If you are a Singapore national or a foreigner residing in Singapore and your answer is No, you are missing a lot! A “lot” comes from the catch phrase “Design Thinking” which is a revolutionary and ambitious plan to put Singapore in the forefront of everything that is “design.” And that includes your architect, your interior designer, your furniture manufacturer, your service providers, and most particularly you, the end user.

Design Singapore Council

The Design Singapore Council (DSC), the spearhead of this movement, aims to put in place this new mindset and to make Singapore the design centre of Asia by the year 2020. The mission is to cultivate Design Thinking as the new paradigm and get people to accept and promote design as the trigger of innovation, progress and better life. Design thinking proceeds from the premise that innovation – anything new and useful – is the driver of progress.

You as the Focus

So if you are a home owner or planning to be one, you are a direct beneficiary of this initiative that has been adopted by the Singapore government. You are in fact the subject goal of this program. Design must focus on you as the end user, what you want, what you need, what will please you, what will benefit you, what will make your life easy. That means that products and services must tap into your sensory field of preferences right from the moment of their inception.

The Interior Designer as Design Thinker

The interiors of your home or office are prime areas where these sensory experiences can happen. This is why your interior designer has to be a design thinker before you become one! Imagine if you have embraced design thinking and your interior designer does not know it!

Your Interior Designer’s Role

To be a design thinker, your interior designer must know how to probe into your personal desires and preferences so that these feelings are aptly considered in the ultimate design of your house. At the same time, he must also be well-equipped. As a professional, your interior designer must balance these inputs with his/her own knowledge and experiences about the points being considered. This should lead you, the client, to making a more sensible choice from among the design options presented.

It is important to be able to create this setting where you and your interior designer are engaged in articulating and filtering what is best for you. This skill is the professional domain of a good interior designer. He in fact must lead you to it. Of course, if you as the client is a design thinker, it will be a very productive engagement as the two of you can readily see the best option under the circumstances.

Sooner Than We Think

The Design Singapore Council is spearheaded by the country’s top architects, architect-designers, interior designers, furniture designers, industrial designers, creative artists and other professionals in the field of design. The design spirit has been seeded and is now moving in high activity. In no time at all, it will be in the consciousness of every design professional, whether architect or interior designer, and much sooner, in the consciousness of every end user.