Winner of The Prodigy category at this year’s INDE.Awards is Evelyn Jingje Wong from JUJURWORK in Malaysia. She is passionate and inspiring and is a worthy winner of this prestigious accolade.

Partner for The Prodigy in the 2024 INDE.Awards is Steelcase and its support of the next generation of architects and designers is helping to ensure that creativity is thriving in our region.

Speaking to Wong of her practice and her win is illuminating. She is a young practitioner who is pushing boundaries and making a name for herself, not only on the regional design stage, but with a global presence.

Wong began her design career studying at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, USA, then co-founded PINESARCH in Shanghai.

In 2022, Wong established her own practice JUJURWORK in her hometown of Kuantan in Malaysia. Since then, the practice has conceived and realised multiple projects to much acclaim, including the accolade of The Prodigy at the 2024  INDE.Awards.

Jan Henderson: Firstly, tell me about your practice and how it came into being?

Evelyn Jingje Wong: The studio is called JUJURWORK and it really comes from the Malay Word for honesty. So, the inception of the studio really is about our commitment to find honesty in design.

Establishing the studio really coincided with the later stages of COVID lockdowns in Malaysia and this, I think in retrospect, provided us with an opportunity to delve into the cultural history of our locality. It was a chance to really inject our hometown and our locality with ideas and chances to grow.

The studio is now based fully in Malaysia in Kuantan, in our hometown and the time after the pandemic helped further develop our appreciation and our interest in the locality.

JH: Creating your practice at the end of COVID must have been challenging but it seems that the situation propelled you forward to be even more successful!

EJW: Yes, it definitely did because the relationships that were founded during that time became very strong, even up to this day, because COVID was a very challenging time.

So, there was a lot of trust that needed to be established very early on for us to work and we were really fortunate that we have very trusting clients and people who supported us during the process.

JH: What do you bring to your projects? You have said honesty is at the core of your work and is the ethos behind your creativity.

EJW: Well, the honesty just really encapsulates the self-awareness that we want to strive for and this includes being honest in our context, the place that we occupy in our time and really to think about the relationships that have happened before us and the relationships that will happen through our projects in in the future.

JH: You are the winner of The Prodigy at this year’s INDE.Awards and you were there to accept the award in person, which was wonderful. What does this mean to you?

EJW: First of all, it’s a very great honour, so thank you to everyone, Indesign and Steelcase.

It really just proves to us that the trajectory that we’ve chosen to take, the educational opportunities of the past, the research, the guidance that we’ve given to our stakeholders and our clients has proven to be respectful and worth our time and effort.

JH: There was a pivotal project that put you on the design map. Can you tell me a little bit about this?

EJW: I think you’re talking about Ms. Elliott at Hock Bee and it was the first project that we did in our hometown. It’s a rather large cafe / restaurant renovation that occupies a very historic office building in the centre of town. Back then it was also on the largest street in town called Jalan Besar which in English translates as Main Street. And so, it’s a very high-profile building but it hadn’t been used as an office for 30 years.

When the gates were opened for the first time, there was just so much treasure that was waiting for us to dig through. And with this project we really tried to pay homage to the architectural excellence that was the building itself as well as the business that was going to occupy the space, the café and the restaurant.

We really wanted to take agency over how we are going to use this space because people who used to work in this office building were still around, they were going to be our customers. So, there was that conscious awareness that we are doing this for the local people.

JH: The design of this hospitality venue is sensitive to place and beautiful, culturally appropriate and site specific. Are these things important to you in your work?

EJW: They might be the most important aspects of this project and as well as our practice because Malaysia, which is the place that we’ve chosen to take root, is just so diverse and so rich both culturally and historically. The people are diverse, the food is diverse and the landscape is diverse. So, we take all these influences and then just try to be respectful to consciously and carefully craft something that will occupy a space for so many years to come. It’s something that we’re striving to do always.

A worthy winner and a wonderful ambassador for design, congratulations Evelyn and thank you to Steelcase partner of The Prodigy at the 2024 INDE.Awards.

JUJURWORK
jujurwork.com