Design For Life

Ilse Crawford is changing social spaces to suit human behaviour, one lounge at a time.

- Audrey Phoon

It makes no sense. Here we are, at Shanghai’s Plaza 66, one of the city’s most luxurious shopping centres, which has just undergone a revamp and now houses over a hundred sprawling designer stores. Nearly all of them heave with exclusive items or hard-to-get pieces. Yet, instead of shopping up a storm, we’re ensconced in the mall’s plush new VIC (Very Important Customer) Lounge, loath to leave our very comfy chair.

But perhaps we should have expected it. The space was designed by British decor guru Ilse Crawford, whose Studioilse firm is focused on creating environments where humans feel comfortable. “No one, rich or poor, wants to be in a space that feels cold or in some way neglected, uninhabited,” she tells us in the 400 sq m parlour for the mall’s elite customers, both of us cocooned in a tall striped sofa that has the effect of making us feel like we’re having a private conversation. “Ultimately, we are all people and we have more in common with each other than that that divides us. And there are things we all want. We want care, we want attention, we want to be in spaces that someone cares about.”