Transporting Design: Singapore

New Year… New Blog! Today marks the first in a series of once-monthly trips around the world with yours truly, JAC Interiors! Published every first Monday, this Transporting Design series will dive deep into a different world capital of design with each post, taking you on an exciting design journey with the intent to inspire and expose you to what’s new and trending in every corner of the globe.

With that, let’s take off across the Pacific to one of the coolest and most innovative cities in the world: Singapore and it's modern Asian interior design!

Despite its reputation as staunchly conservative with harsh penalties for what we might consider minor nuisances (no chewing gum, no spitting), the less than 300 sq. mile sovereign city-state packs a major punch when it comes to all types of design, from architecture to interior design to fashion, all capped off by the stunning Marina Bay Sands complex (Moshe Safdie, 2010).

Beginning in 2014, the "Lion City" has held Singapore Design Week (coming up in March!) as a one-stop-shop for all things design. The event has positioned the city as the design capital of Asia and a major player in the design world at large. One of the most renowned design shows, Maison &Objet, has twice departed from its home in Paris to partner with Singapore Design Week as an international trade host, exposing the Asian market to European design and fostering a truly global design economy. The city's architecture seems free from traditional concepts of scale and form and features otherwise risky designs that have helped elevate the city to worldwide acclaim.

The Louis Vuitton island at the Marina Bay Sands features incredible glass walls all around. The translucency brings in light day and night and creates a wonderful sense of airiness and expansion. The store also makes use of many natural woods, a theme found throughout much of Singaporean design culture.

One of our favorite Singaporean design firms is Akar de Nissim. Combining Eastern and Western heritage, the company’s products feature clean, modern, efficient lines, but with a certain fragility and sensuality reflective of traditional Asian inspired home décor, but not typically found in, say, Scandinavian or German designs.

Look for exciting new things from Akar de Nissim and other designers to come out of Singapore and their modern eclectic style and sweep the world! And look forward to JAC’s next installment of Transporting Design, where we reel it in and take you somewhere just a little bit closer to home. Where? Well, you’ll just have to tune in next month!