Singapore passion & style

01

INDUSTRY Ideas for the office from the Salone Internazionale del Mobile held in Milan 2009: Singapore Mozaic, Pinker and Flexible Love.

A fusion of east and west business practices, dynamic design capabilities and versatile production resources, characterise Singapore’s Mozaic brand. It brings together a collection of Singapore furniture companies that offer a diverse portfolio of consumer, business and specially crafted products. Passion for improving the world people live and work in, combined with an experienced management, a skilled workforce and proven infrastructure help to generate consistent, progressive product ideas. It is a b2b brand that encapsulates the essence of Singaporean furniture as well as the attributes of the Singapore furniture industry. The brand encompasses more than 2,000 companies employing in excess of 14,600 people. There are currently 34 ambassadors for Singapore Mozaic, each possessing qualities synonymous with the strengths of the Singapore furniture industry.

LIVING IN A ‘PINKER OFFICE’ Karim Rashid, visited the Singapore Mozaic booth at the International Furniture Fair in Milan (April 09). The concept of the ‘Happy Hoffice’ perfectly blends with Rashid’s conviction that a happier future could be possible through better designed products.

twsm How important is it to make the working environment comfort-

01 Singapore photoshoot in Milan. Roberto Benzi (photographer), Pina Draskovich (Art Director), Paola Ratclif (journalist) portray tourists from different countries walking along the most important places of the city (in the picture the Teatro La Scala Place). The Sunday Armchair, distributed by Air Division, is designed by Nathan Yong. 02 Flexyble Love is a paper armchair designed by Chishen, a young designer based in Miao Li, Taiwan.

able to improve the quality of work for workers? kr I think that the office environment almost needs to be more inspiring than home, and needs to be softer and more flexible, more casual. This is the age of casualization, a digital age, an ecological age and a design age with new materials. Environments are more colourful, tactile and make you feel alive while you are at the office. This in turn makes you more productive.

twsm Which furniture elements have more influence in improving the welfare of workers? kr We’ve all known this for many years: the chair itself is the most important object in the work environment because it needs to be very low-profile and ergonomic. The second element is the desk: it needs to have a more human and friendly relationship with its user.

twsm Which are the most utilised materials in creating a more comfortable working environment? kr A lot of polymers, rubbers, all these kinds of soft, polished and smart materials are the wave of the future. We need sustainable, recyclable materials. Other materials like glass and wood are hard materials and they don’t really spice up the workplace. •

02

From insecurity to sustainability

If in our collective imagination, cardboard boxes are the equivalent to laid-off workers and insecurity, cardboard itself can otherwise link to another concept. Hopefully much more suitable to the future, is cardboard’s link to sustainability. This concept underpins FlexibleLove, experimental furniture which incorporates an accordionlike honeycomb structure to create durable and functional pieces produced from widelyavailable, low-cost recycled materials. FlexibleLove furniture pieces are made wholly from recycled paper and wood products, and are made using pre-existing manufacturing processes in order to reduce their overall impact on the environment. Flexiblelove’s designer is Chishen, a young designer based in Miao Li, Taiwan. The name ‘FlexibleLove’ was derived from the concept of a ‘flexible love-seat’seating that could hold from one to as many as sixteen individuals; changing length and shape with a simple pull at each end.

(left) The newyorker designer Karim Rashid for Pinker.