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It takes a special kind of person to just roll with it when things go sour. With Dennis Cheok, when life gives him lemons, he doesn’t just make lemonade; he turns it into an Avant Garde sculpture with a story to tell.

Interview With Dennis Cheok: A Series Of Serendipitous Circumstances & Sweat

SIXiDES is an interior design tech and renovation platform that uses tech to change the way people renovate their homes. Conceived as a means to safeguard aspiring homeowners in realizing their space with ease and peace of mind. SIXiDES unique features provide an integrated solution that guides the users right from the very beginning till the end of the renovation journey.

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When it comes to show rooms, it&rsquo;s more than a pretty face. It&rsquo;s a pretty face with a deep and resonant story to tell. A story that speaks to the soul. And that it takes a special storyteller to bring out that tale. And that person is Hilary Loh. Co-founder of 2nd Edition, Hilary began life as an architectural assistant, but her love for the minute details saw her make the jump from that career into interior designing. And since then, she&rsquo;s just been sweeping up accolades after accolades.So many that they would require their own article, but some of them include the Singapore Good Design Award 2022, winner of the Taiwan Interior New Talent Award (TITAN) 2021, and the Luminary Award for Best in Exhibition Design at Singapore Interior Design Awards (SIDA) 2020. She also served as one of SIDA 2022&rsquo;s Youth judges. We had to send in a team to encircle and trap her just to get an interview with her. <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1671758709634-2nd+Edition+-+Ki+Residences+-+19.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Photo: Ki Residences <p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-gradient-from-position: ; --tw-gradient-via-position: ; --tw-gradient-to-position: ; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; --tw-contain-size: ; --tw-contain-layout: ; --tw-contain-paint: ; --tw-contain-style: ; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid rgb(229, 231, 235); margin: 0px;" id="isPasted"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-gradient-from-position: ; --tw-gradient-via-position: ; --tw-gradient-to-position: ; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; --tw-contain-size: ; --tw-contain-layout: ; --tw-contain-paint: ; --tw-contain-style: ; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid rgb(229, 231, 235); font-family: Roboto, ui-sans-serif, system-ui; font-size: 24px; color: rgb(29, 71, 93); font-weight: 700;">Every Artist Has Their Humble Beginnings. What Was Yours? What Got You Into Interior Design?I&rsquo;ve always been fascinated by the composition of objects in shapes, colour and texture since I was young. I grew up in Ipoh, a town in West Malaysia, and left for Singapore at 18 to continue my tertiary education at Singapore Polytechnic.&nbsp; After that, I stuck around here and I moved between architectural firms for 10 years as an architectural assistant. I detoured from that path to follow my inner voice to follow my passion &ndash; <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/guide-choosing-an-interior-designer-in-singapore">interior design</a>. I really like to examine things in a micro way, so I thought interior design was a good fit. It was then that I got recommended to Park of Park + Associates Architectural Firm (we would eventually form 2nd Edition in 2005). He was looking for someone to look at his project and I suspect that he didn&rsquo;t know that I had, at the time, zero experience in interior design.&nbsp; So he asked me to just go for it and I started work with one of his clients, a developer. That&rsquo;s how I started on my first show flat and I never turned back. I figured things out along the way and the client had trusted me to get the job done. That&rsquo;s how I got started. Even to this day, show flats are still exciting; there&rsquo;s always something new. It&rsquo;s quite different from doing residential or commercial work. It&rsquo;s fun to create. Show flats are a lot like staging; creating a story. That&rsquo;s what makes it exciting. It never gets tiring. The journey from founding a boutique studio, organically growing it for 17 years, and getting recognized through accolades and portfolios, validates my continuing balance of authenticity, style, and <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/6-hacks-for-more-functional-modern-bathroom-designs">functionality</a> in design statements.&nbsp;If You Were To Redo Your Life, Would You Skip Interior Design Altogether?Yeah, I think so. I never tire of what I do. When you see a space, how do you design and compose it? When you can&rsquo;t work it out, it weighs you down, but once you get it, the satisfaction is amazing.&nbsp; Usually the solution is all very simple, not complicated. Good design is all about simplicity and being authentic. That keeps me going. Just like writing, you&rsquo;ll get to a point and you go, &ldquo;Yes!&rdquo;. With writing, there&rsquo;s no true satisfaction &ndash; just constant self-criticism. Then you and I have something in common (laughs).&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1671758784897-2nd+Edition+-+3+Orchard+by+the+Park+-+26-min.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Photo: 3 Orchard by the Park Who Is Your Inspiration In Interior Design?Sue Carr. She&rsquo;s a co-founder of Carr Design Group based in Melbourne, Australia. A client paired us up with her company as their local build partner for a local project. The longer I worked with them, the more I was sure that I wanted to adopt her as my role model.&nbsp; She&rsquo;s in her 70s but her work remains consistent. Quiet and strong. The lines in her work look so simple but so hard to achieve. I follow their Instagram and every time I look at their new posts, they just strike me speechless. She&rsquo;s been running the business for over 50 years so, in comparison, we&rsquo;re still very young (laughs). That&rsquo;s one way to make ourselves feel young for much longer. Yeah! And we shouldn&rsquo;t complain about being tired! But seriously, for her to still have that energy to continue to tirelessly do what she does? You want to know why. That&rsquo;s why I look up to her. Another inspiration is Patricia Urquiola, a Spanish architect, industrial designer and art director. She designs quirky pieces. She&rsquo;s basically the complete opposite of Sue. She&rsquo;s a typical Spaniard that celebrates life with colours and approaching work with a sense of humour. I think we all need that in life (laughs). How Has She Influenced Your Work?It depends on the work. With show flats, we role-play; we have scripts. Different scripts work with different people. Roleplay? Scripts? Tell me more! When designing a sales gallery and show flats , you&rsquo;ve got to create a story&hellip; a script. Think of contexts, experiences and audiences. In that way, that makes the job of designing a show flat meaningful and exciting. So You&rsquo;ve Been Talking A Lot About Show Flats. Do You Do Any Residential Work?Only 10% are residential projects for end users and 90% are project development, sales gallery and show flats.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1671759000915-2nd+Edition+-+MORI+Showflat+-+33.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Photo: MORl Showflat Every Artist Has Their Proudest Work. What Would You Say Yours Is?Presently, that would be MORI. Mori brings you on a journey through two show units which are presented in contrasting light and dark themes, centred around the main philosophy of <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/wabi-sabi-is-not-wasabi-design-la">Wabi-Sabi</a>. The light unit represents a home in its most natural and authentic state, designed to reflect a love of handmade quality , with clay tiles, sandy textured paint, and terracotta tones. The dark unit embodies the art of finding beauty in imperfections and the natural cycle of growth and decay of materials over time. The scheme is a darker, more rugged and textured finish, with selections of burnt wood and tarnished metal to represent the timelessness and fortitude of such materials. <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1671759029376-2nd+Edition+-+MORI+Showflat+-+28.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Photo: MORl Showflat What Guides Your Work? What Would You Say Your Design Philosophy IsStay true to my values, being sincere with emphasis to create unique and distinctive solutions organically. Projects should maintain a balance of authenticity, style and functionality with subtlety and boldness whilst preserving any essence of discovered beauty and purity. It Is Said That No Idea Ever Comes From A Vacuum. What Inspires Your Work? Where Do Your Ideas Come From?By being a good listener to the design brief and react instinctively, be open minded, and contextual. I like to approach things organically. First instincts, impressions, or ideas are always the best. And that&rsquo;s where we begin, fine tuning it along the way. Having to force an idea onto a project often ends badly. What Is One Advice You&rsquo;d Like To Give Up And Coming Interior Designers?Be unwavering, unrestrained, unconventional, and unconditional.

When it comes to show rooms, it’s more than a pretty face. It’s a pretty face with a deep and resonant story to tell. A story that speaks to the soul. And that it takes a special storyteller to bring out that tale. And that person is Hilary Loh.

Interview With Hilary Loh: More Than Just A Show

It’s easy to get lost in the glitz and glamour of what others have. So much so that it usually takes something, or someone, to get you find out who you really are and what you really want. For property owners, that someone might be Leon Luo.

Interview With Leon Luo: Being Authentic

&nbsp; More is less. Or is it less is more? Or just more or less? Sometimes, too many things and thoughts get in the way of actually getting things done. However, you if want someone who&rsquo;s laser-focused about what&rsquo;s important and getting it done, See Wee&rsquo;s your guy. See Wee is the Design Director of Wee Studio, and it was founded in 2012. A true-blue interior designer from the very beginning, he received his degree training from Nanyang Academics of Fine Arts (NAFA).&nbsp;&nbsp;Being a founder and director, it was hard to reach him but, fortunately, he left his office window open. So, we let ourselves in and wrangled an interview out of him. <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1678165033685-Article85-1.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> What Was It That Got You Into Interior Design?My interest in tools-making and hands-on activities was piqued through lion dancing, which I participated in since young from watching seasoned performers do their act during Chinese New Year celebrations.&nbsp; Wow, Really? Lion Dance?Yeah, we&rsquo;ve been at it for close to 30 years now. I started out young. It was through lion dance that I had the opportunity of prop-making. I&rsquo;d say that ever since, I&rsquo;ve always had an interest in the technical and design aspect of things. After high school, I chose to go into the interior design course which would allow me to pursue this interest. I find lots of satisfaction with completing end-products and spatial experiments in this line of work.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1678165074178-Article85-2.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> Safe To Say That It&rsquo;s Had A Big Impact Your LifeI would say that, partly, this has helped to streamline my thought process &ndash; the thought process of design and prop-making are similar, and so is the satisfaction that comes with a job well done. It was really what got me started down the path to becoming an interior designer. What Were Some Of The Challenges Of Starting Up Your Own Business?When I started out, it was a unique situation as there weren&rsquo;t many young designers who had their own practice. Many relied heavily on connections and word of mouth to reach out. So, for us young designers, we used social media &ndash; which was relatively new at that time &ndash; to showcase our profile. I was surprised at the positive responses we received. How Have You Grown?In the past, I had my much-respected mentors who &ldquo;tekan&rdquo; trained me, old-school style &ndash; very army-like. They used to throw us into the sea, let you figure things out by yourself, and then they provide feedback. They drilled me a lot; do it a hundred &ndash; no, a thousand times. That said, I&rsquo;m pretty glad I survived this. Hand-sketching was another thing that was prevalent. Every day, even today, I&rsquo;m sketching daily &ndash; it is part of my thought process. If you ask juniors to do the same, they&rsquo;ll show you a digital sketch instead. Their way of expressing things are different these days. The old-school style really helped in my training.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1678165105733-Article85-3.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> Who Are Some People That You Look Up To &ndash; Your Heroes?Jean-Marie Massaud and Mies Van de Rohe. Their design directions inspire me &ndash; the way they are <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/minimalist-masterclass">minimalist</a> in their approach. I lean towards that. I like clean cut, uncluttered designs.&nbsp; What About Your First Experience Doing Interior DesignBefore National Service enlistment, I spent half a year as an exhibition designer. It was my foundational training. I was learning the ropes from very experienced professionals.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1678165124729-Article85-4.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">&nbsp;What Would You Say Is Your Most Memorable Work?I would say my own apartment which I&rsquo;ve been living in for some time now. It&rsquo;s experimental and unconventional. There are some things that has been in the back of my mind which I wanted to try but couldn&rsquo;t because of practical reasons and such.&nbsp; One of the things we experimented with, was mounting a mirrored ceiling that weighed at least 300kg. It was a huge liability &ndash; I wouldn&rsquo;t be able to let my end user shoulder the responsibility without scheduled routine checks. Design, in most cases, must solve basic <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/6-common-home-design-mistakes-that-will-cost-you">design challenges</a>. For example, my <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/6-hacks-for-more-functional-modern-bathroom-designs">bathroom</a> basin mixer, instead of being mounted on the tabletop or basin, was mounted from the ceiling. For others, they&rsquo;ll worry about knocking their heads trying to wash their face in that sort of sink. <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1678165144080-Article85-5.jpg" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> What&rsquo;s Your Design Philosophy?Unique-selling Point (USP) and Keep It Simple and Straightforward (KISS). With USP, I&rsquo;m thinking about how jobs often end up being a problem-solution type project &ndash; you&rsquo;ve got a problem, here&rsquo;s how we solve it. Bear it in mind that it is equally important to have positive talking points in a project. For example, we were working on an F&amp;B project in a shophouse. Most shop-house will have airwells in the centre of the house, but this one didn&rsquo;t. What we did was to put a light box that was flush with the ceiling to create an &ldquo;airwell&rdquo; effect. It really stood out and the shop owner would often invite customers to have all day dining under the &ldquo;natural skylight&rdquo;.&nbsp; On the flipside, if you have too many USPs, you lose the &ldquo;wow&rdquo; factor. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; For KISS, sometimes common sense isn&rsquo;t so common. If you think too deeply about everything, you lose focus. Keep it simple. Focus! It&rsquo;s a simple strategy to tackle design problems. You may lose sight of the overall theme if you keep focusing on the small things.&nbsp; Where Do Your Ideas Come From?&nbsp;One of our approaches is based on site observation. At this point, it&rsquo;s second nature, instinctual for us. It helps us understand the contextual requirements of each project. Other times, it&rsquo;s right from the design briefs when we meet our clients and vibe off each other. Or it can be from a photograph, a certain mood, a certain colour theme. There is no hard and fast rules on this one.&nbsp; What&rsquo;s Your Advice For Up-And-Coming Interior Designers?Have passion. It can be challenging in this career. You must have an eagerness to make your way through and see the end-product.

More is less. Or is it less is more? Or just more or less? Sometimes, too many things and thoughts get in the way of actually getting things done. However, you if want someone who’s laser-focused about what’s important and getting it done, See Wee’s your guy.

Interview With See Wee: Keeping It Simple

You got a new home, and you want it to be uniquely yours. Your hand reaches for a magazine for inspiration, when, out of the blue, SMACK!

Interview With Dennis Cheok: A Series Of Serendipitous Circumstances & Sweat

It takes a special kind of person to just roll with it when things go sour. With Dennis Cheok, when life gives him lemons, he doesn’t just make lemonade; he turns it into an Avant Garde sculpture with a story to tell.

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