This year, we made our visit to Singapore Expo’s Hall 4, the location for all design-led initiatives and products at IFFS.

FutureCraft project by Swedish design studio Form Us With Love

Taking up significant booth space, FutureCraft (part of the SingaPlural programme) was a commendable project that strived to create new approaches towards modern-day design using traditional materials such as teak, bamboo and rattan. In this initiative, designers from Singapore, Indonesia and Swedish design studio Form Us With Love presented products that had been developed in a workshop in Indonesia’s Solo City.

FutureCraft project by Erick Dangin of Indonesia

FutureCraft project by Yang Tah Ching of Singapore

Also part of SingaPlural, the Green Pavilion offered an informative tour of sustainable materials and trends. We met its curator, materials expert Chris Lefteri from the UK, who pointed out some of the more recent innovations including nettle fabric and Nanostone (a material derived from stone).

The Green Pavilion

On the local front, Grafunkt presented several new products, two of which were clothes hangers.

The irregular height of the Stan Clothes Rack by Grafunkt allows different lengths of clothes to be hung; the angular form enables it to fit into any corner of a room.

Grafunkt’s Truss Wall–Mounted Hanger is inspired by wild mushrooms that grow in clusters. It can also serve as a wall feature.

Singapore-based designer Jarrod Lim was also there to showcase his new brand of furniture, Hinika. The contemporary pieces exhibit a combination of Asian and Western influences and are also available for the outdoors.

Hinika’s Torii Lounge Chair takes its inspiration from the simplicity and clean lines often found in Japanese and Scandinavian styles; the Bezier Coffee Tables are inspired by the Bezier curve.

The exhibition Makan Time! Tuck in to Good Design by Little Thoughts Group – shown recently at the National Museum of Singapore (see our story here) – was at IFFS for round two as an exploration into Singaporean heritage and local icons through food-inspired designs.

Makan Time! – Fly Away with Love by Yang Tah Ching is a dual-function food cover that also functions as a flower vase.

While there, several new Thai exhibitors caught our eye. Takehomedesign, a young studio founded by Paphop Wongpanich, displayed many products that could be flat packed and were easy to assemble. We liked how their compact SIM outdoor coffee table had been sized to suit the Singaporean lifestyle, and how the glass top showed off the beautiful details of the solid teak wood structure.

SIM coffee table

Also new to the fair, Plato from Thailand showed existing and new collections for both indoors and out that combined delicate Thai crafts with a modern aesthetic.

The Coco Cozy Chair from Plato features a unique weaving pattern and is a recipient of the Good Design Award.

International Furniture Fair Singapore
iffs.com.sg