Hunn Wai and Olivia Lee: Intellectual and creative equals
In life as in work, the pair are endlessly driven by curiosity
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN POWER COUPLE HUNN Wai and Olivia Lee can come across as rather unfriendly. Look them up on the Internet and you’re more likely to find pictures of them looking grim – stern almost – than smiling.
But prepare to ditch those impressions when you meet the duo. Not only are the husband and wife warm and engaging in person, they’re also very attentive, with a refreshing sense of curiosity towards just about everything. They don’t just want to know about the hows, but also the whys behind things.
Confident and comfortable in their own skin but eager to learn, they embody the teachable spirit that they probably hope to instil in their students. Wai, 45, whose full name is Wai Yuh-Hunn, is an adjunct associate professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, while Lee, 40, is an adjunct assistant professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Being prominent industrial designers and university lecturers are not their only commonalities. Both are also recipients of DesignSingapore Council’s overseas scholarships.
Wai pursued a master’s degree at the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, while Lee topped her cohort and clinched first-class honours at the renowned Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London.
They also started their respective design practices. Wai is one half of Lanzavecchia + Wai (L+W), a creative studio based in Singapore and Milan, and Lee is the founder of her eponymous firm.
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Too many similarities to make for a good, lifelong partnership? That was an idea Lee, who was named as one of the eight most promising designers at the famed Milan Furniture Fair in 2017, had to disagree with.
“Because with Hunn, I realised the value of a similar vocabulary and a lens with which you look at life together.”
A meeting of minds
Wai and Lee knew of each other when they were undergraduates pursuing industrial design at NUS. But it was only when they returned from their studies overseas that they found themselves in similar orbits in Singapore’s small design circle.
By then, Lee was on Wai’s radar as she was featured on design blogs. “Also, I knew that being an independent designer is not easy, so I respect anyone who takes that path,” he says.
For Lee, who was the first female industrial designer to go solo and start an independent studio in 2013, it was nice to connect with other creatives also trying to make a dent in the international design scene.
“There were very few studios that you could really swop stories with, and I really respected what Hunn was doing with the L+W practice – punching above their weight on this big stage,” says Lee, whose clients include global names such as Cartier, Hermes, Samsung and The Balvenie.
Plus, it didn’t hurt that Wai took an interest in her project, the Marvellous Marble Factory, for Singapore Design Week in 2015. He also helped her tear down the installation – which reimagined marble in a playful and fantastical way – when the show concluded.
“Chivalry works, you know,” Lee says with a laugh. “Especially from a peer you respect professionally. We were just really aligned in values and ambitions.”
In their practice, both use narrative as a core design strategy, dig deep into research for traits to weave into their projects, and involve wonder, play and wit. The difference, if one were to distil it, is in how these ideas are expressed, with Lee being more classical and elemental, and Wai, more expressive with flourishes.
A joining of hearts
Growing up, both Wai and Lee lived in condominiums with open spaces in the western part of Singapore, and enjoyed improvised play with neighbours of different nationalities.
“We were exposed to a more cosmopolitan but also very idyllic, very safe world with a lot of make-believe,” says Lee. “Our inner children really see and recognise each other.”
Even today, play and curiosity remain cornerstones of their relationship, driving how they pursue new experiences, travel, as well as love the simple, poetic and finer things in life.
“We have such a huge bandwidth for collecting all these experiences, and improvising together,” she says.
Wai proposed to Lee at the Teshima Art Museum, which hosts a single piece of artwork in the form of a freestanding concrete shell, on the island of Teshima in Japan. Fittingly, when they got married in 2018, they declared each other as fellow life explorers.
After all, they enjoy both the expansive and convergent intellectual processes which allow them to refine and iterate their decisions – in work and in life.
“Everything can be unpacked and discovered. We think about life as this open-world game, and it’s actually quite fun,” says Wai, who earlier this year became the first Singaporean co-curator of DesignSingapore Council’s Future Impact showcase at Milan Design Week.
His studio has also done work for brands the likes of Living Divani, Cappellini, Tod’s and – yes – Hermes.
Because he is “curious about everything and has an opinion about everything”, Wai says he has the propensity to fill up mental space – but has learnt from his wife to be patient.
Lee, on the other hand, tends to “hang back and overthink a little too much”. “From Hunn, I’ve learnt to be a bit more gung-ho.”
A sharing of ideals
The infinitely curious couple read each other well and also look to one another when searching for the right word or concept to articulate a thought. The love and mutual respect between them is abundantly clear, as are the dreams they share.
One such dream is the design of their ideal home – although it wouldn’t be a straightforward exercise. Says Wai: “We’re thinking about how it fulfills us as inquisitive people; or even as people who enjoy culture, food and art – not only the consumption of these things, but also their creation, and how to share and communicate them and empower the community around us. These are all things we would like to layer into a home project.”
A much bigger dream, however, is one inspired by their visit to the Storm King Art Center, an open-air museum in New York with possibly the largest collection of contemporary outdoor sculptures in the United States.
“It’s a beautiful piece of land with lots of site-specific sculptures,” Lee gushes. “We could invite friends or people we admire to populate (a similar kind of park). So if Sentosa or Saint John’s Island needs ideas on how to transform their island…”
They also envisage opening a creative school within the park, so more can be exposed to the power of design thinking.
“When we were younger, we were really just struggling hard to make a mark, to be seen and heard, to exist as creatives and know that our work has meaning,” says Lee.
“Now, we’re in a position in our career where we have tasted some of that success and recognition, and it feels like each time we hit a new milestone... we’re thinking further and wider in terms of impact, about how our work leaves a legacy.”
And although much of their life already involves collaboration – they feed and bounce ideas off each other – the couple have yet to join forces when it comes to work. They acknowledge that while they’re both “very good pilots”, they’re not sure if they can co-pilot together.
“Also, it took so long for me to craft a singular identity as a female designer, so I’m cautious that in a collaboration, I get subsumed into the partnership or just be seen as Hunn’s wife,” Lee admits.
For now, Wai is preoccupied with the homecoming show for Future Impact and a project commissioned by the Japanese government. Lee, meanwhile, is working on a large-scale public art installation and expanding her practice into the field of augmented reality.
“Growth is a huge keyword in our relationship,” says Wai. “In design or innovation, you’re staring at ambiguity every day, looking at the unknown and thinking about what you can pull out to create new value or new thinking. And I think that’s how we face life as well.”
Photography: Darren Gabriel Leow
Fashion direction: CK
Make-up and hair: Alison Tay, using Armani and Goldwell
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