Knead picks

Student Ng Hong Kiang’s winning chair design was inspired by his aunt preparing dough to make dumplings.

Watching his aunt knead dough to make dumplings inspired student Ng Hong Kiang to design a series of floor chairs similar to zabuton, or Japanese traditional cushions.

It won him the top prize in the Window to the Past – National University of Singapore Young Designers competition, an inaugural contest co-organized by local furniture company WTP and NUS School of Design And Environment in search of innovative rest chairs with an Asian identity.

Mr. Ng, 23, a second-year industrial design student at NUS, said of his floor chairs resembling flattish pieces of dough: “It was near Chinese New Year when I was coming up with my concept and the sight of people coming together to make dumplings and pastries Left a strong picture in my head.

I wanted to bring a family together, so I created a series of chairs for them to sit down in. Also, it’s a very Asian thing to sit on the floor”.

For his design, called An Asian Family, he won $500. The second design and third prize of $400 and $200 went to Benche, a bench resembling those found in Singapore in the 1960’s by Mr. Allan Toh, and Teng, a stool inspired by those found in ancient teahouses by Mr. George Goh.

The three winning entries will be made into a prototype each to be auctioned for charity.

Mr. Patrick Chia, owner of furniture design company Squeeze Design and one of the judges, said the works were obviously the best designs in the competition, which received 20 entries.

He added: “The floor chairs are the type of design that can generate a lot of interest. They may not necessarily sell but will make the public ask questions because they are quirky and interesting.

Every furniture business needs furniture that creates a buzz and the bread-and-butter design that sell well.

The second-and third prize winner are examples of the latter, he said”.

Mr. Chia, whose customers include renowned designer Phillipe Starck, added: “The teahouse stool can fit into many environment and can serve as a small coffee table. The bench could also work though it is not as versatile as the stool”.

The competition is part of WTP’s effort to encourage innovation in young designers.

The furniture company, which started in 1992, hopes to make it a yearly affair with more local design schools participating. This year’s contest was open only to students from NUS School of Design and Environment.

WTP managing director Mimi Somjee, who was among the judges, was impressed by the high standards of the top three designs. “There was one design which all the judges could see the basis of a new line. We could see the potential in how it could be made even more beautiful and more suited to the market so that the idea can be sold to clients.”

She declined to say which design she was refereeing to but it could well be the Benche. This is because, in addition to his second prize win, Mr. Toh a forth year industrial design student, also clinched the People’s Choice Award, a $ 500 cash prize given based on the result of online voting by the public.

The double win made up for his not clinching the top prize. The 25 year old said: ”Not getting the first prize doesn’t make much of a difference to me. I’m happy about winning both prizes. I will be using the combined prize money to pay for my final year project and the graduation show at the end of this month.

Third place winner Mr. Goh is also pleased at the result. The 22 year old said: As a first year student. I have not learnt much about the software skills needed for this competition. But I was playing around with the software during the holiday and managed to come up with a design, so I decided to give it a shot.”