Bold colours make a winning recipe

Home-grown firm Laank wins gold in a new category at the Design Excellence Awards that recognises the good use of hues in interiors

The winners in the AkzoNobel Colour Award category were National Kitchen by Violet Oon (left, gold award), residential project Park Place Residences (below left, silver award) and the Shopee Singapore offices (below right, bronze award).
The winners in the AkzoNobel Colour Award category were National Kitchen by Violet Oon (above, gold award), residential project Park Place Residences (silver award) and the Shopee Singapore offices (bronze award). PHOTOS: DB&B, INDEX DESIGN, LAANK
The winners in the AkzoNobel Colour Award category were National Kitchen by Violet Oon (left, gold award), residential project Park Place Residences (below left, silver award) and the Shopee Singapore offices (below right, bronze award).
The winners in the AkzoNobel Colour Award category were National Kitchen by Violet Oon (gold award), residential project Park Place Residences (above, silver award) and the Shopee Singapore offices (bronze award). PHOTOS: DB&B, INDEX DESIGN, LAANK
The winners in the AkzoNobel Colour Award category were National Kitchen by Violet Oon (left, gold award), residential project Park Place Residences (below left, silver award) and the Shopee Singapore offices (below right, bronze award).
The winners in the AkzoNobel Colour Award category were National Kitchen by Violet Oon (gold award), residential project Park Place Residences (silver award) and the Shopee Singapore offices (above, bronze award). PHOTOS: DB&B, INDEX DESIGN, LAANK

With its tile-patterned floors, 1920s-era pendant chandeliers and eye-catching green and blue walls, Peranakan restaurant National Kitchen by Violet Oon at National Gallery Singapore is an atmospheric ode to the past.

The bold colours are part of what makes the space. The dark wood furnishings work with the rich blue, gold and jade-green accents commonly found in traditional Nonya culture.

Designed by boutique interior design firm Laank, National Kitchen was awarded gold in the AkzoNobel Colour Award category at the Design Excellence Awards held at the St. Regis Singapore hotel on Tuesday.

The newly introduced category recognises design projects that have applied good use of colour to enhance interiors as well as to add distinctiveness to spaces.

The other two winners in this award category are Index Design's residential project Park Place Residences in Paya Lebar, which received the silver award; and DB&B's design of tech start-up Shopee Singapore's offices in Science Park Drive, which bagged the bronze.

This year's ceremony handed out 90 awards in 36 categories.

There were 180 entries from Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Italy, the United States and Britain.

They were spread across two competition tracks - the Interior Design Excellence Awards (Idea) for interior designers and firms; and Spatial Design Awards for students.

Organised by the Interior Design Confederation Singapore (IDCS), the annual awards recognise the best of local and regional design in commercial, residential and public design categories and are open to practitioners and students in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region.

One of the night's highest honours, Idea Project of the Year, went to the Nissan Crossing Experience Centre in Tokyo, designed by Mr Tim Kobe from Eight Inc, which has offices in Singapore.

The Experience Centre, which features the latest Nissan concept vehicles and rare classic cars, is a visual spectacle and won for its strong integration of architecture and interior design.

The top three Interior Design Firms of the Year went to local design firms Metaphor Studio and Wee Studio, and One Plus Partnership from Hong Kong. Their work spans avant-garde facades to residential and commercial interiors.

Five-year-old Laank was also one of the big winners of the night.

Besides the AkzoNobel Colour Award, it also won Best F&B Design in Asia Pacific (for spaces more than 2,000 sq ft) for National Kitchen and Emerging Interior Design Firm of the Year, another new category added this year.

Laank's founder Cherin Tan, 34, says this is the first time the firm, which has eight staff in Singapore, had submitted its projects for awards.

"I'm so happy to have won all three awards we were nominated for. This is an important recognition of the hard work the team has put in."

The winners were selected by a five-member jury and there was more than one winner in some categories.

One of the judges, Mr Pann Lim, 44, creative director of Kinetic Singapore, says he is "both impressed and inspired by Laank because the spaces it creates demonstrate breadth and depth in thinking".

"It understands brand design well and, as a result, no two spaces designed by Laank are alike. Yet, they exude the same sense of familiarity in the way the customer's experience in the space is curated."

Of the entries, another of the judges, Ms Kelley Cheng, founder and creative director of design agency The Press Room, says: "There was a wide range of projects this year and I was truly impressed how some designers took a technical floor plan and brought it to life in a way that redefined conventions and prototypes, with consideration for the smallest details."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 25, 2017, with the headline Bold colours make a winning recipe. Subscribe