Good interior design must be "appropriate to its context"
Inside Festival 2014: in this movie Voon Wong of VW+BS says he'll be looking for interiors projects that respond intelligently to their physical and cultural context as jury member for this year's Inside Festival.
"Inside Festival is an international award and we'll be getting submissions from all over the world," says Wong. "What I'm looking for is a response that is appropriate to its context in both physical locality as well as cultural conditions."
Context is crucial in his own practice's work, says Wong, who has offices in both London and Singapore and will be designing the bar at Inside Festival this year.
"VW+BS is a multi-disciplinary practice so we get involved in architecture, interiors and lighting design," he says. "We're often working within historic or traditional buildings so our approach is not a uniform one."
"In some cases a large amount of the historic fabric is preserved, so we'll work within that. Sometimes a lot of it has [already] been ripped out. So [our approach] very much depends on what we've been given."
Inside Festival, which commissioned the movie, will take place alongside the World Architecture Festival at the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore from 1 to 3 October and will attract award entries from around the world.
"As a Singaporean, I'm pretty excited that Inside Festival is taking place in Singapore again this year," Wong says. "I'm looking forward to giving exposure to architects and designers from that part of the world."
As well as the awards, Inside Festival will feature a seminar programme around the theme of "mind and body".
"As designers we're often addressing the physical - the five senses," Wong says. "Having the idea of the mind is interesting because the experience of the user is an important one for design."
Inside, World Festival of Interiors and World Architecture Festival take place in Singapore from 1 to 3 October.
Shortlisted entries for both awards will present their projects in front of a jury of international judges — chaired by Rossana Hu of Chinese studio Neri&Hu (Inside Festival) and Richard Rogers, of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (WAF) — live at the event. See the full list of judges for Inside Festival here and World Architecture Festival.
Dezeen readers can gain a 10 percent discount on the price of festival passes to WAF and Inside Festival by using the VIP code "DEZEEN" when registering.
Register for tickets to the Inside Festival here and World Architecture Festival here.
Watch all our movies from the 2013 festivals »
Here is some more information from Inside Festival:
Inside, World Festival of Interiors is the global festival and awards programme that celebrates the very best in interior architecture and design from across the globe. Inside is the only international awards event where designers present their work live to an expert panel of judges – including Rossana Hu, Neri&Hu; David Kohn, David Kohn Architects; Matteo Thun, Matteo Thun and Partners; Pernilla Ohrstedt, Pernilla Ohrstedt Studio; Chris Lee, Asylum - and an audience of peers, clients and press.
Inside’s seminar programme hosts an array of the most insightful voices in the industry who this year will look at the zeitgeist topic of ‘Interiors, mind and body’. This year the festival also presents a series of exclusive client networking events that are open for all delegates to attend.
Creativity and inspiration remain at Inside’s heart with unique design features and installations, a gallery of the world’s top projects of the last year, local design tours, industry leading speakers and frank, live judging.