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Language of Aesthetics

Ern has designed alongside award-winning firms such as Peter Tay Studio and Formwerkz Architects. To him, design is like contemporary poetry filtered through a sieve of traditional values to create spaces with a sense of belonging.

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A Conversation with Ern, Design Lead of EightyTwo

The design explores the idea that art and design are separate disciplines and that art can be fused with everyday life. In this episode, Ern shares his design aspirations and the stories behind some of his favourite collectibles.

Which aspects of your background and upbringing have shaped your design principles and philosophy?

I remember the smell of the rain and the sound of the water flowing down from the pitched roof into a monolithic water well. I remember standing by the window, looking at how the colour of the solid wood stairs deepened when they came in contact with the rain. It was in a stilt house with a partial courtyard in a secluded town where I spent some of my childhood. The living area is situated on the second storey connecting the kitchen through the hallway.

There’s a monumental stove where we cook with firewood, the sound of the footsteps when people walk on the wooden floor, and light rays from the window, which at the same time, frame the landscape. These experiences have influenced the beauty of phenomenal spaces and the relationship between people and their surroundings.

In my creative journey, I’m blessed with the opportunity to join celebrity designer Peter Tay and award-winning studio Formwerkz Architects, who held key influences on my perspectives in design.

What is your current aesthetics direction ?

I would like to think of my design as contemporary poetry filtered through a sieve of traditional values.It is space with a sense of belonging and elevated well-being. Through the years, this has always stayed with me.

What do you think are the elements essential to the trademark of your aesthetics?

I think the trademark of my aesthetics is contemporary poetry with evocative spaces and multi-sensorial experience. When material, light, the relationship between spaces and object creates such feeling in space. It’s about a quiet, contemplative moment, connecting people with nature with their surrounding objects.

Which designer inspired you most? Please elaborate.

I’m inspired by the works of Tadao Ando, Peter Zumthor, Rick Owens, Yohji Yamamoto and Oki Sato.

It is spaces with phenomenal and ephemeral qualities and the beauty of simplicity, yet it’s pure, austere and monastic. It is the way material affects the feeling of space where structure, order, and spatial narration comes together to elevate the sensorial experience of the user journey.