NEW HIGHLIGHTS AT IFFS 2012
The inaugural Singapore Furniture Design Week held in conjunction with the International Furniture Fair Singapore 2012/29th ASEAN Furniture Show (IFFS/AFS 2012), Deco Asia and The Hospitality Show 2012 in March at the Singapore Expo, presents two new highlights - the ‘48 Hours Showroom Makeover Challenge’ and ‘30 Chairs Life Stories’. The two exhibits will demonstrate the past, present and future of furniture design in Singapore. High-end fashion retailer, Bonia has also come on board as the presenting sponsor for ‘SingaPlural’. Bonia will also put up an installation of style and elegance at *SCAPE.
The first of its kind in Singapore, the ‘48 Hours Showroom Makeover Challenge’ is a competitive design project that aims to help local retailers to draw consumers’ interest in buying furniture through creating exciting visual sensorial experience in their showrooms. This project – a collaborative effort between retailers and the design institutions, will see the participants race against time to recreate the existing retail showroom space within 48 hours.
A panel of jury consisting of international and local design professionals and media will judge the contest. The ‘48 Hours Showroom Makeover Challenge’ will be held at retail stores in Park Mall. The participating retailers and design institutions are LASALLE College of the Arts, who will be recreating the retail space in Xtra, NAFA to recreate Cellini Design, Inspiration Design School to AIR, Nanyang Polytechnic to Acanthus Collection and Temasek Polytechnic to Scanteak.
As part of ‘SingaPlural’ – the inaugural Singapore Furniture Design Week, Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC) has invited 30 multi-disciplinary creative representatives in Singapore to participate in ‘30 Chairs LifeStories’.
The chairs are proudly sponsored by Comfort Design and will be exhibited in *SCAPE, Park Mall and Singapore Expo as one of the key highlights of the Design Trail from the 9th to 12th March 2012.
A piece of iconic Singapore “Kopitiam” chair will be provided to all for their imaginative reinterpretation and expression of this archetypical object with a new meaning or dimension and even relates one’s life story. The objective is to let the designers create a conversational piece of design or art installation that express their vision which encapsulate the spirit of Singapore’s design community in finding new form of expression through this iconic “Kopitiam” chair.
Expect to see works from Asylum, the design team who has bagged home countless international design awards, and worked with names such as the Wanderlust Hotel, 54th Venice Biennale and En Haute Joaillerie. Kelvin Teo, the founder of Space Sense, and Oon, a Singapore-based design company who constantly challenge themselves against traditional boundaries of design to bring forth a new generation of furniture design.
Another main highlight of ‘SingaPlural’ is Design *Scape, a concept which alters the conventional way of individual exhibition and transforms a congregated platform for local designers or talents to showcase their design artworks. This basically offers a great opportunity to see a group of companies in one convenient location where different brands will be on show from international, commercial and residential brands to emerging local labels.
Invading the spaces at *SCAPE with their creative furniture designs are local designers Cilicon Faytory, Kelvin Teo and Oon as well as international Dutch designer, Pepe Heykoop, who is known for his ‘Skin Collection’ by Studio Pepe Heykoop.
An installation of style and elegance - ‘Birds of Affection’, by the presenting sponsor Bonia, uses the idea of a bird sanctuary to feature a massive nest where birds of paradise and affection fly and strut around in elegance and exquisiteness. “The bird sanctuary is a reflection of Bonia’s fine craftsmanship and style. We want to use this fine art to resonate the classic Italianism and modern day splendour of the true Bonia brand”, said Daniel Chiang, Director of Bonia.
The Design-Larger-Than-Life public installation brings together the understanding of environmental sustainability and producing works that speaks the ‘Green & Eco’ concepts.
Also moving up on the association's leadership ladder during NAHB's Orlando board meeting was Charlotte, N.C.-based home builder and developer Rick Judson, who was elected to be NAHB's First Vice Chairman of the Board. As owner of Evergreen Development Group, Judson has several decades of
experience in land development and construction of single-family, multifamily and commercial projects.
Kevin Kelly, a Delaware builder and developer with more than 30 years of experience in the building industry, was elected as the 2012 Second Vice Chairman of the Board. Kelly has been a builder and developer since he joined Leon N. Weiner & Associates in 1979 and became actively involved at the Home Builders Association of Delaware. His building experience includes land development, multifamily and single-family home building, construction financing and property management.
Tom Woods, a Blue Springs, Mo.-based home builder, joined the NAHB leadership ladder with his election to the post of Third Vice Chairman of the Board. Woods is president of T.E. Woods Homes, a company he founded in 1974. His firm has developed scores of communities and more than 1,000 homes in the Greater Kansas City area.
2011 NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, from Reno, Nev., remains on the leadership ladder as Immediate Past Chairman. Nielsen is president of Shelter Properties, a development and management company headquartered in northern Nevada.
