Singapore’s award-winning architects WOHA unveil their lifestyle brand of furniture, lights, carpets, accessories and bathware.
20 June 2017
You’ve seen their iconic buildings (Parkroyal on Pickering and that famously furry green and red tower Oasia Hotel Downtown), but now, architecture firm WOHA is launching its lifestyle brand WOHAbeing, and have given local media a special preview ahead of the official debut at France’s premier interior design fair Maison & Objet in September (autumn edition).
WOHAbeing is a curated collection of furniture, lights, carpets, accessories and bathware produced in collaboration with both local and regional manufacturers.
Some of the products were developed from versions created for past WOHA projects and some are completely new. Says WOHA founder Richard Hassell, “Over the years WOHA has created many products for our projects. WOHAbeing is an interesting opportunity to see how the market will respond to them. We are excited to see the feedback that we will get at the fair.”
WOHAbeing’s inaugural showcase will comprise four collections. Bintan is a collection of furniture inspired by the rural area of Indonesia’s Bintan Island. “Bintan is so close to Singapore but it has a very different environment. It is interesting to experience this rural, wild environment with a Singapore mindset,” shares Hassell.
The two chairs previewed from the collection, Turtle and Crab, took their forms from the turtle and hermit crab found on the island. The chairs are made with plywood and upholstered with hand-printed fabric from India. “We wanted them to refer to the history of design, like the Eames’ plywood chairs, but still have that quirky, handcrafted touch,” says Hassell.
For the Diaspora ceramic tableware collection, WOHA collaborated with Luzerne – a homegrown ceramic tableware brand with production facility in Dehua, China’s capital of porcelain production. The collection draws from Peranakan and other ‘overseas Chinese’ cultures with classic colours and geometries that tell the stories of the Chinese diaspora.
Conceived in collaboration with premium handcrafted bathware brand Apaiser, the Sampan collection draws inspiration from Singapore River and the shape of traditional sampan. The collection includes a bathtub designed to overflow like an infinity pool. “We want the bathware to feel more like furniture,” comments Hassell.
The Ulu collection comprises accessories and lighting products with a distinct visual language that mixes ancient Indian and modernist design vocabularies. The collection includes furniture pieces made with concrete produced in collaboration with Industry+, chandeliers produced in collaboration with UK-based glass maker Wonderglass, and a carpet collection with a tessellated design produced by rug atelier The Rug Maker.
Following the debut presentation at France’s Maison & Objet in September, the collection will be shown at the National Design Centre in Singapore in December.
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