A love for the classics

WHEN YOU FURNISH A HOME with design icons from a Mid-Century Modern playlist, chances are it could end up looking like another ho-hum high-end showroom: an elegant space lacking in actual personality. Joel Chin defied the odds. His home has the hallmarks of a lived-in personal space: comfortable, intimate and inviting, with splashes of colour and individual touches that signal a departure from the mainstream.

Mr Chin, a creative director at a multinational advertising agency, is an ardent fan of both the Modernist aesthetic and avant-garde design. As with many furniture aficionados, his starter kit was an all-time classic: the Eames Rocking Chair, a plastic shell chair designed by Charles Eames in 1948.

The chair was acquired more than a dozen years ago, but that milestone piece is no longer in his furniture collection. It was sold when the buyer of Mr Chin's previous home liked the interiors so much that he bought the place lock, stock and rocker. He now lives in a converted three-bedroom apartment, where a different Eames chair rules the roost.

"I'm in the creative industry - I appreciate art and design and it's a natural progression for me to like furniture," says Mr Chin, whose collection includes the revered Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, designed in 1956 and still the gold standard, a perfect marriage of wood and leather.

The chair occupies a prime spot in his Art Room, a dedicated space adjoining the living and dining areas. "The Eames is my default Netflix and chillax chair - it's comfy and fits me like a glove," he says. It shares the room with a pair of Barcelona chairs, essential props in world-class museums, Hollywood movies and Vogue fashion spreads. The Barcelona, arguably even more recognisable than the Eames, was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich in 1929 - and is not out of place in 2021.

These are among the most coveted - and most copied - pieces of furniture in the world, but Mr Chin has never considered saving on cost or compromising by buying knock-off versions. Licensed manufacturers Herman Miller and Knoll have represented Eames and Mies van der Rohe furniture respectively for decades. "It's about professional integrity," says Mr Chin. "Ideas are fragile and can be copied, but you must respect the process, the hours spent creating an idea and the inspiration behind the design."

He adds, "A piece of furniture is never just about clever design. These classics have passed the comfort test and also the test of time. Good design that works is something that lasts, and I'm happy to journey through the whole process."

Working from home during the pandemic has enabled him to be reacquainted with his collection. "I got to know the different spaces within the house a lot better," he says. "Some of these classics are like fine wine, they evolve over time." He adds, "The good thing about having these pieces is that whenever friends drop in for a wine session, they all have a favourite chair to lounge in. I've made it a point that each chair is beside a side table, so that a glass of Bordeaux is always close at hand."

Treading the fine line between form and function is the goal of any designer worth his salt and Mr Chin's home features pieces from some of the design world's brightest lights, among them Arne Jacobsen's Egg Chair (1958), Isamu Noguchi's coffee table (1947) and the Arco lamp by the Castiglioni brothers (1962).

His living room also features contemporary candidates in the soon-to-be-classic category, including the multi-purpose Little Friend side table by Kasper Salto (2005) for Fritz Hansen and a trio of quirky-but-functional side tables designed by Jaime Hayon for Cassina, under the Reaction Poetique minimalist series (2015).

"Hayon has a curious mind and a playful approach to design," says Mr Chin, a firm believer in the Charles Eames mantra declaring that design is an expression of purpose and if it is good enough, it may be considered art.

"Art and furniture complement each other. The difference between furniture and art is function. You can sit on a piece of furniture and have a conversation with someone whereas art is personal, it speaks to you on a personal level."

He adds, "My day job is to create ads, but I also design and paint - these are my side passions." Two large graphic works in the Pop Art style were painted by him and hang in the Art Room while elsewhere, a selection of contemporary art by Southeast Asian artists decorate the walls, acquired during his travels around the region and visits to artists' studios. Mr Chin has also published two illustrated children's books, created in his spare time in collaboration with a colleague.

"I don't look at my collection from an investment perspective, I just appreciate great design," says Mr Chin. "I tend to like pieces that have a story to it, the philosophy behind the product." The Barcelona chair, for example, has a narrative that's hard to top. The first two ever were made for the Mies- designed German pavilion during an international exposition in Barcelona in 1929, where the king and queen of Spain would preside over inaugural ceremonies. "So they sat on the chairs - and if it was good enough for them, it's good enough for me."