Inside our first DesignSingapore Showcase: Enter the designers’ worlds
At The Gifting Edition 2024, Boutiques is thrilled to champion original design in Singapore by welcoming three visionary designers and design studios in collaboration with DesignSingapore Council. Showcasing refreshing, unconventional approaches to design and materiality, Tan Wei Xiang, STUDIO KALLANG, and GIN&G each bring a fresh perspective on the world of furniture design that we are excited for you to see in person. This showcase marks an exciting new partnership with DesignSingapore Council, the featured designers, and OuterEdit, the creative agency leading the showcase’s spatial design.
“It’s not just about the objects on display; it’s about the emotions, the dedication, and the thoughtfulness that went into creating them.”
— OuterEdit
Taking inspiration from designers’ creative flows, OuterEdit has designed a space that offers an intimate look into the featured designers’ worlds and encourages candid conversations. In addition to highlighting the beauty in materials visitors might otherwise overlook, the spatial designers are deeply mindful of how the installation can have a life beyond the showcase by using durable materials that can be easily repurposed — post-Boutiques, showcase materials will go on to be repurposed in student projects in collaboration with NUS Department of Architecture, NAFA Furniture & Product Design, and Temasek Polytechnic School of Design.
In that spirit, join us in catching up with the designers before discovering the showcase in person this November.
Tan Wei Xiang
Tan Wei Xiang enjoys exploring a range of materials and techniques, bringing an element of discovery and transformation to every piece he creates. By drawing on the cultural landscape of Singapore, his designs invite users to engage with furniture in unexpected ways. Portrait courtesy of Tan Wei Xiang.
Hi, Wei Xiang!
Can you tell us more about what inspires your work?
Wei Xiang: My inspiration draws from the unique identity of Singapore. The cultural diversity, history, and modern urban landscape all play a significant role in my creative process. I aim to capture this identity in my designs, making pieces that feel distinctly Singaporean yet globally relevant.
Sustainability is also at the heart of my work. I believe that good design should be thoughtful about resources and the environment, so I focus on materials and processes that minimize waste and maximize longevity. This way, each product isn't just an object but a piece with a responsible footprint.
Finally, I’m passionate about creating an emotional connection with the users. I want people to feel something when they interact with my designs—whether it’s a sense of familiarity, comfort, or curiosity. When people feel that connection, the product becomes more than just furniture; it becomes part of their story.
Wei Xiang’s showcase at Boutiques will feature Versa, a lamp made for EMERGE @ FIND 2024 . Say Wei Xiang, “the inspiration for the Versa lamp came from a desire to blend sustainability with emotional connection, while keeping functionality at the core. I wanted to create an object that users could truly make their own. The idea of allowing people to attach their own fabric as a lampshade was a big part of that vision. Inspired by the way embroidery hoops hold fabric taut, I designed the lamp so that users can easily switch out fabrics without any tools. This not only makes the lamp highly customizable but also adds value by turning the shade into a personal expression, almost like a piece of art on the wall.” Images courtesy of Tan Wei Xiang.
As a furniture designer, how do you seek balance in the intersections of art, design, and commerce?
Wei Xiang: Balancing art, utility, and commerce starts with storytelling for me. Every piece begins with a narrative that brings out a unique story or emotion, and that artistic aspect guides the design’s direction. From there, I focus on functionality—ensuring the piece serves a real, practical purpose in daily life. Finally, I consider the feasibility of production, finding ways to make the design efficient to fabricate and accessible. By layering each of these priorities, I can create pieces that are meaningful, functional, and commercially viable, allowing the design to resonate deeply with people while still being practical to bring to market.
Why the interest in experimenting with different materials and techniques?
Wei Xiang: My interest in mixed media really stems from the narrative I want each piece to tell. For me, every design has a story, and sometimes that story calls for more than one medium to fully express it. When a certain material feels like the core of the product, I’ll build around it, letting it guide the rest of the design process. It’s an approach that not only keeps my work dynamic but also ensures that each element contributes meaningfully to the overall experience. In the end, I want each piece to feel cohesive and purposeful, where each material is there for a reason.
Wanting to evoke a sense of familiarity by drawing from everyday sights, Wei Xiang designed the After Chair around the blue striped tarpaulin. To Wei Xiang, the chair reflects Singapore as a growing young nation, where construction sites are a reflection of rapid, ongoing development. Image courtesy of Tan Wei Xiang.
The Guardian Side Table was an exercise in discipline. Designed to be both minimalist and sustainable, Wei Xiang sought to reduce both material waste and labour by using the minimum amount of a single material as well as fabrication hours in the manufacturing process. Image courtesy of Tan Wei Xiang.
What are you most excited for at Boutiques?
Wei Xiang: I’m both excited and curious! This is my first time showcasing my work with the intention of selling it, as I’ve always approached exhibitions purely as a chance to share my designs and ideas with others. Now, I’m looking forward to seeing how people connect with my pieces in a more personal, commercial setting. Boutiques offers such an intimate setting, so I’m eager to hear visitors’ responses and understand what resonates with them. It’s a new chapter that’s both challenging and rewarding, and I can’t wait to see how my designs engage people in this context.
STUDIO KALLANG
STUDIO KALLANG is the brainchild of designer Faezah Shaharuddin. Between Faezah’s formal design education and family furniture manufacturing background, the studio’s blend of traditional craft and contemporary design produces furniture and home accessories that are at once playful, sophisticated, and nostalgic. Images courtesy of STUDIO KALLANG.
Hi, Faezah!
It’s been 3 years since you started Studio Kallang. How has your practice evolved since?
Faezah: STUDIO KALLANG was founded in 2021 after graduating from design school in the US. The brand was a way for me to reconcile the sometimes disorienting nature of living between Asia and the West and turn it into something tangible, relatable, and understood.
I think my practice has matured since the beginning, and I’ve tried to push myself more in terms of materiality, concepts, and references. I feel like there’s a lot more restraint in the work, but I try to maintain the playfulness and humour because I think that’s what makes it unique and relatable. When playfulness and sophistication come together, there’s a sense of depth to the work. There’s an initial reaction of “Oh, that’s fun”, but also a sense of something underneath that.
At Boutiques, STUDIO KALLANG will be showcasing Portals, a recent work made for EMERGE @ FIND 2024. The stainless steel frame creates a brilliant, reflective surface, while the upholstered frame is more reminiscent of traditional craft techniques. In Faezah’s words, this contrast questions: “How are the materials interpreted differently although they share the same form or blueprint? How do we perceive, value, and carry ourselves differently in different contexts, within different frames?” Image courtesy of STUDIO KALLANG.
What was the inspiration behind Portals?
Faezah: Portals consist of two mirrors — one with a polished stainless steel frame and the other with an upholstered frame in beaded fabric. Combining the two distinct materials brings up questions surrounding the perception of materials and their value, and how the materiality of objects can affect our perceptions of ourselves and the spaces we occupy.
There is a tendency in the design world to value modernism, minimalism, and rigidity, along with expensive, industrial, high-tech materials, while simultaneously devaluing traditional craft, such as textile arts and weaving. This value system is also tied to ideas of masculinity and femininity and how these traits are valued differently in different societal contexts.
What are you most excited for at Boutiques?
Faezah: Interacting with our customers in person and meeting fellow vendors!
STUDIO KALLANG works closely with wood and metal craft communities in Indonesia to create pieces like the Hilu stool/side table (left) and Onde mirrors (right). Growing up around these communities as a teenager, Faezah found it natural to collaborate and seeks to help preserve these craft traditions and communities. Image courtesy of STUDIO KALLANG.
Alongside Portals and the Hilu and Onde series, STUDIO KALLANG is also developing new works that will be presented at Boutiques. Here’s a peek at Faezah’s design renders of the upcoming pieces, which will be small tabletop objects and accessories in stainless steel. Images courtesy of STUDIO KALLANG.
GIN&G
Helmed by architecturally trained interior designer Georgina Foo and maker, artist & architectural designer Genevieve Ang, GIN&G brings beauty and meaning to spaces through interior design, industrial design and the creation of experimental artworks and design objects unique to each project. Photography (right) by Finbarr Fallon. Images courtesy of GIN&G.
Hi, Georgina and Genevieve!
Can you tell us more about your collaborative process and the studio’s design philosophy?
GIN&G: Both Genevieve and Georgina are architecturally trained, and approach every project with an intent to craft a considered spatial narrative beyond fleeting interior trends. Georgina’s astute eye for details and intuitive flair for spatial storytelling, combined with Genevive’s rigorous research-driven, yet experimental creative style allows for our different methodologies to guide each other, forming new design languages along the way.
Beyond designing beautiful spaces, we desire to be a testbed and a research laboratory for novel design ideas. To us, sustainability in design is a devotion of time and willingness to explore new ways of designing and a conscious and continuous re-evaluating of the materials that goes into the fabrication of our built environment. Through prototyping new ways to design objects or the reimagining of how materials deemed conventional as waste can be given new life and to create a platform for cross collaboration between other designers, artists, makers and suppliers; we hope to start a design dialogue that would engage the industry meaningfully.
Two STUDIO GIN&G pieces visitors can discover at Boutiques are the LIGHT table lamp and LEANING chair. Created especially for a sustainable urban home designed by GIN&G, they are part of a wider collection of bespoke furniture pieces showcased at EMERGE @ FIND 2024. Photography by Finbarr Fallon, courtesy of GIN&G.
What’s the the story behind the choice of materials in LIGHT and LEANING?
GIN&G: LIGHT and LEANING are custom pieces that are facets of a residential interior project belonging to the owners of Pass It On Studio, a sustainable urban living retail concept. Their design brief to us was to experiment with using a new alternative material they supply, a biocomposite sheet material that is integrated with agricultural waste — such as coconut and rice husks, eggshells and coffee grounds — and to incorporate these materials into the design and construction of the interiors and their custom furniture.
We consciously designed in a way that utilised the materials efficiently and minimised waste. This influenced the playful semi-circular motif in LIGHT and LEANING, which allowed cut-outs or leftover materials from one furniture piece to be repurposed as a building material for another.
LIGHT (left) was named for the studio’s optimism towards shedding light on and reimagining waste materials, and while LEANING (right) symbolises the necessary interdependence within the design industry required to advance more sustainable approaches to design. Photography by Finbarr Fallon, courtesy of GIN&G.
What are you most excited for at Boutiques?
GIN&G: We are always in awe of the really strong curation of local businesses and brands that participate in Boutiques Singapore every year and are definitely honoured to be a part of this year’s installation. We look forward to meeting with like-minded businesses and brands, as well as the conscious consumers to be inspired by the conversations that will spark, as well as new ideas and innovation.
Also showcasing at Boutiques: CHANCE is a custom wall light sculpture designed by STUDIO GIN&G for FURA, a plant-forward bar and restaurant, and will also be showcased at The Gifting Edition 2024. Inspired by FURA’s ethos of partnering the local network of food supply vendors, Gin&G reached out to local partners such as glass company Synergraphic Design, who supplied the studio with the glass off-cuts used in CHANCE. Image (left): Photography by Rice Eater Productions, courtesy of GIN&G. Image (right): Photography by Design Anthology, courtesy of GIN&G.
Discover Tan Wei Xiang, STUDIO KALLANG, and GIN&G at the DesignSingapore Showcase in Room 3A, L3, at Boutiques Singapore: The Gifting Edition 2024, which returns to the F1 Pit Building from 22-24 November. Get your tickets online now. Works shown at Boutiques Singapore will be available for purchase in limited quantities and as pre-orders.