Conversations with creative thinkers.

Innovative practice models, nimble operatives and overseas expansions. As part of the Design Conversations series at Saturday Indesign 2019, we picked the brains of three early-tomid-career designers and architects who are forging unique paths in practice through their own studios. What are their gateways to success in a tough market?

Asih Jenie (AJ) What made you decide to open your own design business as opposed to working for someone else?

Pan Yi Cheng (PYC) An opportunity came about when I was working at UNStudio in Amsterdam. I had a friend who had some developments in China and he asked if I’d want to start an office with him. I immediately jumped at the chance. But after three years of working on speculative master plans in China, I wanted to start my own design studio and workshop to work on physical and tangible projects.

Toh Yah Li (TYL) I hadn’t actually thought of starting my own practice. After I left my previous employer, I wanted to keep in touch with the industry so I started doing some freelance work. The jobs got bigger so I started to do this more seriously. As a freelancer you have no branding, so clients do not really take you seriously and your fees are compromised. So I decided to establish a design practice.

Goy Zhenru (GZ) Same as Yah Li, I didn’t start out wanting my own firm. It’s always a dream of architects to have a studio in some far future, but there wasn’t a planned step toward it. What happened is that a friend of mine wanted to develop a piece of land in Sukabumi – which is between Jakarta and Bandung. It was a family dream project of setting up organic farming and a farm stay. I knew I couldn’t do it part-time. At that time I was with Forum Architects. So I quit my job, and I said for six months I’m going to do this intensely, and then find re-employment again. But of course, as things go with projects, it didn’t take just six months. We’ve just completed it after four years, and in between we got some other projects that sustained us.

AJ So it was an organic thing for all of you. How did you know that first project was a good enough reason to start your own business?

GZ The thing is, you don’t know whether it’s going to work. This is the kind of scenario you’re in all the time. One piece of advice is: it must be a project you really love, that you really find a purpose in. That’s what will drive you on. The business part is also very important; you need to do a business plan et cetera. But most of the time you’re going in blind. You have to hold on to every single project, do it with all the might and heart you have, and hopefully it comes out to be something nice to attract more clients.

PYC Well I wanted to have a prototyping workshop together with a design studio. I wanted to integrate design and make. It was a kind of retaliation against the industry, because I had previously run into a few challenges with fabricators in Singapore. We were able to do a mock-up in London at half the price we could do it in Singapore.

So I felt that there wasn’t enough competition for fabricators in Singapore, or enough of them who would want to try out different things. So we invested in some precision machinery.

Having a workshop was an experiment for my practice. I didn’t really know if it would work. I modelled myself after the university I graduated from – the Architectural Association – and some of the designers and architects overseas, like Ron Arad and Herzog & de Meuron – they both have their own workshop or yard to test things out.

Now we’ve separated the design studio and the prototyping workshop. We started Superstructure in collaboration with Panelogue, a materials specialist in Singapore. Superstructure specialises in digital fabrication whereas Produce continues to focus on design research.

We almost closed the prototyping workshop a few times, but I felt it would be such a pity. There were a lot of enquiries from architects and designers who wanted to make things as well. That’s when we decided to talk to Emily from Panelogue and look into another approach.

Superstructure now, other than working on experimental projects with Produce, is also working with other architects and contractors. Aside from us, there isn’t such a role being filled right now in the industry. We see ourselves as a translator between the designer’s intent and vision, and the fabricator.

TYL The idea of establishing a lighting design practice, as a Singaporean company, became important to me. We have 26 lighting design practices here, and probably 80 per cent of them are led by foreign talents. I wanted my design practice to be a platform for grooming the next generation of lighting designers, and to show that there really are local talents that can do excellent projects.

AJ From your experience, what are the main challenges of running a design practice in Singapore, and how has the market changed since you started?

GZ We are always trying to get into public-sector projects, but we find there is a lot of difficulty because of the red tape. We are advocating alongside the Singapore Institute of Architects to encourage more opportunities for small and medium firms to participate in public-sector projects, so they can be chosen based on merit and not just track record.

In terms of changes, I’d say the clients that approach me are really more concerned about the final product – the quality as well as how you experience the space – and less so about the cost, which is quite good. They understand the design process a bit more and want to be involved in it.

TYL Lighting design is often very under-appreciated. You only notice bad lighting design; you don’t notice it when it’s good. The profession is very difficult to sell. A lot of people feel they can do it, but actually it’s a very challenging job.

PYC I agree with Zhenru with regard to track record. We get invited to tenders but the success rate is less than ten per cent. The other challenge is that we are quite a stubborn mob and we reject quite a number of projects because they’re either not aligned with our practice's ethos or they lack design scope. That makes the whole financial situation more difficult.

But what has changed is that there is an oversupply of skills at the moment. There are a lot of students returning from overseas and our universities here are also teaching very advanced computational and digital tools to students. There is also a democratisation of production. If you operate a desktop CNC machine or a 3D printer at home, the transfer of knowledge from what you do at home to a real industrial project can be quite seamless. We are trying to harness this potential by providing a facility for people to use and for students to practice in.

Going forward we want to look at creating a network of machines – not just from hobbyists, but from fabricators in Singapore who have precision machines that are used just to do cookie-cutter stuff. Some people use very good machines just to make doors, for example. So we want to build a network of machines so we can consolidate and build up the digital fabrication capabilities that we already have in Singapore.

AJ Yah Li, you set up Light Collab in 2010 and two years later you set up an operation in Tokyo. Usually when a company expands overseas, it targets a country with a lower operational cost. But that’s not the case with Light Collab. Tell us more about that and how this expansion has helped your practice.

TYL It has something to do with Light Collab’s branding. We designed the identity with &Larry. We started thinking about how our practice could be different, and the idea of collaboration came about. We envision having smaller collaborative offices around the world. The Japanese office came about because of an ex-colleague who is based there. We have collaborated a lot on projects in Singapore and Japan, and also around the region.

AJ Yi Cheng, you started Produce 2015 and have since created a few design businesses that you touched on earlier. Tell us more about them.

PYC There are three companies now: Produce, Superstructure and more recently Type 0 Architects. They work synergistically. It’s still one studio, and everyone is in the same room, but there are three kinds of expertise. Going forward, Produce will become more like a design research studio. Superstructure will focus on producing

“Regardless of where we are, our model syncs and we are able to work seamlessly together. ”

Goy Zhenru

building information, developing systems as well as computational tools; we’ll get a robotic arm very soon. Type 0 looks into developing new building types, and redefining building typologies.

Right now, engineered timber is creating an opportunity to look at combining all three sets of expertise together. You can build up to a 30-storey building with engineered timber these days. We feel that mass engineered timber construction will be the future of the building industry, primarily because it can be replenished as a material and it locks in carbon.

AJ Zhenru, Goy Architects is sometimes a one-woman operation, sometimes a two- or three-woman operation. Tell us more about how this super lean team has worked for your practice. Is there any limit to the scale your practice can take?

GZ When we have fewer projects, I’m the one doing everything.

When we have more, then I bring in my friends who are in Bali and Chiang Mai. All three of us previously worked at Forum Architects. We use ARCHICAD and we have a BIM cloud. The models we do are all connected to the BIM cloud. Regardless of where we are, our model syncs and we are able to work seamlessly together.

Of course for the grunt of the construction work, we still have to be there. The contractors we choose are very important as they complete the team. We work together as a team, and they often provide very useful advice for us as young designers. In that sense we are not just one-to-three women; we are that plus a group of contractors that really help us do our work properly.

We are in such a technological revolution that you should make use of the technology to reduce your mundane work, rather than hiring more people to do mundane work, because they will leave you.

AJ What’s your advice to those thinking about starting their own design practice? And also, are there any misconceptions about entrepreneurship that you’d like to set straight?

GZ My advice is to find your voice. That’s really important because sometimes we lose ourselves when we go into the industry. We get pushed around by people who tell us what we should do, what we should think, and what we should be doing. But I think everybody has their own way of doing things.

AJ Any misconceptions?

GZ Everybody knows it’s not easy. The money is lower than if you were hired by someone else. Time-wise, maybe you work even more.

TYL Yes, people think being a boss is very glamorous. Trust me it’s not! What keeps me going? I feel that there is a need for Singaporeans to stand up to the occasion of building our own brand. In the history of design in our local context, the perceived value that Singaporean designers bring may not be as great as the foreign companies. I want to have this stand that Singaporeans also have talent. We can make it. Part of me is fighting to prove a point.

PYC Most of us, when we start a practice, we have to start it very lean. I would advise very young people to start doing their business before they start a family. And try to resist a lot of compromise – taking on a project because you really just need to put bread on the table. It will lead from one compromise to the next. Being lean and free is very important. You need that independence.

The other thing is that if you do not believe you’re going to create your own style, then don’t start. If you feel that you don’t have anything that you really want to say then it will be very tough because you’ll be pushed and pulled by external forces.

Misconceptions? I think I’m still finding out. Other than what Zhenru and Yah Li said, I think you can’t retire as a designer or architect. Most architects become famous after 70. I look up to the late Oscar Niemeyer, who was the oldest living architect. He still went to the office every day, even when he was 103. Think of it optimistically. I think it’s a very fulfilling life.