Tabla de contenidos para Issue 9 en Design Anthology, Asia Pacific Edition

Chihiro Tanaka Japan My designs explore the multifarious expressions of light through an ongoing series of creative experiments that involve studying the properties of heat-resistant materials, repeatedly testing illumination-producing electric bulbs for permeability and glare, and giving form to unique ideas in a way that resembles a couturier’s draping technique. By using the same process employed in haute couture dressmaking — first study the materials and then design the product — my ‘light couture’ is a study in intimate interactions of light and materials. It’s not just the illumination of space that I hope people experience; I want to bring a sense of harmony to people and their feelings through light. Whether switched on or off, a lighting fixture is an important design element of any space and a conspicuous…

The most famous of the Cyclades islands, Santorini is one of the most photographed destinations in Greece, and a top choice among honeymooners. A volcanic eruption in 1600 BC left the island with a crescent-shaped underwater caldera in the middle of the Aegean Sea, where today picturesque villages cleave to the cliff ’s edge. Almost as awe-inspiring as the island’s striking topography is Santorini’s unique architecture, with its smooth-edged, whitewashed, vaulted cave-style dwellings that have become one of the island’s main tourism draws. Known as an yposkafo, the traditional cave house of Santorini is essentially an archway carved into the rocky cliff face of the caldera. ‘Santorini’s volcanic soil, aspa, has self-supporting structural properties that allow one to dig in without it sinking inwards. Cave houses allowed for large interior…

The laid-back port town of Onomichi in Hiroshima Prefecture is probably only familiar to Japanese cinema buffs, who might recall the elderly couple from Yasujiro Ozu’s 1953 classic Tokyo Story living in the city. An important trading port in ancient Japan, Onomichi later became home to a domestic dockyard and a shipbuilding industry. More recently, it has attracted local and international attention thanks to the renovated warehouse Onomichi U2, which houses a hotel, bar and shops catering to cycling fanatics. The project’s architects, Hiroshima-based Suppose Design Office, are also behind another of the city’s new gems: the seaside house called Shumatsu, meaning ‘the house for friends’. Facing a narrow strait,the house is cleverly placed to exclude views of the local dockyards and is used as a getaway and social venue…

From his social media stream, you can tell that landscape architect Chang Huaiyan leads quite the adventurous life. Last check he was in Rajasthan, holding the reins of a camel while gazing off into the orange glow of the setting sun. A few months back, there was a photograph of him standing under giant trees in a Bogor forest, and last year he was building a temporary cinema above the lush, wild treetops of Borneo, patronised by curious monkeys and hornbills. Even from the name of his Singapore-based studio — Salad Dressing — it is clear that Chang is no ordinary creator of leafy landscapes. A contemplative, explorative language defines his work, which includes curvaceous waterscapes reminiscent of terraced rice paddies at The Minton condominium, reflecting pools that embrace an…

Vancouver is a city that has over the years generated a rich mix of monikers. ‘Vansterdam’, as one might guess, refers to its lax attitude towards recreational drug use and especially marijuana, and a drive through the city reveals pipe shops, cannabis clinics and ‘dispensaries’ at regular intervals. ‘Hongcouver’ is a stab at the Chinese population that surged in the run-up to the 1997 handover, and has grown in popular usage despite Chinatowns and dim sum joints established in Vancouver’s earliest history. And ‘The City of Glass’, taken from the title of Douglas Coupland’s 2000 book, nods to the monolithic clear glass towers that dominate the city skyline — the result of a spectacular building boom in the 90s as Vancouver positioned itself for world city status. Today, Vancouver’s foremost…

Christian Liaigre, Bangkok Another new standalone showroom for French master of luxe minimalism Christian Liaigre has opened in Bangkok. Located in the new Noble Solo development in the Thonglor neighbourhood of Bangkok, the showroom will be managed by Liaigre’s own neice, Isabelle Riccioni, who has worked for the company since its first showroom opened in Paris in 1987. The Bangkok store will be a completely immersive environment, showcasing the designer’s collection of rugs, furniture, lighting and accessories. christian-liaigre.fr Hay, Shanghai Danish furniture brand Hay has recently opened a third retail space in China, in the Yanping district of Shanghai. Since launching in 2002, the brand has expanded to more than 30 stores worldwide.The 400 square-metre Yanping Road location will display the brand’s full collection of affordable furnishings, accessories and stationery.…

Our pick of the most stylish outdoor furniture, lighting and accessories…

Geoffrey Bawa was an unlikely candidate to lead a movement.The younger of two sons born to an affluent Burgher family (mixed colonial European and local Sinhalese heritage) in Ceylon society, Bawa read English at St Catherine’s College in Cambridge before being called to the bar in 1944. Though he preferred to stay in Europe and lead a life of leisure, Bawa was summoned home to attend to his ailing mother and reluctantly joined a local law practice. Described on more than one occasion as ‘aloof ’, he would later recall that his greatest joy during this period was driving the Rolls Royce he’d purchased in England down the seaside boulevards of Colombo. Less than two years later, after the death of his mother,Bawa left the legal profession and set out…

Surrounded by lush, rolling hills and overlooking the bush landscape of Kangaroo Valley, this former olive plantation in New South Wales provides the perfect escape from hectic urban life. Located along the coast midway between Sydney and Canberra,the Ooralba property was originally built 15 years ago in a mash-up style that combined Texan ranch with Swiss chalet. More recently, however, Nicholas Graham & Associates under creative director Nic Graham has led a thorough redesign of the property for the new owners, who wanted a contemporary look — with Australia at the heart — and a different layout for more connectivity. ‘The project started through a mutual friend and client in Hong Kong,’ recalls Graham. ‘We talked a lot about our shared vision for the ideal country property and we travelled…

         A new home offers the perfect excuse to start over, and that was exactly what one couple was looking for when they commissioned American architect Johnny Li of Li & Co to help create their dream home on the beachy southern side of Hong Kong Island. The relatively secluded 500-square-metre site — created by joining two adjacent parcels of land with unobstructed panoramic ocean views — also offered a rare opportunity to situate the new three-storey house within a verdant setting. ‘Our mission was not to build a “monument”but to instead create a home that would integrate in an unobtrusive way within the site and that would be a comfortable retreat, not simply a style statement,’ says the designer. Given the garden setting, Li turned to Japanese architecture for…

The Singaporean dining scene is booming, seemingly in tandem with the burgeoning cultural scene. A spate of new museums have been unveiled — five in the last year alone — alongside an ever-expanding roster of gallery spaces, many with stylish in-house bars, cafes and restaurants. One such establishment is Empress, located inside the new extension to the Asian Civilisations Museum on the north bank of the Singapore River. Singapore-based Takenouchi Webb was charged with designing a space to serve as a backdrop to Chef Ricky Leung’s modern take on traditional Cantonese cuisine.The furnishings and light fixtures — bespoke creations by the design duo — lend the space a classic yet contemporary Chinese feel, and are complemented with flourishes of brass, mirror, marble and hand-painted silk wall coverings. The striking six-metre…

The 1980s saw the end of a decades-long dictatorship in the Philippines. In its wake, the emergence of an American-style mall culture populated by a rapidly expanding consumer middle class spurred the growth of the commercial art scene. The SM Megamall in Metro Manila notably transformed its Level 4 arcade into a hotspot for local art collectors, offering some 90 per cent of Manila’s newly minted scene. That art scene has since outgrown its adolescent comfort zone, and today contemporary art can be appreciated in a variety of new venues and redevised spaces within both the private and public spheres. ‘The local art collector base today is lively and growing because there is a built-in audience in Manila already,’ states Alexandra Seno, a celebrated culture writer who works closely with…

It is simply called House with Bridges. Yet nothing is simple about this residence in Singapore’s affluent Bukit Timah neighbourhood. Designed by RT+Q Architects, the three-generation family home is a heroic effort to make the best of a small and difficult site, client preferences and the Singapore authorities’ notoriously strict building regulations. Situated above road level, the 665-square-metre site would have been a relatively roomy plot in Singapore but for the existing 14-metre tiered retaining slope at its rear. The owner, a former advertising agency creative director, was aware that the slope rendered nearly a third of the plot unbuildable, but seeing tremendous potential bought the land anyway. The required spatial programming was extensive; it called for a wing for herself and her film director husband, a separate wing for…

       There’s an old French maxim that goes, Le luxe est une affaire d’argent. L’élégance est une question d’éducation. This succinctly sums up the mantra of Florence Lim, Philippines-born interior designer, art collector, boutique owner and all-round style guru. Lim’s refined home in Singapore, set in a lush location of hanging gardens and hundred-year-old heritage trees, is the very essence of elegance itself. Intriguing and exuberant as the owner, the apartment is layered with tactile fabrics and textures, and embellished with classic and contemporary art. Lim discovered the apartment through a random invitation. ‘A good friend who now lives below suggested I take a look at the flat, and it was love at first sight,’ she recalls. ‘I’d been looking for a few months but was shown cramped places that…

In the early years of Singapore’s independence from Malaysia, the Singaporean Dream was all about the pursuit of material wealth (and the flaunting of it) known as the five Cs: cash, car, credit card, condominium and country club.While the first is self-explanatory, a credit card signified that one had wealth enough to be extended a line of credit and a country club membership meant one had prestige enough to hobnob with the city’s elite. Car and condominium are a bit more particular to Singapore. The cost of owning a car is comparable to the cost of raising a child, given the high taxation and a quota system that requires would-be owners to bid for a license — ironically called the Certificate of Entitlement. And condominium living necessarily involved facilities like…