After a three-decade design career in which he contributed to Singapore’s evolution from a manufacturing to service-based economy, Low Cheaw Hwei is now embarking on a new chapter of design consultancy and pushing the agenda of design through setting up a design think tank. It is an ideal complement to his advocacy work in pushing for the embedding of design into Singapore’s education system. He believes our future depends on the creative and innovative thinking that design nurtures.
Through its theme of ‘Better by Design’, the festival explored sustainability, social care, the climate crisis, inclusivity and more.
Ten years ago, Prasoon Kumar left his corporate architecture and urban planning career to tackle an often-discussed but never-resolved problem: homelessness. He co-founded BillionBricks and transformed it into a for-profit climate tech venture in 2020. He is now innovating in the area of sustainable affordable housing with the ethos of never designing poorly for the poor.
From his early years as a DesignSingapore Scholar to his current roles as a practitioner, teacher, and curator of design, Hans Tan has spent his career deciphering, developing, and sharing an insightful perspective on what design can be and do. Now, as the Curatorial Director of the Design Education Summit 2023, he is sharing the message that creativity is in everyone – and design is one of the best ways to apply it.
From hands-free dressing systems to wheelchair-accessible clothing, fashion designer Claudia Poh is on a mission to make life better for people with limited mobility. Through her brand Werable, she intends to empower, enable, and enhance life – and at the same time, make adaptive clothing as desirable as any other branch of fashion.
The emotional resonance of design has always guided Studio Juju. Since 2009, Co-founders Priscilla Lui and Timo Wong have created furniture, lighting, objects, installations, and spaces that have a way of making you pause and contemplate – often with an accompanying feeling of joy or wonder. Having established their name internationally, they are currently exploring opportunities to develop cultural resonance with design in home soil.
Local and international success in the furniture design sector takes grit no matter where in the world you are based – even more if you are charting new paths. Since the 1990s, Nathan Yong has carved out new market territory as a designer, brand developer, and retailer of contemporary furniture in Singapore, simultaneously establishing himself in the international design ecosystem. This self-made ‘designpreneur’ (and now educator) has excelled at assessing creative opportunities in balance with the realities of business viability.
A potent mix of sustainable design, social and environmental care, behavioural nudges, and future visioning bubbles beneath the surface at multidisciplinary design studio Forest & Whale. For Co-founders Wendy Chua and Gustavo Maggio, design for twenty-first-century realities is a process of interdisciplinary collaboration, conversation, and exchange.
