World Architecture Festival 2012: Pan Yi Cheng of Singapore studio P.A.C won the award in the retail category at the World Architecture Festival with his design for a shop for furniture brand Herman Miller. In this movie we filmed, the architect explains how a recent emergence of young practices is helping Singapore become a "more vibrant" place that is starting to find its own identity.

"Culturally we are quite unique, you can say we are on the crossroads between east and west," says Cheng. Describing the architectural context, he explains: "We have a completely modern masterplan with a Corbusian vision, but culturally we are ingrained still with Asian thinking."

The architect designed an undulating lattice of plywood that folds up around Herman Miller furniture at an XTRA homeware store in Singapore. He describes how he was inspired by the construction of the chairs on show to create a system of modular pieces that are "joined together with a simple, interlocking lapping joint."

Cheng explains how this is the smallest project from his Singapore studio, which he started three years ago after a period of working and studying in London. "There's a lot more things happening in Asia," he says. Despite completing his own education in the west, he discusses how he also believes education is rapidly progressing in the east to become more "means-driven" rather than "ends-driven", as it is at the moment. "Once we reach a level of maturity in terms of a discourse we will be able to go for something which is more means-driven," he says.

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with award winners at the World Architecture Festival. See all the movies we’ve published so far, including our interview with architect Chris Wilkinson about the World Building of the Year.

See all our stories about WAF 2012 »