Jubilant home-grown interior designers Pan Yi Cheng and team brought home the coveted Gold Singapore Interior Designer Award (SIDA) for best Retail (Completed Works) for their interior design for XTRA’S Herman Miller Shop-In-Shop Fabricwood at XTRA’S flagship store in Marina Square at the recently-concluded Inaugural SIDA Gala Night and Awards presentation.
With over 300 entries from which 61 winners were named, the team was up against stiff international competition hailing from Hong Kong, India, China, Taiwan, Japan and Southeast Asia.
Gracing XTRA’S flagship store’s interior in Marina Square, the innovative plywood installation titled ‘Fabricwood’ was presented in the winning victorious entry. Underscoring the material and structural innovation of sculpted plywood exhibiting hallmarks like adaptability and grace, it arches and undulates over the store like a 20m X 7m sail, outlining the perimeter separating the showroom and café.
Initiated and organised by the Society of Interior Designers Singapore (SIDS), SIDA is the inaugural interior design award to identify and celebrate design excellence in the international interior design industry. SIDA 2017 welcomed all architects, interior designers and space designers who believe in producing enhanced spaces for man through innovative, responsible, and sensible design solutions.
Other local victors include a Silver SIDA for Residential Showflats (Completed Works) by Managing Director of Portfolio Design Partnership Robert Su’s LANDSCAPEUNDERTHEHEAVENS. The small island nation also memorably nailed two more Bronze Awards for Proposed Works: The King Salman Mosque in the Maldives by Orb Associates Pte Ltd and the Unio Sales gallery in Thailand by Sky Creation + DC Pte Ltd.
In all, of the 61 awards presented on the Gala Night, Singapore bagged nine, or 15 per cent. The awards were split into two main categories: Completed Works and Proposed Works. Each category was then further divided into 12 parts including exhibition, food and beverages, hospitality, installation, public institutions and transport, retail, themes that follow Rest and Relax and Work, as well as landed, non-landed and show flats for residential developments.
“We are delighted with the strong response to our inaugural awards. And we are very pleased that Singapore interior designers have won awards tonight; despite stiff competition from so many outstanding entries from other countries. This demonstrates that Singapore’s interior design has come of age and we have good talent comparable to some of the world’s best designers.” Mr Keat Ong, President of SIDS, commented.
“The success of the SIDA awards also underscore Singapore’s rising stature in the field of interior design,” Mr Ong continued. “The SIDA Award aims to reach out to international interior design communities through the creation of a common platform to highlight their design abilities. In doing so, we hope to foster a stronger global design community.”
“With this award, we also want to provide new value for SISA members and SIDA participants by exposing them to new markets and business networks. Hopefully, this leads to new streams of revenue through new projects and collaborations, locally, regionally and globally. In addition to the SIDA Awards, SIDS will also be taking new initiatives to bring Singapore interior designer abroad and raise the profile of Singapore’s interior design industry overseas through the setting up of Singapore’s Design Outposts (SDOs) in the region. The SDOs will be set up initially in China later this year,” the President of SIDS added.
Other Gold SIDA winners include China’s Yang Bangsheng and Associates Group, Hong Kong’s Panorama, Japan’s ODS, and Taiwan’s Thee Design Group, who brought home the prizes for Hospitality, Public Institutions, Exhibition and Residential Landed respectively.
The Award’s judging panel include some of the globe’s top design icons including: Lim Hong Lian, Founder and Principal Partner of LTW Designworks Pte Ltd and President of the Asia Pacific Hotel Design Association (APHDA); Nathan Yong, Founder of Nathan Yong Design Pte Ltd; Lyndon Neri, Founding Partner of Neri & Hu Design and Research Office; Dalia Gallico, President of the Design Faculty in the University San Raffaele Roma, Italy; and Jooyun Kim, the Dean of the Graduate School of Design, Hongik University, Korea.
SIDS was established as a professional body for both Singaporean and Singaporean-based Interior Designers in 1994. A non-profit organisation governed by the Singapore law, SIDS resolves industry issues and safeguards the standards of professionalism for Interior Designers. The Society also promotes the professionalism and creativity of the Singapore Interior Design Industry worldwide.
