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After earning his degree in architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Leon Yap began his career as an Architectural Associate. In that time, he was part of a prestigious architectural firm that won several awards including the World Architecture Festival Award 2019 for their work on Oasis Terrace. In his nine years in the architectural field, his work was often integrated with interior design work, where he developed his passion for it. Now Head of Creative at Sixides, we catch up with him about what got him here to his inspirations behind his designs. <h2>Every Artist Has Their Humble Beginnings. What Was Yours? What Got You Into Interior Design?</h2>Well, I was just really into arts and crafts and building stuff. Something about how they looked on the outside that genuinely captivated me. Probably got it from traveling around in and out of Singapore(pre covid days of course).&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1643350330960-1643350330960.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"><h2> </h2><h2>Oh? What Was Your Favourite Place You Visited Before?</h2>There wasn&rsquo;t actually a single favourite one. However, the most recent one was in Spain. The architecture there was rich in culture and simply amazing, so different from modern Singapore. It was like traveling to scenes you can only find in the movies!<h2> </h2><h2>So You Mentioned How You Liked The Look Of How Buildings Looked Which Buildings Are Your Favourites?</h2>The one that stands out for me is the Burj Khalifa.<h2> </h2><h2>Boy, Does That Ever! That&rsquo;s The Tallest Building In The World, Second To None.</h2>It is! And it&rsquo;s not just how the building looks, which in itself is pretty awesome, but also how they built it. I loved how the tower cranes rose up with the building, how they brought it down. Things like these which we do not think about normally when a building is being constructed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1643350330983-1643350330983.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"><h2> </h2><h2>You&rsquo;re Not Just Into Building Design And Interior Design, You&rsquo;re Kind Of Secretly An Engineering Geek Too! So How Did You Turn Out To Be An Interior Designer?</h2>Well, I DID say I started out with traveling, sketching and doing artsy stuff. But buildings are my jam. Naturally, I started out with architecture, got my degree in it, and started working on all things to do with buildings. I guess, as a natural course of my work, I got exposure to <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/guide-choosing-an-interior-designer-in-singapore">interior design</a> as well.&nbsp; <h2>What Would You Say Is The Biggest Difference Between The Two Disciplines, Architecture And Interior Design?</h2>I see architecture more as the large-scale, macro-level of things, while interior design is like the cherry on top, focusing on the finer and intimate details that is the individual spaces.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1643350331020-1643350331020.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"><h2> </h2><h2>What Would You Say Was Your First Real Foray Into Interior Design? Any Particular Job To Mark The Occasion?</h2>It was a job in a part of Singapore with a whole lot of conserved historical buildings in Amoy Street. It was super challenging to work with because, as with all conserved buildings, there was a massive list of things we couldn&rsquo;t do to the building. Things like the fa&ccedil;ade and supporting structure. That said, that project holds a special place in my heart: despite all the restrictions, we didn&rsquo;t just work around them, we worked with them.<h2> </h2><h2>Every Artist Has Their Proudest Work. What Would You Say Is Yours Is?</h2>I&rsquo;ve got to unabashedly say my own home. I completed it last year and it&rsquo;s the culmination of all the work and experience I have put into my own personal project. There&rsquo;s something to be said about working on jobs versus making something for yourself. I give my 100% to my projects for sure, but when it&rsquo;s something personal, and you know you&rsquo;re going to live with for the next 20 to 30 years, there&rsquo;s real heart in it. It&rsquo;s given me a greater appreciation for the work I do, particularly with homes.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1643350331047-1643350331047.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"><h2> </h2><h2>What&rsquo;s The Theme Of Your Home? And What Would You Say Is Its Pi&egrave;ce De R&eacute;sistance?</h2>I went with the <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/minimalist-masterclass">minimalist</a> look, with plenty of whites and neutral colours. As for its feature piece, definitely the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/bomb-shelters-to-dress-or-not-to-dress">bomb-shelter feature wall</a>. The standard ones were just ugly; there&rsquo;s no polite way to put it. So what I did was to turn it into a hidden door. You know those hidden doors in mystery movies, the kind you pull on the candle holder, and it opens? That&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s like.&nbsp; <h2>What Guides Your Work? What Would You Say Your Design Philosophy Is?&nbsp;</h2>To me, design is a powerful tool to drive positive changes to cultivate the surroundings, environment, and community. If it doesn&rsquo;t do any one of those things, it just feels wrong.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1643350331065-1643350331065.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"><h2> </h2><h2>It Is Said That No Idea Ever Comes From A Vacuum. What Inspires Your Work? Where Do Your Ideas Come From?</h2>Everywhere! To be more specific, it&rsquo;s travelling around the world. Singapore is a relatively young country and doesn&rsquo;t have quite as rich a history as a lot of other places. Places in Europe, Japan, and Korea, to name a few, have centuries and centuries of stories and culture built into their architecture and design. I like bringing elements of these into my design because it has character based on history we can&rsquo;t find anywhere else.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s Been A Real Pleasure Having This Time With You. Before We Go, What Is One Advice You&rsquo;d Like To Give Up And Coming Interior Designers?Don&rsquo;t be afraid to be bold. Try new designs; do things out of the norm. You&rsquo;ll never know what your client will be impressed by.

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After earning his degree in architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Leon Yap began his career as an Architectural Associate...

Interview With Leon Yap: From Architecture To Interior Design

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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If you&rsquo;ve ever wondered what a self-made man looks like, just look at that portrait up there. That&rsquo;s self-made, right there. That&rsquo;s Ethan Goh. Ethan is what they call a technical interior designer: one with no formal industry education, but loaded with real life work exposure. Passion got him there but it wasn&rsquo;t easy. He had to start in IT marketing but sheer tenacity was what landed him where he is today. Armed with a truck-load of experience, practical knowledge, and, most importantly, a sterling reputation for amazing work, he became the founder and lead designer of Ethan Interiors. Honestly, all that is just the tip of the iceberg. We caught up with Ethan to wrangle the rest of his humble beginnings out of him. Now that we&rsquo;ve got you seated down, tell us about your beginnings. Every artist has one. What got you into interior design?(Laughs) My dad is to blame. He used to drive past Yio Chu Kang after school and I admired the buildings as we went by. I didn&rsquo;t have the words to describe it then, but I guess I loved the clean lines back then. &ldquo;Why so different?&rdquo; I used to ask. I&rsquo;ve since fallen down that rabbit hole. However, it took a long time to get there. Why? What Happened?Grades. I wasn&rsquo;t doing great at school and didn&rsquo;t get enough to enter into polytechnics to study interior design. So I ended up with an IT diploma instead.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1645772509317-1645772509317.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Mr Chow(left) and Jolin(right) were my colleagues who helped me a lot back then. Hang On&hellip; Really? That&rsquo;s Got Nothing To Do With Interior Design. Or Art.Tell me about it. &nbsp;My career started with IT marketing for some multinational companies. Which wasn&rsquo;t too bad, really. I got good enough that I tried my hand running my own marketing gig. Several times. After one too many false starts, I asked myself, &ldquo;Why not try interior design again?&rdquo;&nbsp; That&rsquo;s When You Got Into Interior Design?Not immediately. But I did get a marketing role at one of the local interior design firms. A year later, I put in a request for an internal transfer to the interior design team. My boss at the time graciously approved. I&rsquo;d be transferred in six months. Six months of hell as I juggled between marketing and visits to the national library learning everything from lighting, ID culture, and the differences between <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/pick-right-pros">contractors and ID</a> (there&rsquo;s a lot!).&nbsp; It Almost Hurts Just To Listen To That. Did You Ever Regret The Journey?No. Never. If I hadn&rsquo;t slogged through all that, I wouldn&rsquo;t have picked up what I know now. I don&rsquo;t just have the ID know-how, I&rsquo;ve also got marketing experience.&nbsp; Which, I Understand, You Put To Great Use.Yes, but not quite in the way most see it.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1645772555521-1645772555521.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Mr Salleh(far left) and Ms. Aini(second from left) helped me along when I first started EI. How So?My success wasn&rsquo;t just me. It was due to the goodwill of homeowners I once worked with. When I was out of work due to the pandemic, homeowners I had worked with suggested I start my own <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/spilling-the-beans-4-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-id-industry-in-sg">ID firm</a>. It started with one; they offered their own home as a showcase for my work. I don&rsquo;t really know how, they became the first of many others who would eventually help me get on my feet. Through their satisfaction and faith in me, I started Ethan Interiors at a time when most businesses were closing shop. Within a year, we had so many inquiries that my pioneer team of eight couldn&rsquo;t keep up, and we had to expand. You&rsquo;ve Got Killer People Skills. Should&rsquo;ve Gone Into PR!I think I like where I am now. <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1645772663224-1645772663224.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Karin Bohn&rsquo;s YouTube Channel printscreen&nbsp; Nonetheless, That&rsquo;s A Super Inspiring Story. Speaking Of Inspiration, Who Is Or Was Your Inspiration For Interior Design?I&rsquo;d have to say a YouTuber from Vancouver, Karin Bohn. She pretty much formed the foundation of my design philosophy. I think why she resonates so much with me is her beginnings: passionate about interior design but had to struggle to get where she is today. She stood out from the rest with how adaptable she was, easily putting together amazing designs with whatever&rsquo;s at hand. Really good at recycling materials and keeping homes sustainable.&nbsp; <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iAd2gnmeLu8?autoplay=1&mute=1&wmode=opaque&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" style="width: 100%; height: 50vw;"></iframe>&nbsp;Check out the video of Ethan&#39;s Segar Road project! What&rsquo;s Your Proudest Work? Every Artist Has One.474 Segar Road.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1645761575200-1645761575200.png" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width: 100%;"> Yeah? Why&rsquo;s That? Give Us The Deets!Personally, I love black with gold accents. This was pretty much an excellent excuse to indulge in that with this home, simple as that. The dark theme worked really well with the blend of modern elegance and classic European look. Let&rsquo;s just say the owner was completely floored by the results.&nbsp;The other thing that I really love about this one, is how everything came together so neatly. No other project met the time frame as perfectly as this one did. There were so few unexpected surprises we were starting to get a little worried; we thought we missed something. I&rsquo;d say only 5% of the work had unexpected challenges (Editor: 10% is typical for most interior design projects. At 5%, this was far better than average.). Everything was on the dot. This project essentially became the benchmark for all future projects.&nbsp; What Guides Your Work? What Would You Say Your Design Philosophy Is?&nbsp;Steve Jobs once said &ldquo;Design isn&rsquo;t just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works.&rdquo; I firmly believe that. Art of interior design is all about how we experience spaces. I have always loved design with clean and crisp lines, where textures and accents speak the designs, but it has to be functional too. With that in mind, I really want Ethan Interiors to be trendsetters, always applying <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/modern-luxury-interior-design-singapore">modern</a> approaches to familiar challenges. <img width="602" src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1646382994868-1646382994868.png" class="fr-dib">Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels It Is Said That No Idea Ever Comes From A Vacuum. What Inspires Your Work? Where Do Your Ideas Come From?Nature, really. Organic stuff. At present, dark gray rocks with gold linings appeal to me the most; akin to veins of gold found in the earth. The Japanese art of kintsugi (the art of mending broken pottery with lacquer mixed with gold or other precious metals) comes to mind. Come to think about it, I guess you could say that both nature and art work together to inspire me. <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1646382942935-1646382942935.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Day to day work Ethan and team And You Are Very Inspiring! Before We Part Ways, What Is One Sdvice You&rsquo;d Like To Give Up And Coming Interior Designers?Be passionate, and never let your circumstances stop you from exploring new ideas. It&rsquo;ll never be a bed of roses. And there will be thorns. The interior design industry is really tough where only the most resilient thrive.

If you’ve ever wondered what a self-made man looks like, just look at that portrait up there. That’s self-made, right there. That’s Ethan Goh.

Interview With Ethan Goh: Self-Made Designer

A design graduate from Parsons School of Design, New York, and founder of Home Philosophy, Rashi turns everything into gold with a bit of clever spending and zero compromise. So much so that homes she’s touched...

Interview With Rashi Tulshyan: The Midas Touch

Mark Teo is an Assistant Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology. He obtained his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Melbourne and, later, attained a Master of Science in Environmental Management at the National University of Singapore. 

Interview With Mark Teo: Every Space A Story

&nbsp;What do you do when you&rsquo;re trying to have a fresh new take on life but you&rsquo;re too comfortable with the familiar? You call in the cavalry who can remake the familiar into something exciting. You call Melvin Keng. Founding principal architect at Kaizen Architecture, Melvin&rsquo;s been leading this young practice of four folks since 2019 (yes, just prior to Covid-19 lockdowns). He&rsquo;s got 11 years of architecting under his belt, amongst which he has worked for such illustrious companies such as RT+Q Architects Pte Ltd, residential home specialists, under Rene Tan. Kaizen Architecture does everything from Architecture to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/guide-choosing-an-interior-designer-in-singapore">Interiors</a>&nbsp;to Furniture.Melvin&rsquo;s a busy individual, but we managed to ambush him for this interrogation interview.&nbsp;Every Artist Has Their Humble Beginnings. What Was Yours? What Got You Into Architecture?Myself. My parents didn&rsquo;t encourage architecture (laughs). At the time when we were deciding on courses at university, we had a neighbour who was one. Life was hard for him. He worked long hours and didn&rsquo;t get to see much of family. My mom said that shouldn&rsquo;t be the trajectory I should be heading for. My parents wanted me to take up biomedicine or bioscience instead. Most parents did at the time.That said, I applied for architecture as my first choice anyway, against their wishes (laughs), and biomedical/bioscience as my second. I didn&rsquo;t get my first choice, to my parents&rsquo; delight. However, I finally got in after I secretly reapplied for architecture the following year. I don&rsquo;t know if that&rsquo;s considered humble (laughs).&nbsp;What Did Your Parents Think?At the end of the day, I think most parents would respect what their children have decided on. But, obviously, mine weren&rsquo;t too pleased. If I had continued on with biosciences, I would probably be in pharmaceutical research by now. And earning more too (laughs). However, I&rsquo;ve always imagined myself to be in design in some way. When I was young, I would draw burning buildings and firemen saving them. I also studied art. I was from Victoria School and took the art elective. When it came to university, there wasn&rsquo;t really a specific design course, but there were two design-related courses; architecture and industrial design.&nbsp;So It All Started With Drawing Buildings On Fire?(Laughs) Followed by pursuing art at school.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1653615770842-1653615770842.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit: Khoo Guo Jie (Ally Singapore) Where Did You End Up Studying At?The majority of my education was at the National University of Singapore &ndash; the Architecture School. Then I did a short stint at Melbourne University in an exchange programme. The university has an amazing campus. Super beautiful. At the time, around 2006, I felt that Melbourne was the design capital of the region. It was eye-opening. Every shop there had a concept. There was this brand, Crumpler, and they had shops everywhere but each one was different. One which I stepped into had a carpet of grass throughout the shop. For me, Australia was really cool.&nbsp;Who Is Or Was Your Inspiration In Architecture And Interior Design?In school, I was still figuring things out, so I didn&rsquo;t really have anyone that I looked up to. Not even historical figures. However, I was very fascinated by Japanese <span style="color: rgb(65, 177, 239); font-family: Roboto, ui-sans-serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 500; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: underline; float: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted"><a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/modern-luxury-interior-design-singapore">modern</a> contemporary architecture, but that was about it.It was only after I graduated that I got a mentor that I really look up to &ndash; Rene Tan. He was a huge inspiration. We&rsquo;re still friends now even after moving on. I&rsquo;m a big believer in a &ldquo;master and student&rdquo; relationship, especially in architecture, to help build up your skills, mentality, and exposure. He was my historical basis reference point on how architecture can be perceived. It was then that I was inspired by the modern greats like Mies van der Rohe and Richard Meier &ndash; people who gave birth to modernism.&nbsp;Speaking Of Inspiration, What&rsquo;s The Inspiration Behind Your Instagram Layout?We&rsquo;re very fortunate enough to have had someone who&rsquo;s very good at social media. Instagram can be a medium to show nice photos, but it should be a way to tell stories. In our practice, it&rsquo;s not just about good work or design. Can it be expanded beyond the physical space into the digital space? It has to tell a story.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1653615770866-1653615770866.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit: Khoo Guo Jie (Kernel Furniture Showroom) What Would You Say Was Your First Real Foray Into Architecture?People would naturally say that their first build is their proudest or most important because it&rsquo;s the first one they did. However, to me, the first one I was truly proud of was one I completed in 2016. I had been in the company since 2010, so it took me six years before I found a project that I could really say I was most happy with. It was a bungalow off Holland Road. It was called the House with Shadows.&nbsp;Sounds OminousIt&rsquo;s actually quite poetic. It&rsquo;s a house that&rsquo;s really brought to life when light streams in. You won&rsquo;t miss this house if you Google it up. At the time, the company principal didn&rsquo;t micromanage projects, especially when you&rsquo;re matured enough, so you could express yourself. The House with Shadows project was an expression of who I am as a person and how I approach architecture and materials.<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1653615770895-1653615770895.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit: Kaizen Architecture (Good Chance Popiah)&nbsp;What Guides Your Work? What Would You Say Your Design Philosophy Is?As a practice, Kaizen looks at three aspects.&nbsp; First, we are precedent researchers. We go back and focus on the fundamentals of architecture and design. Scale, proportion, and composition are things that you can&rsquo;t mess with. They are what we fall back on which makes for good use of space and design.&nbsp;Second, with the fundamentals in place, we consider how we can create a different perspective on the common. For example, when we were designing a popiah place, we didn&rsquo;t just create a place that sold popiah. We asked ourselves, &ldquo;Could we make this like a ramen stall in Kyoto?&rdquo; That&rsquo;s not the usual association but it presents interesting alternative results. It&rsquo;s not to say that we&rsquo;re trying to break the norm, but we always thinking about alternatives to familiar things.&nbsp;Lastly, by extension of the previous two points, like our namesake, we practice &ldquo;kaizen&rdquo;: that we&rsquo;re always improving. The word came from Toyota when they were trying to rethink the way their business would run. We adopted the word to mean that we improve how people perceive how they live and see spaces.For any project, we keep these three ideas in mind. <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1653615770926-1653615770926.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit: Fabian Ong (Ribbon Apartment)&nbsp;It Is Said That No Idea Ever Comes From a Vacuum. What Inspires Your Work? Where Do Your Ideas Come From?Anywhere. However, my most interesting ideas come when I&rsquo;m in the shower. Sometimes we get stuck looking at a problem. That&rsquo;s when I tell my staff that we&rsquo;ll all go back and think about it. For days, we might not get an answer and then oddly, a spark happens when I&rsquo;m showering. That&rsquo;s when something always appears and usually it&rsquo;s the day before a presentation. My poor team, I have to thank them for bearing with my idiosyncrasies because we&rsquo;d be toiling over a project and it&rsquo;d be my last-minute shower-idea that gets selected.&nbsp;Personally, I&rsquo;m very into the culture around us. When I say that, it&rsquo;s not the pretentious thing where you go to museums to enjoy art. I&rsquo;m talking about pop culture. What&rsquo;s happening around us? Can we get inspired by the latest TV show, like Squid Game? People don&rsquo;t think about it that way. Sometimes, when you see things, it gets digested and comes out in a different way, so I don&rsquo;t limit myself to where I get my inspiration from. Just by living, you&rsquo;ll experience many things. They may seem very superficial, but they can turn out to mean something.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1653615770950-1653615770950.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit: Khoo Guo Jie (Terrace Flat) Is Kaizen An Advocate For Sustainable Design?That&#39;s a very broad question, to be honest! As part of our <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/6-facts-about-renovating-in-Singapore">design process</a>, we consider issues that help to feed the larger picture of Singapore&rsquo;s Green Plan. When we interview our clients, we also intentionally ask questions that get them to think about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/what-can-sustainable-home-design-do-for-you">sustainable</a> choices. In that sense, we are advocates for sustainable design and materials, but it&#39;s not necessarily our starting point. An example of that would be the design of my own home &ndash; Terrace Flat. We stripped away as much of the final finishings as possible as a means to reduce the carbon footprint and emissions within a single project. So while we won&#39;t label ourselves a sustainable design practice, we always consider sustainability.&nbsp;What Is One Advice You&rsquo;d Like To Give To Up And Coming Architects?Be very intentional about your life and choices in design. That doesn&rsquo;t mean micromanaging. Whatever you do, if there&rsquo;s an intention behind it, it has to be expressed. It should be apparent in the design you do.

What do you do when you’re trying to have a fresh new take on life but you’re too comfortable with the familiar? You call in the cavalry who can remake the familiar into something exciting. 

Interview With Leon Yap: From Architecture To Interior Design

After earning his degree in architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Leon Yap began his career as an Architectural Associate...

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