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Mark Teo is an Assistant Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology. He obtained his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Melbourne and, later, attained a Master of Science in Environmental Management at the National University of Singapore. 

Interview With Mark Teo: Every Space A Story

SIXiDES is an interior design tech and renovation platform that uses tech to change the way people renovate their homes. Conceived as a means to safeguard aspiring homeowners in realizing their space with ease and peace of mind. SIXiDES unique features provide an integrated solution that guides the users right from the very beginning till the end of the renovation journey.

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&nbsp;What do you do when you&rsquo;re trying to have a fresh new take on life but you&rsquo;re too comfortable with the familiar? You call in the cavalry who can remake the familiar into something exciting. You call Melvin Keng. Founding principal architect at Kaizen Architecture, Melvin&rsquo;s been leading this young practice of four folks since 2019 (yes, just prior to Covid-19 lockdowns). He&rsquo;s got 11 years of architecting under his belt, amongst which he has worked for such illustrious companies such as RT+Q Architects Pte Ltd, residential home specialists, under Rene Tan. Kaizen Architecture does everything from Architecture to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/guide-choosing-an-interior-designer-in-singapore">Interiors</a>&nbsp;to Furniture.Melvin&rsquo;s a busy individual, but we managed to ambush him for this interrogation interview.&nbsp;Every Artist Has Their Humble Beginnings. What Was Yours? What Got You Into Architecture?Myself. My parents didn&rsquo;t encourage architecture (laughs). At the time when we were deciding on courses at university, we had a neighbour who was one. Life was hard for him. He worked long hours and didn&rsquo;t get to see much of family. My mom said that shouldn&rsquo;t be the trajectory I should be heading for. My parents wanted me to take up biomedicine or bioscience instead. Most parents did at the time.That said, I applied for architecture as my first choice anyway, against their wishes (laughs), and biomedical/bioscience as my second. I didn&rsquo;t get my first choice, to my parents&rsquo; delight. However, I finally got in after I secretly reapplied for architecture the following year. I don&rsquo;t know if that&rsquo;s considered humble (laughs).&nbsp;What Did Your Parents Think?At the end of the day, I think most parents would respect what their children have decided on. But, obviously, mine weren&rsquo;t too pleased. If I had continued on with biosciences, I would probably be in pharmaceutical research by now. And earning more too (laughs). However, I&rsquo;ve always imagined myself to be in design in some way. When I was young, I would draw burning buildings and firemen saving them. I also studied art. I was from Victoria School and took the art elective. When it came to university, there wasn&rsquo;t really a specific design course, but there were two design-related courses; architecture and industrial design.&nbsp;So It All Started With Drawing Buildings On Fire?(Laughs) Followed by pursuing art at school.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1653615770842-1653615770842.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit: Khoo Guo Jie (Ally Singapore) Where Did You End Up Studying At?The majority of my education was at the National University of Singapore &ndash; the Architecture School. Then I did a short stint at Melbourne University in an exchange programme. The university has an amazing campus. Super beautiful. At the time, around 2006, I felt that Melbourne was the design capital of the region. It was eye-opening. Every shop there had a concept. There was this brand, Crumpler, and they had shops everywhere but each one was different. One which I stepped into had a carpet of grass throughout the shop. For me, Australia was really cool.&nbsp;Who Is Or Was Your Inspiration In Architecture And Interior Design?In school, I was still figuring things out, so I didn&rsquo;t really have anyone that I looked up to. Not even historical figures. However, I was very fascinated by Japanese <span style="color: rgb(65, 177, 239); font-family: Roboto, ui-sans-serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 500; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: underline; float: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted"><a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/modern-luxury-interior-design-singapore">modern</a> contemporary architecture, but that was about it.It was only after I graduated that I got a mentor that I really look up to &ndash; Rene Tan. He was a huge inspiration. We&rsquo;re still friends now even after moving on. I&rsquo;m a big believer in a &ldquo;master and student&rdquo; relationship, especially in architecture, to help build up your skills, mentality, and exposure. He was my historical basis reference point on how architecture can be perceived. It was then that I was inspired by the modern greats like Mies van der Rohe and Richard Meier &ndash; people who gave birth to modernism.&nbsp;Speaking Of Inspiration, What&rsquo;s The Inspiration Behind Your Instagram Layout?We&rsquo;re very fortunate enough to have had someone who&rsquo;s very good at social media. Instagram can be a medium to show nice photos, but it should be a way to tell stories. In our practice, it&rsquo;s not just about good work or design. Can it be expanded beyond the physical space into the digital space? It has to tell a story.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1653615770866-1653615770866.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit: Khoo Guo Jie (Kernel Furniture Showroom) What Would You Say Was Your First Real Foray Into Architecture?People would naturally say that their first build is their proudest or most important because it&rsquo;s the first one they did. However, to me, the first one I was truly proud of was one I completed in 2016. I had been in the company since 2010, so it took me six years before I found a project that I could really say I was most happy with. It was a bungalow off Holland Road. It was called the House with Shadows.&nbsp;Sounds OminousIt&rsquo;s actually quite poetic. It&rsquo;s a house that&rsquo;s really brought to life when light streams in. You won&rsquo;t miss this house if you Google it up. At the time, the company principal didn&rsquo;t micromanage projects, especially when you&rsquo;re matured enough, so you could express yourself. The House with Shadows project was an expression of who I am as a person and how I approach architecture and materials.<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1653615770895-1653615770895.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit: Kaizen Architecture (Good Chance Popiah)&nbsp;What Guides Your Work? What Would You Say Your Design Philosophy Is?As a practice, Kaizen looks at three aspects.&nbsp; First, we are precedent researchers. We go back and focus on the fundamentals of architecture and design. Scale, proportion, and composition are things that you can&rsquo;t mess with. They are what we fall back on which makes for good use of space and design.&nbsp;Second, with the fundamentals in place, we consider how we can create a different perspective on the common. For example, when we were designing a popiah place, we didn&rsquo;t just create a place that sold popiah. We asked ourselves, &ldquo;Could we make this like a ramen stall in Kyoto?&rdquo; That&rsquo;s not the usual association but it presents interesting alternative results. It&rsquo;s not to say that we&rsquo;re trying to break the norm, but we always thinking about alternatives to familiar things.&nbsp;Lastly, by extension of the previous two points, like our namesake, we practice &ldquo;kaizen&rdquo;: that we&rsquo;re always improving. The word came from Toyota when they were trying to rethink the way their business would run. We adopted the word to mean that we improve how people perceive how they live and see spaces.For any project, we keep these three ideas in mind. <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1653615770926-1653615770926.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit: Fabian Ong (Ribbon Apartment)&nbsp;It Is Said That No Idea Ever Comes From a Vacuum. What Inspires Your Work? Where Do Your Ideas Come From?Anywhere. However, my most interesting ideas come when I&rsquo;m in the shower. Sometimes we get stuck looking at a problem. That&rsquo;s when I tell my staff that we&rsquo;ll all go back and think about it. For days, we might not get an answer and then oddly, a spark happens when I&rsquo;m showering. That&rsquo;s when something always appears and usually it&rsquo;s the day before a presentation. My poor team, I have to thank them for bearing with my idiosyncrasies because we&rsquo;d be toiling over a project and it&rsquo;d be my last-minute shower-idea that gets selected.&nbsp;Personally, I&rsquo;m very into the culture around us. When I say that, it&rsquo;s not the pretentious thing where you go to museums to enjoy art. I&rsquo;m talking about pop culture. What&rsquo;s happening around us? Can we get inspired by the latest TV show, like Squid Game? People don&rsquo;t think about it that way. Sometimes, when you see things, it gets digested and comes out in a different way, so I don&rsquo;t limit myself to where I get my inspiration from. Just by living, you&rsquo;ll experience many things. They may seem very superficial, but they can turn out to mean something.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1653615770950-1653615770950.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo credit: Khoo Guo Jie (Terrace Flat) Is Kaizen An Advocate For Sustainable Design?That&#39;s a very broad question, to be honest! As part of our <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/6-facts-about-renovating-in-Singapore">design process</a>, we consider issues that help to feed the larger picture of Singapore&rsquo;s Green Plan. When we interview our clients, we also intentionally ask questions that get them to think about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/what-can-sustainable-home-design-do-for-you">sustainable</a> choices. In that sense, we are advocates for sustainable design and materials, but it&#39;s not necessarily our starting point. An example of that would be the design of my own home &ndash; Terrace Flat. We stripped away as much of the final finishings as possible as a means to reduce the carbon footprint and emissions within a single project. So while we won&#39;t label ourselves a sustainable design practice, we always consider sustainability.&nbsp;What Is One Advice You&rsquo;d Like To Give To Up And Coming Architects?Be very intentional about your life and choices in design. That doesn&rsquo;t mean micromanaging. Whatever you do, if there&rsquo;s an intention behind it, it has to be expressed. It should be apparent in the design you do.

What do you do when you’re trying to have a fresh new take on life but you’re too comfortable with the familiar? You call in the cavalry who can remake the familiar into something exciting. 

Interview With Melvin Keng: Making The Common Uncommon

Minimalist. Industrial. Modern. Scandinavian. With all those styles, and more, how does one choose how to design their home? Or maybe, just maybe, that’s the wrong question to ask. It should all begin with concept first, according to Ebenezer Yoon.

Interview With Ebenezer Yoon: Concept First, Style Later

You&rsquo;ve done your homework. You&rsquo;ve planned your home. But there&rsquo;s this really annoying space you don&rsquo;t know what do to with. Enter Jordan. He eats spaces for breakfast. Jordan Toh, director and founder of Zenith Arc, has been in the business for six years. More if you count from his first ever job when he was 20 where he picked up all the tricks of the ID trade. Whether it&rsquo;s landed, HDB, industrial, or commercial property, trust him to maximise space in ways most don&rsquo;t think of. We grabbed Jordan when he wasn&rsquo;t looking and squeezed an interview out of him. <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1659007002253-1659007002252.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/zenith-arc">Zenith Arc</a>&nbsp;How Did You Get Into Interior Design? Who Or What Was Your Inspiration?Basically, it was money-driven. (Laughs) Back then, if you wanted to make money, you&rsquo;d go into property, selling insurance, and dealing in cars. What they had in common in that they&rsquo;re sales driven. Interior design was slightly different but, ultimately, it&rsquo;s sales-driven. I wanted to decide how much I got to earn; I didn&rsquo;t want to be stuck with a fixed salary all my life. It was by chance I got into my first interior design firm and started my on job training with the team involved.&nbsp;You Mentioned That ID Was Kind Of Like Sales But Different. How Is It Different?&nbsp;You see, insurance agents sells policies. Car agents have a physical product, the vehicle. In property, you have a flat or something to sell. However, in ID, there&rsquo;s no physical product. You&rsquo;re selling yourself.&nbsp; <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1659007002286-1659007002286.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit: <a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/zenith-arc">Zenith Arc</a>&nbsp;So There&rsquo;s More Flexibility In What You Do?I don&rsquo;t think so. It&rsquo;s far more challenging. <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/guide-choosing-an-interior-designer-in-singapore">Interior design</a> isn&rsquo;t a job; it&rsquo;s a profession. You need a lot of technical and material knowledge. You need to know how to do a flat that meets owners&rsquo; tastes. You can&rsquo;t know these things just by reading books or going for courses. It&rsquo;s all about hands-on experience, communication, and getting down into the dirt at the jobsite. It&rsquo;s not even a single transaction; it&rsquo;s a three to four month process. That includes everything from planning to implementation. <img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1659007002316-1659007002316.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit: <a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/zenith-arc">Zenith Arc</a>&nbsp;How Else Is ID Different From The Other Sales-Driven Fields?The thing with other jobs is that your seniors are the ones that judge your work. But with ID, homeowners look up to you for expertise and advice. When I got my first customer, he was this really well-off guy. A property developer with a Ferrari and all. However, despite him having a better social standing, he still looked up to me for advice.&nbsp; Tell Me More About Your First Job With This Property Developer.Well, he came to me for a solution to resolve the clutter in the space he was living in. Since he&rsquo;s a property developer, I would eventually end up designing seven other projects for him including places at Caribbean at Keppel Bay and The Sail at Marina Bay.&nbsp;Every Artist Has Their Proudest Work. What Would You Say Is Yours Is?It was for the same person. It was a very small place he bought and wanted to rent out. Space was an issue; the potential tenants wanted more. So we resolved it. Increased the space around key rooms. Within a month of completion, he managed to secure a tenancy.&nbsp;What Kind Of Challenges Were There?Every project has its <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/9-mistakes-to-avoid-with-your-first-home">issues and hiccups</a> but usually they&rsquo;re not usually an issue. The management and security were quite tight; smack in the middle of the CBD and lots of expatriates there. So we had manage our time well to work within very small time frames we were allowed to work.&nbsp;&nbsp;What Guides Your Work? What&rsquo;s Your Design Philosophy Is?&nbsp;Design is largely dependent on client requirements and we work around their requests. But no matter what the design involves, the space should be convenient to use and functional. Home or business, <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/space-savings-hacks-with-platform-beds-and-storage-to-maximise-your-bedroom">space</a> must be fully utilised.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1659007002344-1659007002344.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">Photo Credit:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/zenith-arc">Zenith Arc</a>&nbsp;No Idea Ever Comes From a Vacuum. What Inspires You? Where Do Your Ideas Come From?Ideas come from my past projects, areas that I&#39;ve visited, or images that I&#39;ve seen across many platforms, like Google and Pinterest. They&rsquo;re products that I can see and envision. They kind of create thoughts and images that blend together in the subconscious mind.&nbsp; &nbsp;What Is One Advice You&rsquo;d Like To Give To Up And Coming Interior Designers?Interior Design is a profession not just a job. There&rsquo;s a lot of material, technical, construction, coordination and presentation knowledge involved. There will never be a single project without hiccups and issues. One must be ready to accept challenges before they step in as interior designers because clients will be entrusting them with their life savings to fulfil their dream space.&nbsp;

You’ve done your homework. You’ve planned your home. But there’s this really annoying space you don’t know what do to with. Enter Jordan.

Interview With Jordan: Envisioning Fully Utilised Spaces

You thought about it. Then thought about it again. And again. You can&rsquo;t quite get rid of the bothersome feeling that something&rsquo;s missing&hellip; missing a little bit of you. Then you should book an appointment with Kelvin, a professional small details expert on making places feel like&hellip; you. Director and founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/the-local-project"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/the-local-project">The Local Project</a>, he and his team have been around the block for two years. Highly experienced, he&rsquo;s sensitive to the needs of the owner and ensures that, in every job, he&rsquo;s mindful of making homeowners&#39; homes distinctively their own and not designed like cookie-cutter ones. To learn more about what makes Kelvin tick, we kidnapped him (temporarily!) for an interview.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1661230198527-1661230198527.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">&nbsp;Who Are You And What&rsquo;s Your Position In The Local Project?&nbsp;I am the founder as well as the director of the,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/the-local-project"></a><a href="https://www.sixides.com/professionals/interior-designers/the-local-project">The Local Project</a>.I oversee every running project and day to day operations.&nbsp;Every Artist Has Their Humble Beginnings. What Was Yours? What Got You Into Interior Design? Who Is Or Was Your Inspiration In Interior Design?&nbsp;I have always been drawn to designing and art since young.Unfortunately, I wasn&rsquo;t able to enrol into an art school as my family couldn&rsquo;t support the school fees financially.&nbsp;Did You Always Know That You Were Going Into Interior Design?&nbsp;Not at all! In fact, I studied IT engineering.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1661230198561-1661230198560.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">&nbsp;So What Happened After That? I was actively looking for a job to financially support myself once I completed NS and that&rsquo;s when I came across a lucrative job where you could earn up to $8000 a month at an interior design firm.&nbsp;That Was Quite The Promise! Did You Get The Job AND That Salary? Definitely, but I only managed to earn $800 per month instead of the lucrative deal which was posted. (Laughs)&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1661230198592-1661230198592.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">&nbsp;How Did You Feel About That?&nbsp;Well, it wasn&rsquo;t a problem for me back then as I was inexperienced.This job opportunity was a big learning curve for me as I was required to physically be on site every day. That allowed me to build a rapport with the <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/best-renovation-contractor-in-singapore">contractors</a> as well as subcontractors. This made it easy for me to ask them a lot of things that I was unsure about and curious about. I definitely learned a lot right from them.&nbsp;How Did You Transition From Being Employed To Being An Employer? What Was The Drive?&nbsp;It was the passion I&rsquo;ve always had for designing and art. (Laughs)Being able to follow my dreams and starting entrepreneurship is super exciting for me as&nbsp;I can shape my company to be something I&rsquo;ll be proud of. I may even pass my legacy on to my children someday.&nbsp;Starting a Business Is a Big Step. Was There Any Hesitation?&nbsp;Not at all as I always knew what I wanted.&nbsp;What Was Your First ID Job? What Was It Like?&nbsp;The first was a really memorable&nbsp;bedroom makeover at Mei Hwan terrace.&nbsp;The owner was a pink lover and this was a makeover to turn her entire bedroom into pink.&nbsp;The bed, Study table, and display cabinet were customized to pink. (Laughs)&nbsp;How About The Most Influential Job &ndash; One That Changed How You Do Things?&nbsp;It was to manage an architect&rsquo;s home renovation where the design and drawings were done by the owner himself. The entire <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/6-facts-about-renovating-in-Singapore">renovation process</a> was extremely tedious as every little detail including tile placement had to be exact. From this, I&rsquo;ve learned that no details are too small and this also taught me to be meticulous and detailed orientated to this day.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sixides-us/uploads%2F1661230198614-1661230198614.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 100%;">&nbsp;Every Artist Has Their Proudest Work. What Would You Say Yours Is?&nbsp;I always give my best creativity to fit each and every homeowner&rsquo;s requirement as well as their <a href="https://www.sixides.com/articles/renovation-on-budget">budget</a>. Therefore, every house which I&rsquo;ve designed is my proudest achievement.&nbsp;Kinda Like Asking You To Pick Your Favourite Child?&nbsp;(Laughs) Exactly that.&nbsp;What Guides Your Work? What Would You Say Your Design Philosophy Is?&nbsp;&ldquo;Your home should tell the story of who you are, and be a collection of what you love, brought together under one roof.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s a quote from Nate Berkus that I carry with me all the time. That&rsquo;s why I always ask my clients about their lifestyle, about family preferences, and their hobbies, and try to integrate all that into their home design.&nbsp;How Do You Conceptualise Your Design Ideas?&nbsp;I insist on being on-site to feel the space out. When I&rsquo;m on site, I&rsquo;d close my eyes to visualise everything around the house, thinking of how the space should look like.It works for me every time. What Is One Advice You&rsquo;d Like To Give Up And Coming Interior Designers?&nbsp;Treat every house as your masterpiece. Focus on both the little details and big picture to craft cohesive spaces.

You thought about it. Then thought about it again. And again. You can’t quite get rid of the bothersome feeling that something’s missing… missing a little bit of you. Then you should book an appointment with Kelvin, a professional small details expert on making places feel like… you.

Interview With Mark Teo: Every Space A Story

Mark Teo is an Assistant Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology. He obtained his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Melbourne and, later, attained a Master of Science in Environmental Management at the National University of Singapore.

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