’ onto the colours that I was using and it reminded me of the way light would shift through and between the lines of the chair and an imaginary garden or forest.

Is your Sekitei Chair-inspired artwork in line with your other paintings in terms of style and language or have you taken a different approach with this particular piece?

Like all my work I approach the drawings in an improvisational manner, allowing the lines to dictate form and formlessness. They were done very quickly, each drawing dictating an instantaneous process of thought and vision.

Vincent Leow

In what way does your art piece complement the Cappellini Fish Chair and in what way does it stand on its own?

I have made my piece resemble an almost exact copy of the Cappellini Fish Chair; they are almost identical twins but are different and complementary. One is a chair and the other suggests that while it may look like the Fish chair, it isn’t. I hope that the piece makes individuals ask themselves not what it may represent but what we think of it instead.

How have the themes of your works influenced the direction you took with your art piece for this exhibition?

The current theme in my work explores ways to remember the innocent children that lost their lives to the atrocities of war, via text and form. Similarly, for the piece that I have made in response to the Capellini Fish Chair I have incorporated some of the elements of text and form.

Wynk;collaborative: Exploration through Collaboration for IndesignLive

The trio of founding design partners at wynk;collaborative share an undeniable passion for design and combine their past professional experiences for a collaborative approach to their diverse array of projects. Olha Romaniuk has the story.

Founded by Si Jian Xin, Dennis Huang and Hon Kit Leong in 2011 as a small design start-up, wynk;collaborative rides on the philosophy of working with others and learning from disciplines like architecture, interior, furniture and graphic design – a decision that has allowed them to win over new clients and to fearlessly tackle new challenges by working with different consultants. The result of the collaborative process is evident in spaces that provide holistic spatial experiences that are fun, functional and aesthetically memorable. We find out more.

How did you start your firm?

We got together a few years ago after working for a few years in our respective offices. We got really tired of the projects that we were doing and we wanted to offer something slightly different from the typical space design studios out there, something more connected and more human centric.

How did your previous professional experiences prepare you for your work at wynk;collaborative?

We have had quite diverse experiences in our previous jobs, dealing with architectural projects from small refurbishments to houses and hotels to huge masterplans, scattered around the world. We have also had experience working in related fields like visual branding and design thinking and innovation consultancy. This had taught us to look beyond the immediate tasks of designing spaces, and consider the design as part of a greater experience, viewed through various perspectives.

You mention collaboration as one of the cornerstones of your firm. What are some of the ways that your team works together to implement this collaborative methodology?

There is no fixed methodology. It’s really an attitude towards design and our relationship with the clients and partners. As our name suggests, it is a collaborative. It is not about creating a certain style and solely designing for the sake of being beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. We try to minimise the hierarchy in projects; there is a constant dialogue involved between us, the clients and our other partners throughout the stages of development. We are not the kind of grand vision designers; we see ourselves playing a leading, mediating and supporting role among the various collaborators at different points in the project. We believe every party is there to make a positive contribution to the project.

Your projects range from collaterals to residential and F&B projects. Does your design approach vary based on different types of projects or is there a common thread in every project you take on?

Projects are always rooted in the idea of collaboration regardless of project type and application of combined knowledge of all the parties involved. We won’t claim to be experts in any one type of a project; there is always something to learn from different clients and collaborators. We also try to be hands-on for every project.

How do you integrate the elements of function and play into your projects? Why are these elements important to you?

Function and practicality should always come first but that is not to say form is not important. Both elements are integral. Any element is only practical if it is easy and a delight to use. We always try to explore new and fun ways for a typical type of space to be inhabited. On a more surface level, we are also quite fond of using colours and interesting materials to make the spaces we design visually playful.

What was your design intent and approach for your own office?

Our office is at Golden Mile Complex. We were really enamoured by the architecture of the building and decided to move here after our lease for the last office ended. The new office is really tiny but matches our need for a small and tight design studio. The primary aim was for the space to be practical and warm, with the ambience of a living room. Materials are simple: grey walls with charcoal floor and some blocks of pegboard. We don’t have fixed workstations per se: the big central worktable serves as a workspace, meeting space and production space. The whole space is accented by a pair of Pablo pendent lights we got from Pomelo.

What should we expect next from wynk;collaborative? What projects are you are currently working on?

We are currently working on a café in Singapore called Paddy Hills, a second Standing Sushi Bar and a café in Malaysia. We are also collaborating with Lamitak for Singaplural 2015.

d'Leedon by Zaha Hadid for IndesignLive

Zaha Hadid’s first high-rise residential mega-project makes its mark in Singapore, writes Olha Romaniuk.

Conceived from a study of existing energy flow lines and connections on its expansive 840,049 square feet site, d’Leedon, Zaha Hadid’s first high-rise residential project (in collaboration with RSP Architects), stands out from its low key surroundings in Tanglin District 10 with a soaring presence and undulating contour lines that shift and change with their ascent into the sky. Developed by CapitaLand Singapore, Hotel Properties Limited and their joint venture partners, d’Leedon, the largest private residential development in Singapore to date, showcases Hadid’s sensible approach to the site, tropical climate and surrounding urban context while fulfilling the quota of providing a wide range of unit types suitable for different family sizes and lifestyles.

The 1,715 unit d’Leedon was a massive undertaking by CapitaLand Singapore and Hotel Properties Limited. “The significance of building the project that is three times the typical residential development size in Singapore (which is usually 500-600 units) in a desirable residential district is that it needed to be iconic and needed to create a landmark in the area. Zaha Hadid’s approach – a sculpture in the cityscape that seems to rise from the ground – is something that immediately achieves the desired effect,” says Phang Chin Ming, Manager of Design Management (Residential) for CapitaLand Singapore Limited.

The immediate challenges that came with the selected site were the already existing Mass Rapid Transit tunnels and the Public Utilities Board pipelines carrying water from Malaysia to Singapore that had to remain undisturbed. Additionally, the slope change of 15 metres from one edge of the site to another presented a further challenge to the design team, which had to come up with solutions that mitigated accessibility obstacles and allowed all future facilities on site to be universally accessible.

Seeing existing challenges as untapped opportunities, Zaha Hadid’s team’s proposal for the layout of the property took into consideration infrastructural limitations, topographical conditions, neighbourhood connections and flow lines and used these to dictate the position of the new residential towers to have the most advantageous views of the city while also demarcating the locations of the landscape features and activities at the ground level.

After several visits to the site and better familiarisation with the climate of Singapore early in the design process, Hadid’s team was able to understand the unique challenges of the site’s tropical context and adjust the initial design proposal to suit the local context. This included transforming the originally proposed open communal plaza to a more covered and dynamic landscape that was more shielded from the afternoon sun. Integration of balconies and yards into the typical apartment unit also became essential in creating optimal living spaces for the tropical climate.

Describing the working process with Zaha Hadid Architects’ office, Phang Chin Ming notes, “We wanted to create homes that were conducive for people, with more integrated greenery and common spaces, and to marry the original architectural intent with the basic goals of creating a specific number and types of units without losing the integrity and fluidity of architecture.”

The resulting design comprises seven residential towers that taper outwards and inwards as they spring up in strategic points across the site. The 36-storey towers’ compact footprints, collectively occupying only 22 per cent of the overall site, free up a large area of land for landscape and lifestyle facilities. Additional residential options within the property include the 12 strata semi-detached villas, lining the Western boundary of the site and providing an experience of landed property living with the extra perk of access to the available community facilities. The villas’ design follows the signature language of site facilities, while maximising the transparency for premier living spaces, like living room and master bedroom, and screening off the service zones.

To create universal access to all the facilities within the property, the architectural design team mitigated the 15 metre slope change from one edge of the site to another, raising the lower end by placing car park spaces underground to accommodate the allowable ramp gradient so that every point at the ground level within the property could be accessed by a ramp.

The project, though big enough in scale to contain its own selection of facilities, shops and restaurants, retains an intimate residential feel with a smart integration of shifting planes, changing landscapes, unique environments and specially commissioned artworks. Not just another architectural mega-project with all glitz and no substance, d’Leedon proves possible a peaceful coexistence of architectural dazzle and thoughtful functionality.

TOWARD A GREENER FUTURE FOR INDESIGNLIVE

Pomeroy Studio unveils an eco-development design that aims to set sustainability benchmarks for future mixed-used projects in Malaysia, writes Olha Romaniuk.

To mark its transition from a centre for palm oil production to a vocational education and trade hub, Johor’s former colonial town of Kluang is set to receive its first eco-friendly development, Newpark, courtesy of Singapore-based Pomeroy Studio. Aside from a sizeable residential community, the new eco-township will contain a park, an expo-trade centre, an education hub, a hotel and convention facilities, shops, offices and business parks, all of which will incorporate sustainable strategies that will set benchmarks for future mixed-use developments in Malaysia.

While it is still quite the rarity to see a developer set sustainability and eco-friendliness as forefront goals for a project, Majupadu Development Sdn Bhd took a road less travelled by working with Pomeroy Studio to mastermind Newpark as a flagship project for sustainable living. The design team at Pomeroy Studio took on the challenging assignment as an opportunity to set the standard for an upgrade of the town of Kluang for the future, keeping in mind the project’s relevance in a larger context of the town.

“This may be humble in scale in comparison to the broader regional growth of Johor, but what the 164 acre master plan demonstrates is a self sustaining approach that need not to draw from the broader infrastructure of the State, yet whose identity and economic mix can help support / complement ‘the bigger picture’. Newpark will be the largest master planned commercial project in Kluang and seeks to balance 21st century trade and education with green living,” says Jason Pomeroy, founder and principal of Pomeroy Studio.

The anchoring element of the entire development is the Promenade – a park that draws inspiration from the nearby landmark of the Gunang Lambak hills and connects all programmatic elements of the development through an abundance of recreational and social activities within this zero energy public realm. This connective approach is also a deliberate choice from Pomeroy studio to link the existing surrounding urban context to the new development.

“The existing undulating topography of the land was one of the advantageous considerations, as it allowed us to create character and identity to the streetscape rather than having a flat, monotonous landscape. Overlaying the natural element of the topography with the rigours of a human element, the planning grid facilitated the connection between the existing colonial infrastructure and the modern planning context – allowing seamless connectivity between the old and new urban fabric,” explains Pomeroy.

Balancing greenery with shaded open spaces and pavilions in the landscape programmed for future social activities, Pomeroy Studio plans to offset energy consumption values within the Promenade with a number of renewable energy sources, like solar PV. Elsewhere in the development, Pomeroy Studio uses greenery to reduce ambient temperatures and provide rainwater run off, while enhancing the overall bio-diversity of the site.

Other programmatic elements within the new eco-township combine residential living and resort-style recreational activities, while focusing on healthy and green lifestyle choices for its residents. Employing a number of passive design strategies, such as the deliberate orientation of the buildings to receive maximum natural sunlight and ventilation, Pomeroy Studio is also utilising a modular approach to construction to reduce material waste on site. Green materials with high recycled and recyclable quantity used in fabrication of modular structural elements contribute additional value to the overall eco-friendliness of the project.

Pomeroy concludes: “Specification of modular green materials, streamlined mechanical, light and ventilation strategies, renewable energy sources, abundance of ground level greenery and roof top gardens complement the overall passive strategies to create a very low energy sustainable development that also yields higher economic value in the real estate, which should drastically reduced operating costs.”

Shaping Transient Living for IndesignLive

Elevating the standards of service apartment living, Enviro Tec infuses boutique design and environmental sensibility into Fraser Residence in Jakarta, writes Olha Romaniuk.

Located on the edge of the central business district in Thamrin, Jakarta, Fraser Residence looks set to redefine the expectations of a service apartment building. To capitalise on its strategic location, frame panoramic views of the city and feature contextualised design elements that would differentiate this project from typical high-rise residences, the Fraser Residence Menteng Jakarta presents fifteen storeys of apartment units where attention to site sensitivity and context are of equal importance to luxury and exclusivity.

As it is often the case with extended stay properties, the biggest defining features of this particular building type are the amenities that complement the lifestyles of the guests. This means that the design considerations of service apartments demand an incorporation of facilities that can be found in hotels to facilitate the typically transient lifestyles of the residents. This also means that designers and architects are inclined to create more neutral and impersonal environments that skew towards hotel rather than residential living.

Thus, when faced with the challenge of designing a service apartment with a little more soul and character, the design team at Enviro Tec took a slightly different approach that resulted in a well thought out design, sensitive to the needs of the building occupants in more ways than just through a straightforward inclusion of convenient facilities.

“We amalgamated architecture, interior, landscape and lighting design into a single form. It was important to join all these factors of design together into one element which could be seen from the apartment planning to the outdoor landscaped areas to the streets and back to Jakarta as a city,” says Design Director Ming Zhou.

Taking advantage of the location, the design team conceptualised the new Fraser Residence as a building with framed and unobstructed views of the city. The box frames’ weave pattern that characterises the building’s exterior plays with the notion of opacity and transparency, allowing the facade to appear more solid from afar and more translucent in a closer proximity.

Along with fashioning the building’s facade as a series of frames, the team incorporated perforated sun screens, angled at an optimum position to block out the sun yet allowing the view out onto the city for the building’s residents. “The building screens also conceal outdoor air conditioning units which are designed to be placed on outdoor ledges on every side of the facade, on every level,” says Zhou, “On the exterior, all the MEP equipment is concealed and designed together as part of the architectural facade. This is one feature that really distinguishes Fraser Residence from other serviced apartments where the MEP equipment is often an after thought and is visible on the buildings’ exterior, like a sore thumb.”

To address the dearth of common green spaces dedicated to relaxation and repose – an issue that often plagues high-rise residential living – the Enviro Tec team made a conscious decision to provide such opportunities within Fraser Residence, integrating landscape and waterscape solutions, including a timber planter box screen framing the perimeter of the site and roof gardens for two penthouses, into the overall design.

“Since the site is surrounded by local residential neighbourhoods, we had to consider how to fence up the site without being too intrusive. We managed to convince the client to put a good part of the budget into a landscape timber screen wall where planter boxes stack up to create a staggered pattern with hanging plants and other types of plants reminiscent of the building crown. This is a friendly intervention in the neighbourhood but is also a way to beautify the surroundings,” explains Zhou.

The environmentally friendly design of Fraser Residence is evident in the integration of a grey-water recycling and rainwater collection system and the selection of locally sourced materials. From timber merbau decking to local marble, stone and terrazzo flooring, the design team incorporated sustainable solutions into the project’s integral design strategy, even though the initial design brief did not call for any specific environmentally friendly features.

­“We were always advocating for a sustainable building system. As fuel prices rise, it is important for the client to understand that designing a ‘green’ building is not just about applying an eco-friendly material but rather designing the entire building system from MEP to architectural details to be well integrated so as to have an efficiently-run building,” concludes Zhou.

Zaha Hadid Designs a Genocide Museum - IndesignLive

An architect well known for her signature curvy exoskeletal structures and sleek sweeping lines, Zaha Hadid tones down her approach to reveal a restrained and quietly elegant design for the new Sleuk Rith Institute, a genocide museum and research facility in Cambodia, writes Olha Romaniuk.

The extensive and intelligent design brief for the Sleuk Rith Institute stemmed out of the vision of Youk Chhang, a human rights activist and survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime under which two million Cambodians lost their lives. Instead of asking for a stern and solemn design typically associated with genocide memorial architecture, Chhang delineated a brief that put an emphasis on reflection and reconciliation in the face of the tragedies of the past and veered its focus toward a more positive future of Cambodia. “We were keen to create a forward-looking institution that deviated from the distress-invoking, quasi-industrial harshness of most existing genocide memorial models,” says Chhang.

Zaha Hadid’s design addresses the brief’s concerns by unveiling a building that is as visually impactful as it is respectful to the content and context of the heavily-loaded subject and site without becoming a sombre monument oriented towards memories of the past. The design, reminiscent of Hadid’s typical architectural forms in only the faintest of ways through the restrained, fluid lines of the exterior structure, presents a series of soaring forms that set a warm, light tone that is anything but melancholic or mournful.

The contemporary vision for the Sleuk Rith Institute comprises five buildings that serve different functions at the lower levels and merge together to create collaborative research spaces as the structure ascends to the top. The interweaving forms draw inspiration from the architecture of Angkor Wat and other Cambodian temples, combining a multitude of geometric forms to create a cohesive whole. “We were inspired by how the ancient temples make very intricate forms from simple geometries,” says DaeWha Kang, project architect for the Institute.

Heavily inspired by the surrounding context of the site and the tropical climate of Cambodia, the design of the Sleuk Rith Institute marks a unique approach by Hadid’s office to make this project as contextually relevant as it is content driven. “This is very different to our other projects,” says Hadid. “It is the first time we have used wood to create a warmer, softer mood, and in time it will weather and take on a more a natural-looking feel.” The sustainably-sourced wood is also the choice for exterior shading to reduce the overall solar gain. The tapering forms of the buildings are composed in an exacting way to minimise solar gain while thermal buffer zones protect the interior exhibition and archival spaces.

While the buildings are propped on raised terraces for protection from the seasonal flooding from the Mekong and Tonlé Sap rivers, the surrounding reflective pools are replenished with harvested rainwater to minimise the overall environmental impact. Thoughtful treatment of water condensation and foul water is evident in the inclusion of a natural plant-based water treatment system and on-site bioreactors, while a solar thermal array to generate hot water is tucked away from public view on the building’s horizontal roof along with other renewable energy equipment.

With the design of the Institute’s buildings in tune with the content and context of the site, the Institute’s site also includes a 68,000 square metre community park that will further protect against seasonal flooding and provide linkages between the site’s neighbouring streets, inviting the community to experience the Institute as a space for public reflection and commemoration. “Our hope is that the Sleuk Rith Institute and its Memorial Park can have a truly transformative effect, bringing new life and a bright future to a site that holds traces of the great tragedies of the past. An inviting place where reflection, interaction and connectivity are not only its spatial expression, but also embedded within its covenant to the people of Cambodia,” says Hadid.

PYE Cafe for InsdesignLive

To commemorate an interior magazine’s tenth anniversary in Thailand, JARKEN group of companies created a pop-up project that is part cafe and part installation art, fusing design and artisanship in fun and playful ways, writes Olha Romaniuk.

A unique installation in the heart of Bangkok’s Central World shopping complex, the pop-up cafe for the interior magazine is a creative hybrid between an eatery and an exhibition space, showcasing visual arts and design to its visitors in an informal and relaxed atmosphere. Conceptualised by the design team comprising Sasivimol Sinthawanarong, design principal of JARKEN group of companies, and designer Attapon Wiboonyanon, the 200 square metre cafe seamlessly integrates its 60-seat dining area with niche spaces designed to feel like parts of a home, allowing visitors to explore the colourful and quirky design features at their own pace.

Having worked on various F&B and interior projects in the past, the design team for the project readily admits that the pop-up cafe was their first project of its kind. “What interested us were the creativity and the freedom of design that the client gave us. What challenged us was the idea of creating a space where all arts/decorative works must blend into one single exhibition,” says Sinthawanarong.

As a design solution for the installation, the JARKEN team created a series of spaces under a concept of “Seamless Insertion”, illustrating nine distinct ambiances while connecting one space to the next via a floor plan laid out using a golden section or “phi” ratio. The nine zones, Pattern Play, Art Effects, The New Tradition, Modern Art, Pretty in Pink, My Favorite Icon, Fantastic Classic, Jungle Fever and Library, intermix vintage and one-of-a-kind objects, furniture and design fixtures with playful elements inspired by quotes from famous personalities like Robert de Niro and Piet Mondrian.

“The idea was to blend art to and within living space. An art Installation concept seemed to be the solution. “Seamless Insertion” is the design platform that connects art in the similar way to how life flows freely within a well-designed living space,” comments Sinthawanarong.

Facing a demanding deadline of just two weeks to conceptualise and design the pop-up space and two more weeks to work with sub-contractors to bring the project to fruition, Sasivimol Sinthawanarong and Attapon Wiboonyanon also had to work with more than 10 artists that included textile designers, stylists, painters, sculptors and graphic designers to pull together nine completely different looks for the spaces within the pop-up cafe. Additionally, in each of the thematic spaces in the cafe, the design team incorporated vintage furnishings and decorative elements that were featured in various issues of the interior magazine throughout its ten years of existence and were picked out by the magazine’s contributors for the publication’s anniversary.

Sinthawanarong elaborates on the eclectic selection: “The decor elements were set up to help facilitate an ambience and to create unique living spaces. Our intention when designing such displays was to create visually appealing ‘vignettes’ presented in a functional form and appealing colour and texture combinations similar to those that people may choose for their own personal living spaces.”

Rebranding Lloyd's Inn for IndesignLive

As part of the complete rebranding challenge for Lloyd’s Inn, a luxury boutique hotel near Orchard Road, multidisciplinary practice FARM has taken a no-frills, minimalist approach that strips down the hotel’s image to its bare essentials and captures the hotel’s holistic mission. Olha Romaniuk has the story.

While located in close proximity to one of the most bustling shopping districts in Singapore – Orchard Road – Lloyd’s Inn’s hidden location is a testament to the hotel’s pledge to stay in tune with nature and allow its visitors to completely unwind and disconnect from the outside world. “The owners felt that more could be done to the hotel, given the fantastic site (right smack in town but surrounded by gardens),” FARM discloses. “They basically wanted people to look at it again. They also wanted something simple but exciting and wanted to take advantage of the surrounding site.”

Recognising the hotel’s commitment to being a sanctuary to the weary traveller, FARM’s branding approach reflects this pledge in the minimalist design of the hotel’s new logo, collaterals and website that, in turn, tie in together with the new stripped down interior of the hotel. As a result, all parts of the physical and digital design elements work together to create a cohesive look to reveal the hotel in a new light.

While the previously conventional logo of Lloyd’s Inn did not disclose anything about the hotel’s mission, the new memorable and playful logo design immediately creates a strong statement about Lloyd’s Inn as a brand. The mischievous letters of the alphabet vary in size and alignment, attesting to the hotel’s recognition of the individuality of every traveller staying on its premises. “We just continued pushing how the treatment of the typography could work where it needs to be applied, and tried to have some fun with it at every new opportunity.”

The playfulness and light-heartedness of the brand carries over into the interiors of the hotel’s otherwise minimalistic room décor. Room names, like Big Sky Room, Patio Room and Business Loft, reflect the individualistic attitude that is integral to the hotel’s mantra. Against the base unifying elements of raw wall and floor finishes, unexpected nooks and openings provide sights of nature, washes of light and glimpses of the sky that make every room different from one another. As part of the overall branding experience, AllSense was even roped in to create a unique scent just for the hotel – one inspired by a peaceful walk in a tree-lined forest.

FARM’s team of designers readily admits that the final holistic branding approach was made possible through many discussions over what would and would not work for different elements, spaces and functions within Lloyd’s Inn. “The brand design was applied a lot more strictly to collaterals compared to the spatial design where nature and materials have greater effect. But as the brand is applied on spatial elements like signages and in the lobby, it gets a bit more fun. For example, we developed a neighbourhood map introducing places around the hotel as part of the experience and this was made into something more interactive in the lobby.”

“It was very challenging but the opportunity was also there to create something really special. We were looking both inside out and outside in at the same time. Not very typical in a hotel design, where it’s usually one or the other.”

COMPETITIONS Magazine: Interview with Silvio d'Ascia

Porta Susa Railway Station, Turin, Italy by Silvio d'Ascia Architecture

with Olha Romaniuk 

COMPETITIONS: You moved from Italy to France in 1993. What was your decision behind moving and starting your architecture firm in Paris?

Silvio D'Ascia: Ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to be an artist and, ever since the first time I went to Paris when I was 12 years old, it was a childhood dream of mine to live in such an artistic city. After receiving my degree in Italy, I came to live in Paris and was supposed to stay only for a few months. This temporary visit turned into an opportunity for me to stay and work in France.

COMPETITIONS: How do you find the architectural scene in France compared to Italy?

SD: The main difference between Italy and France is that in Italy there was not a competition system in place in the 1990s. Every country in Europe looked at France as a place where it was possible for a young architect to participate in and win competitions, as well as be paid for competition participation and have a chance to do research even if the competition fee was not so high. During the first year of my firm in Paris, we participated in 9 public competitions. It was a great opportunity and my main reason behind the decision to stay in Paris.

COMPETITIONS: Were competitions always a part of your firm’s strategy to acquire new work or has that been a fairly recent development?

SD: Competitions have always been important for my own career as they paved the way for me in many areas. In the beginning, during my first four or five years in Paris, I was associated with another architect and we won several competitions together. And in 1999, as we went our separate ways, I entered an anonymous international competition for the Palais de Congrès, going against architects like Richard Rogers and Rafael Vinoly, with Norman Foster as the president of the jury. Massimiliano Fuksas won the competition and I received a second prize. This competition marked the beginning of Silvio d’Ascia Architecture.

One and a half years later, after the above-mentioned project, we won another competition for the Turin (Italy) high-speed railway station. This was the beginning of the next chapter of my professional experiences and projects. The Turin high-speed railway station has brought many other commissions in the railway and transport sectors for the firm.

COMPETITIONS: How do you decide which competitions to go after?

SD: In certain instances, some clients invite us to participate in competitions. For example, since we now have numerous references and a lot of experience in railway station projects, there are companies that call us to join forces and enter competitions that deal with similar building typologies.

For these types of competitions, it is common to see joint ventures between public and private partnerships. A competition brief frequently asks for a private enterprise to join forces with an architect. Thus, it is not unusual to see many private companies come to us with a goal to develop a design proposal for a competition. There are several projects that we are currently working on with private companies.

Then, there are public competitions that we go after because the competition subject or brief is interesting to us. For example, we recently won a public competition for a data center for the RATP (a public transport operator) in Paris, in which the competition brief was what prompted our participation. In the end, the types of competitions we go after vary, but we always search for a challenge where we can get a chance to do interesting research.

COMPETITIONS: Amongst your projects, many of them are railway stations. Since this is a very specific building typology that requires some expertise, what interested you in pursuing transit station projects in particular?

SD: My interest in these kinds of building projects started in 1993-1994 because the subject of my Ph. D. thesis was about the new type of urbanity for the city of the next millennium. It was an idea that started to evolve while I was living in Paris because in this city, there has already been some experimentation with the idea of an intermodal station - a station that is a link between a subway, a regular train, a high-speed train and other types of public transportation. The question was how to conceive these links as not just purely engineered spaces but as urban spaces linked to the historic sense of the surrounding context of the street and the city.

The Porta Susa Railway Station in Turin was the first big international competition of this kind of building typology, conducted in two stages with the first stage being anonymous. Based on my studies of the concept of the street in the 19th century cities, we worked with the idea of incorporating the street and its commercial components into the design of the station.

COMPETITIONS: You’ve also done quite a number of projects in Asia. Were there any difficulties working on projects in Asia? How did you resolve these difficulties?

SD: Our work in Asia started 11 years ago with a competition for the central library of Beijing. It was the first time we entered a competition in China. It was a good experience because competitions in China are very quick and the results are also announced very quickly. We did another competition for a financial center, and then we entered 7-8 competitions shortly thereafter. Since then we have completed two major projects for the Bank of Shanghai and the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

When we started working in China some time ago, there was not much attention to details but I am pleased that our ideas have been carried through in our built projects.

 COMPETITIONS: How did you work around the time difference and distance when working on your projects in China?

SD: There is an 8 hour difference between France and China. At the end of the workday in China, we would call the office in Paris to relay the progress. For this reason, it was almost a continuous effort, with the combined offices working 24 hours a day. It was hard in the beginning, spending months in China carrying on with this sort of schedule and travelling back and forth for 7 or 8 years, twice per month. Now that the two building complexes are finished, we are focusing more on European projects with a little less emphasis on the Asian market.

COMPETITIONS: How did you win the Data Centre for the Bank of Shanghai job?

SD: The client asked the competitors to translate into architectural language the strength, power and solidity that are often associated with a bank building. Our idea was to model a building complex after a fortified castle. We used some references of castles and villages in Tuscany as an inspiration for the design proposal. This approach worked well for the size of the project, with 10 hectares of land and 14 buildings, each sized at 10,000 - 15,000 square metres. In a way, the building complex was like a small, protected village, with its own life carrying on inside, complete with a park and public places where people could connect with each other.

We strengthened the contemporary urban image of the Data Center by using grey granite, exposed aluminium and continuous glass curtain walls. These materials characterize the overall minimalist design approach of the Data Center, with building elements unified by a continuity of material application.

COMPETITIONS: What projects are you working on at the moment?

SD: We are in the process of submitting a competition entry for another railway station in Paris close to la Défense. We are also working on a flagship shopping center in the South of France in Marseille, a 5 star hotel in Capri, as well as an office building in Nancy. We are interested in projects where we can explore how to preserve the heritage of European cities while incorporating new buildings into this urban context or renovating existing ones. Incorporating the integrity of old materials with new technologies and new materials is important for our agency.

COMPETITIONS: What projects are you interested in pursuing in the future?

SD: There is this new reality of a data center. We talk a lot about what is the cloud? What is a data center? Our society is presented with this new idea of a data center and we are still exploring what such a center could really mean as a building type. For that reason, we are interested in working on more projects that deal with this new emerging typology. For the moment a lot of these kind of buildings are done without the architects’ help and we would like to change this current way of thinking.

We would also like to continue designing railway stations. In Europe, high-speed train design also implies bringing a new urban environment, new commercial areas to the surrounding context. I see a lot of opportunities to use railways stations as starting points to develop the city outwards.

Finally, there are opportunities to rethink commercial centers. In France, commercial centers lose 30% of their business due to the increasing importance of internet commerce. If we take the old model of operating a commercial center, we will find it no longer works. There are many opportunities to rethink this experience by integrating new facilities and functions, such as spaces for children, sports and leisure.

COMPETITIONS: What is the design philosophy of the firm?

SD: To have a unifying element for a new urbanity: to accept that the 20th century image of the city is not working and to go back to what worked within cities in ancient times, principles that have been around for a long time and have developed over thousands of years. We look for inspirations from the past, without being postmodern. We investigate utopian projects to see how we can translate ideas from those projects in a contemporary manner, focusing on and preserving the quality of life for people. Thus, we seek to find and preserve the soul of the past quality of urban spaces but translate this in a modern way and with modern