As Malaysia is ready to have fun the nation’s 67th Independence Day — or Merdeka Day — on 31 August 2025, LUXUO spotlights the architects and designers who’re shaping Malaysia’s design trade. From award-winning Malaysian architects who form airports and cavernous residential bungalows to the artistic spirit of product designers with their circular-economy-focused merchandise, LUXUO celebrates these designers for his or her mixed visionary talent of making constructions and merchandise which can be placing Malaysian design on the worldwide map.
NRY Architects: Crafting Malaysia’s Architectural Id
NRY Architects has influenced Malaysia’s constructed atmosphere since its basis in 1984. Underneath the path of Dato’ Ezumi Harzani Ismail, the Kuala Lumpur-based structure agency has established a stable popularity for creating iconic buildings that strike a steadiness between daring trendy fashion and conventional Malaysian environment. NRY’s portfolio — which encompasses every thing from opulent properties and civic areas to towering enterprise towers — demonstrates a meticulous dedication to type, operate and placemaking.
Business friends repeatedly record NRY as one in every of Malaysia’s most important corporations. Their capability to mix innovation with social goal is demonstrated by their 4-storey Sekolah Agama Rakyat Taman Tasik, which received Malaysia’s prime architectural honour, the PAM Gold Award. Within the meantime, their proficiency in high-performance city structure is obvious in industrial initiatives reminiscent of Menara Hap Seng 3. In keeping with Architectural Digest Southeast Asia, “NRY’s work carries an assured readability — whether or not within the considerate interaction of sunshine and area of their cultural initiatives or the rhythmic façades of their towers.”
Initiatives just like the GBI-certified Menara KEN show the agency’s strict environmental philosophy, which matches past aesthetics. After forty years, NRY’s design intelligence — moderately than ephemeral developments — continues to dominate Malaysian structure.
WHBC Architects: Malaysia’s Rising Design Pressure
WHBC Architects — a gaggle that mixes youthful vitality with technical precision — is rising as a observe to look at in Malaysia’s architectural panorama. The Kuala Lumpur-based studio was established in 2016 and has quickly established itself with a portfolio that features progressive industrial buildings, well-considered residential initiatives and adaptive reuse initiatives.
Business watchers have seen. The six-storey mixed-use constructing in Damansara Heights — designed by WHBC — was chosen for the 2023 Design Awards by the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM), which praised its “intelligent spatial economic system and contextual sensitivity.”
Administrators Wong, Heng, Boon and Chin individually oversee initiatives, ensuring each scheme represents their excessive requirements. This hands-on method is what distinguishes WHBC. An bold future is recommended by ongoing initiatives, reminiscent of a tech startup’s low-carbon headquarters. As just lately mentioned by Structure Malaysia: “It is a agency that understands scale, materiality and — crucially — how buildings stay of their environment.” WHBC is subtly redefining what it means to be a next-generation Malaysian observe with a pipeline of culturally complicated initiatives.
Huge Hand Creation
Huge Hand Creation is an progressive giving and product design firm based by Eric Tiau, a Malaysian industrial designer. To supply emotionally impactful giving options that mix narrative, magnificence and intentional branding, it has collaborated with over 100 Malaysian and worldwide corporations.
For Emerge @ FIND 2025 in Singapore, Tiau has devised the “B?ori” lamps designed for contemporary properties. The luminaire permits for straightforward personalisation with its modular snap-fit parts. It’s made with environmentally pleasant PLA plastic and patented Beyon Rubber, which is created from recycled nitrile gloves. It’s a prime instance of round design. The B?ori lamp promotes attentive residing and is an merchandise that’s centered on the person.
Evelyn Kwong
Malaysian designer and researcher Evelyn Kwong — based mostly in Berlin — explores craft-based applied sciences by linking them to the historical past of fabric data, the atmosphere and related narratives. Worldwide exhibitions of her work have included Dutch Design Week, the Museum of European Cultures, Schloss Hollenegg for Design and the Museum of Ornamental Arts Dresden.
Kwong’s eye-catching tray is a mix of handicraft and machine accuracy. It reimagines the triaxial weaving that’s widespread all through Southeast Asia. Historically, the sample is fabricated from stiff supplies — reminiscent of bamboo — however Ebb and Circulation makes use of cloth paper. Scalloped stitches, machine-sewn, contribute to the construction’s institution and supply ornamental accents. Her product makes its debut at EMERGE @ FIND 2025 in Singapore.
Tan Wei Ming
Tan Wei Ming — a designer from Kuala Lumpur — based Aureole Design, which emphasises craftsmanship, notably when it comes to materiality and manufacturing strategies. Tan additionally utilises her background as a graphic designer to provide works which can be based mostly on geometry and ease, bringing new concepts for type, proportion and steadiness to life. Malaysia is likely one of the world’s largest producers of rubber gloves.
The Fold pendant mild is created from flawed gloves taken from rubber factories. Picture: Tan Wei Ming. (left)
The distinctive Fold mild gives a bendable, sinuous aesthetic. Picture: Tan Wei Ming. (proper)
The nation has quick access to an ample provide of such defective items derived from the manufacturing course of. For her debut at EMERGE @ FIND 2025 in Singapore, Aureole Design reimagines these flawed gloves into new makes use of, shapes and design expressions with the “Fold” lighting collection. These alluring, illuminating objects are concurrently sculptural and graphic, all because of easy folds of flat rubber sheets in numerous color combos.
Studio Kanta
With a discerning eye for modern magnificence, Adrien Kent of Studio Kanta has firmly established himself as a number one voice in Malaysia’s inside design scene. His work — celebrated in worldwide design publications — demonstrates a profound experience that extends past mere aesthetics to embody a deep understanding of spatial concord and architectural integrity.
Adrien Kent designed the areas inside this glossy and trendy 9,900-sq-ft Sunway Palazzio penthouse for the home-owner’s city residing. Picture: Studio Kanta. (left)
Loads of mild floods the spacious condominium. Picture: Studio Kanta. (proper)
This information — honed over years of observe inside the Malaysian market — permits him to navigate the distinctive challenges and alternatives of making luxurious residences within the area, from sourcing distinctive native artisans to composing with the plush tropical mild. Kent’s method is deeply client-centric, treating every temporary not as a set of directions however as a artistic dialogue. He’s famend for his capability to interpret a consumer’s imaginative and prescient and elevate it, crafting environments which can be each profoundly private and effortlessly refined.
This talent is completely illustrated in his work on a exceptional three-storey penthouse in Kuala Lumpur. There, he masterfully balanced a minimalist, impartial palette with wealthy textural layers and curated artisanal items — all whereas framing breathtaking metropolis views as the house’s centrepiece. The ensuing area is a testomony to his philosophy: that true luxurious lies in a serene, uncluttered environment tailor-made for contemporary residing, proving his distinctive expertise for translating a consumer’s aspiration right into a tangible — and completely timeless — actuality.
Raymond Lee
With over three a long time on the pinnacle of Malaysia’s inside design trade, Raymond Lee of Design Community Architects brings a masterful confidence to his initiatives. His professional hand in crafting this luxury four-storey penthouse for The St. Regis Residence in Kuala Lumpur is a testomony to his profound understanding of each his craft and his clientele. Lee’s seniority affords him an unrivalled data of the market, enabling him to supply distinctive supplies and push the envelope with a daring, modern imaginative and prescient.
The temporary referred to as for a “trendy luxe” aesthetic, an idea Lee interprets with impeccable sophistication. He understands that true luxurious lies within the particulars: the wealthy veining of the statuario marble, the nice and cozy glow of customized bronze metalwork and the disciplined restraint of a monochromatic palette. Moderately than following developments, his designs are knowledgeable by a deep-seated experience that is aware of the way to steadiness grandeur with liveability. Every area — from the double-volume residing space to the serene main bedroom — is meticulously curated to mirror a life-style of refined magnificence. Lee’s work demonstrates that he has an intuitive capability to translate a consumer’s aspiration right into a tangible and completely breathtaking actuality.
Blaine Robert
With a distinguished profession that has formed Malaysia’s luxurious inside design panorama for over twenty years, Canadian-born Blaine Robert’s work is synonymous with refined, lived-in magnificence. His seniority inside the trade will not be merely a measure of time, however a depth of acquired data that grants him an insider’s mastery of artisans, supplies and architectural nuances distinctive to the area. This experience is the bedrock of his observe, permitting him to navigate complicated initiatives — from expansive bungalows to subtle city residences — with assured precision.
Robert’s philosophy centres on a profoundly collaborative method, believing essentially the most profitable interiors are a seamless extension of the consumer themselves. He possesses a uncommon expertise for deciphering a quick, not simply executing it — weaving a story that balances his signature aesthetic of relaxed luxurious along with his shoppers’ private tales and sensible wants. His portfolios reveal an clever command of texture, mild and scale, using a palette of pure stone, wealthy timber and curated objets d’artwork to create environments that really feel each timeless and intimately private. For a clientele that seeks a really bespoke creation, Blaine Robert’s seasoned hand delivers areas that aren’t simply designed however deeply understood.
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