Words by Rome Jorge
Photos courtesy of the Ministry of Design
His designs beg your adoration. Purpose defines design and with Colin Seah, even beauty has its function: to elevate lives beyond the mundane. His sculptural creations evangelize his 
reverence for design and inspire nothing less than reverie. The firm he founded, the Ministry of Design, cheekily sounds governmental or hip, such as the Ministry of Sound, the famed house nightclub and events organizer. In truth, his firm’s name refers to his ministry as a man faith.
“The name reflects my personal faith as a Christian, acknowledges that the gift of design is divine and can be used as a ministry to others,” he confides to adobo magazine.
“I have always believed in the power of experiences to transform—the banal into the poetic, the everyday into the sublime. My work seeks to create such experiences by redefining and distilling the elements of place, ritual and perception to its core—I term this approach essentialism,” declares Seah at MOD’s website.
Established in 2004 as “an integrated spatial design, interior and architectural firm” to “question, disturb, and redefine the spaces, forms and experiences,” the Ministry of Design Pte Ltd (MOD) has since won more than 90 awards , a roster that notably includes the Red Dot Design Award, International Design Awards, World Architecture Festival, and the IAI Design Award, among many others. The MOD was declared a “Rising Star of Architecture” by the Monocle Singapore Survey 2010 and “Designer of the Year” by the International Design Awards, USA 2010, as well as a two-time recipient of Singapore’s highest design accolade, the President’s Design Award.
The works Seah is proudest of includes New Majestic Hotel, the Macalister mansion, Triple V gallery, Katto whiskey glass, Vue Beijing boutique hotel chain, and the Measure of Reflection mirror which made the cover of Wallpaper magazine.
Curiously, all his success was not in his plans. Seah confesses, “Oddly, I had never envisioned running my own practice. After returning from working abroad, I joined the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Department of Architecture as an academic and tutor. the plan was to get a PhD and stay in the world of academia. However four years into the NUS, I met a hotelier who offered me a chance to design a boutique hotel but it meant I had to quit my full time job for this. To be honest, I was still a designer at heart so after some prayer and consideration, I quit and starting working on the project. Later, it turned out that the hotel (New Majestic Hotel) made the headlines and was revolutionary for Singapore design scene – MOD was born.”
A licensed architect educated in the United States, Seah’s works are nothing less sculptural. In correspondence with adobo magazine, he reveals, how his architectural background influences his design process: “Architecture reinforced my innate desire for order. When we begin a new project, we tend to ground it within a conceptual framework or universe. This framework could be either rational or fantastical and is typically conceived by myself as the Design Director. After which, the team runs with it and creates a range of possible realities stemming from this central framework, we select the most attractive and appropriate one and then rally to develop it. Sometimes the results are sculptural, other times more narrative based.”
Complementing his creative genius are business savvy and organizational skills. “The main challenge is in balancing the economics of running a business with the passion of running a studio. I’ve always seen this as a design-led business, and acknowledge that its a privilege to be able to make a living doing something we’re passionate about. along the way, day-to-day challenges are usually people related, either external with clients or fellow consultants or internal, with maintaining the best studio quality possible,” Seah notes, adding, “Moving ahead, a growing challenge is to find ways to leverage our design skills and the effort we devote to a singular project beyond the project itself.”
The MOD’s leadership now includes Joy Chan Seah as director of business development and David Tan as director of projects. “Joy joined us as a director early into our growth. She handles all the vital aspects of the firm that the designers and architects can’t or won’t handle haha. When she joined, MOD was able to grow exponentially due to the systems she put in place. She is not an architect but a business graduate. David joined us as a senior architect and rose to the level of director after some years. His background executing large and complex projects complemented my skillsets greatly. He is the director of projects.
The MOD now operates in eight countries with headquarters in Singapore and with offices in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. Seah reveals his plans for the future: “Our work is currently in Singapore and the region – Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, Australia (unfortunately not yet the Philippines). We are strongest in Malaysia and China with multiple projects and foresee more growth in these countries. The last recession taught us the importance of having a diversified presence in a variety of countries. More importantly, it is hard to predict what the future really holds but to prepare for whatever lays ahead, we are grooming the second generation to share the steering of MOD in the decades to come.”
