Upholding Lightness

Interview with Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai of Lanzavecchia + Wai.

Multi-award-winning Italian and Singaporean duo Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai are among the most promising young design talent working in East Asia today, boldly tackling complex issues with their own unique brand of humour. They spoke to KJ Associate Editor Lucinda Cowing online from Singapore, two days into Design Week, on their latest collaboration, the challenges in taking advantage of new technologies, and the tools the next generation of designers need to navigate their ever-changing field.

LUCINDA COWING: I understand you are taking part in Singapore Design Week at the moment and that your new PLAYplay series being exhibited here came out of a collaboration with a local furniture restorer. Could you tell me about that?

HUNN WAI: Journey East is a 21 year-old furniture company that has always brought in vintage and reclaimed wood furniture, and two years ago they decided to address a market that they thought needed addressing: of first-time homeowners and young families. When these customers came enquiring about a solid wooden table they found it was out of their budget, which the owners thought was a waste of interest. We also felt that in this part of Asia there is an oversupply of Scandinavian furniture...

FRANCESCA LANZAVECCHIA: Which, most of the time, doesn’t really answer the needs of the homeowners: size-wise, or material-wise. For instance, wool is so fine that in a tropical climate it doesn’t really make much sense.

HW: Maybe if you turn the AC on I guess!