A Purpose To Repurpose

Cherin Tan, founder of award-winning interior design firm LAANK, talks about LAAT, her unique upcycling furniture label co-created with PHUNK co-founder Alvin Tan.

- Asih Jenie

With so much waste generated by unsold items in the furniture industry, do we really need another new furniture brand? In the case of LAAT, the answer is a resounding yes, thanks to its unique design philosophy. LAAT is a local furniture label founded by two award-winning creatives: interior designer Cherin Tan, founder of interior architecture firm LAANK, and multidisciplinary artist Alvin Tan, co-founder of art and design collective PHUNK. LAAT’s purpose is to repurpose; the label produces furniture collections crafted from unsold items and material waste, breathing a new life into dead stocks and turning them into bespoke items that straddle the realm of design and art. We asked Cherin to share more.

HOW DID LAAT COME ABOUT?

Alvin and I have been long-time collaborators. We’ve worked together on many projects, and in some of them, we created products from various industry scraps and salvaged materials. We thought, “Why don’t we collaborate on a series?” And the idea evolved into creating LAAT as a platform for these collaborations.

IS IT LAAT’S INTENTION TO CREATE OBJECTS THAT ARE BOTH DESIGN ITEMS AND ARTWORK?