Caspian

Courageous to take on A Unique Challenge First I must applaud Ken Wong, who is one of Urban Home Design (UHD)’s founding director, and the firm’s Interior Designer, Shawn Leow, for being gung-ho enough to take on the challenge of creating for us a Retirement Home with a unique Art Gallery and Museum theme. As senior citizens, we are unlike younger families who move into their new homes and then gradually build up their physical possessions/collections over time. For us, we are moving into what would probably be our final retirement home with a fairly large collection of existing physical possessions accumulated over the decades. The challenge of the interior design (ID) is to provide sufficient storage without diminishing the feel of spaciousness. Even more challenging is how to actualise the desired theme of Retirement Haven as Art Gallery and Museum. The appointed interior designer would have to figure out how best to display our lifetime collection of eclectic memorabilia and heritage/significant artifacts without creating clutter and still preserving a sense of serene, resort-like setting conducive for the retirement years. I had very specific ID requirements/deliverables which were spelled out in a detailed 28-page ID Brief. UHD was shortlisted from a range of some 22 different ID firms that I had considered. Apart from the very positive reviews of the firm’s work on Qanvast, what sealed the deal for me was their previous experience in creating unique IDs based on unusual client requests/themes. At our initial touching base, I was impressed by their enthusiasm in taking on an ambitious project that was beyond the usual or conventional. Convenient One-Stop Service I basically worked with the ID team comprising Ken and Shawn. Ken, the ‘shifu’, provided guidance to Shawn and had a few meetings with me (together with Shawn) to understand my needs and to present some preliminary ideas based on my brief. Shawn followed up by fleshing out details of the ID on the 3D-Autocad and I had several additional meetings with him during both the design and renovation stages of the project to refine the concept details. It is comforting and an advantage to be able to rely on valuable advice and inputs that are based on expertise, experience, company (UHD) capabilities and Ken/Shawn’s networked resources. Ken (together with Shawn) guided me at Hafary to choose tiles. They took me to Galerie 5 to decide on Sol Luminaire lightings and to Modeste to buy a comprehensive range of sanitary, kitchen and laundry appliances/accessories. Shawn separately accompanied me for a visit to Tan Boon Liat building to source for loose furniture as well as a required artwork. I appreciate very much such handholding which made easy the selection and purchase of so many varied items that come together to fit the design concept for our new home in a coherent way. Retirement Haven as Art Gallery & Museum As we have quite a number of objects/artifacts that we would like to display nicely in our new home, UHD sent a team to our former home to meticulously document each and every single object, taking photos of each item and measuring their lengths/widths/heights/depths/diameters as appropriate. These proved to be very useful in finalising the ID concept. The drawn-to-scale digitalised photos were later superimposed on the 3-D Autocad ID drawings so that we were able to better visualise how the objects would look like in our new home and customise the various display cabinets/shelves for the best curated display of the artifacts. This approach also enabled considered decisions on what objects to display and what are the ones to keep in storage or to discard/give away. At this point in time of writing, there are still on-going final installation of some display shelves/compartments as well as refinements to some of the LED lightings for the displays. The various paintings/prints/ photos/artwork/artifacts are also yet to be hung on the walls so I can’t comment on whether the desired art gallery and museum feel is achieved. What I can say is that I am very much encouraged and delighted by the vibes of what are already in place so far. Journey of Creative Collaboration I have enjoyed the ID process as the approach adopted was one of co-construction of the ID concept between UHD as the designer and me as the client. Given the unique context of my project, there was a lot of thinking out of the box and I commend UHD for having done quite a bit of background work to explore possibilities and to work around encountered difficulties and obstacles. There was mutual learning along the way and the open communication as well as trust established enabled comfortable bouncing of ideas between client and designer. All interior designers would have their own design and aesthetic perspectives and preferences. A definite strength I find, for example in Shawn (since I interacted more with him throughout the process), is the ability to see things from the perspectives of the client and to meet my design and aesthetic tastes and preferences. While value-adding to the ID process through sharing his perspectives, he was not pushy for his ideas to be adopted but offered them as options for my consideration and left the eventual decisions to me (which is correct since my household members and I are the ones who are going to stay long-term in the apartment). Catering to our tendency and preference for maximalism (versus the popular minimalist ID favoured by many others), the eventual ID nicely accommodates the full glorious display of almost all our valued artifacts without the apartment looking cluttered and messy. Instead the result is one of neat and eye-soothing thematic clustered displays organised around themes/categories such as heritage zone, abstracts, nature, ceramics, and so on. I like it very much that the spaces created by the ID allow me to curate my own displays to showcase each artifact/item in the best possible way. Some of the notable creative works by Shawn that have value-added to the ID process include the conversion of my collection of 60 neckties into an installation art piece, the transformation of my late mother’s cheong sum as well as a piece of embroidered religious cloth into framed wall art pieces as well as curating the framing/reframing of various paintings/prints/photos/artwork/artifacts and their clustered displays on appropriate walls. Definitely for me as a client, the ID process has been a journey of joy, love and passion as we are likely to stay in our retirement haven for many years to come. I am glad to sense that for UHD, and particularly in my numerous interactions with Shawn, it has also been a journey of professional pride and enthusiasm to deliver excellent outcomes that meet the client’s deliverables. Plentiful Storage We are also pleased that adequate storage has been provided, through maximising space usage such as drawers under settees, beds and coffee table as well as liberal inclusion of floor to ceiling cabinetry. Having recently moved in and completed our unpacking, we are very satisfied to find that the total storage capacity of our current smaller 1324 sf home is, in fact, greater than our former larger 1625 sf home. And all these accomplished without the apartment looking cramped and small. Elderly Friendly One of the key deliverables of our dream retirement home that it must be elderly friendly (including catering for the wheelchair-bound or bedridden). At the point of this writing, we are still working on the Smart Home features and refining touches are still on-going so I can’t fully comment yet on how elderly friendly the final ‘product’ is. Nevertheless, a number of our requests have been catered for and these include: non-slip bathroom floor tiles (R10 rating), grab bars for toilets, flap down seat or sauna-style settee for shower stalls, use of large light switches that are reachable from wheelchairs (when Smart Home is activated, they are supposed to be remote-controllable), doorways and circulation spaces within the apartment are wheelchair friendly, and custom-made bed frames that can accommodate the future use of Woosa mattresses (which replicate some of the features of hospital-type beds such as mechanical raising of upper body or the legs). Excellent Service Attitude I must in particular commend Shawn for his excellent service attitude. His ID advisory role extends beyond what the company is providing for in the contract and include readily given inputs, suggestions and advice on all kinds of loose items that would fit or not fit with the décor of the specific room or area. These include colour/style/design of bedsheets, towels, laundry basket, table place mats, cushions and floor rugs/mats. I could go about shopping for various loose items knowing that all I need is to send WhatsApp images of possible buys and Shawn would usually respond quickly with his perspectives of what is suitable/not suitable. He even went to the extent of supporting me with online searches of some items I was looking for such as mounting stands to display large plates. Professionalism Demonstrated in Troubleshooting Any project of complexity would naturally face technical and logistic hitches and we have our fair share, especially in the context of the novel designs and solutions that we need to deliver A Retirement Haven as Art Gallery and Museum. The way problems are resolved, obstacles cleared, solutions found, as well as shortcomings acknowledged and addressed are therefore indicative of the standard of professionalism and quality of service of the company and the interior designer. In this respect, I must commend Shawn who, in his calm manner, listens carefully to each and every feedback given and takes a problem-solving approach to address each issue of concern. He has been most prompt and attentive in responding to various requests for clarifications and follow-ups. In summary, I am giving this strong endorsement of UHD with the belief and conviction that the excellent attitude so far shown in following up on various final details in my apartment’s ID will continue till the project is fully completed, probably within the next few weeks.