A KAZE PERSPECTIVE: 2019 INTERIOR DESIGN TRENDS IN VIETNAM

With any design industry, whether it’s fashion or interior design, people always want to know what the upcoming design trends are. KAZE Interior Design Studio shares some insights on some of the major interior design movements of 2019.

KAZE Interior Design Studio recently reached their 10-year milestone since the founding of this innovative firm. With over 100 high-profile projects across Vietnam and Cambodia completed during the last decade, KAZE is undoubtedly one of the top interior design studios in Vietnam.

What It Takes to Be an Interior Design Trendsetter in Vietnam

While design trends come and go, such as the industrial style design we currently see everywhere in Saigon, Fong-Chan Paw Zeuthen, the owner of KAZE Interior Design Studio in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2, explains that she doesn’t like being tied down to what’s popular.

“I hate to be a prostitute to anything trendy.” She has never wanted to be a fan of other people and even from a young age, she has always believed that people should be a fan of themselves.

She doesn’t consider herself to be trendy in any way; in fact, her husband is the trendier one of the two them, in her opinion. However, Fong-Chan does believe that her trends are born out of functionality first and then followed by a unique design.

“Interior design in Ho Chi Minh City is vastly different to that in Europe and doesn’t always focus on function first. That’s where KAZE really stands out from the crowd because it targets what people want and need. But they don’t always know it until they experience it.”

Creating Trends at KAZE Interior Design Studio in Saigon’s District 2

Fong-Chan believes that what she calls “positive” trends come from making a person feel good. In terms of KAZE Interior Design Studio’s measurement of success, if the intended users of a project like it and feel good when they walk into the room, then Fong-Chan and her team have done their job.

For KAZE’s larger projects with notable companies like Marriott, branding guidelines have to be adhered to, which can be rather restrictive. So, finding the balance of designing something innovative within certain limitations is often a challenge, but it’s one that can be inspiring.

A great example of this is KAZE Interior Design Studio’s work for the MIA Resort in Mui Ne. Fong-Chan strives to tell a story in her projects, which can encompass everything from the ambiance of a space, to the way a person sits on a chair and how they feel when they do so. MIA Resort’s rooms and bungalows are at a high rate of occupancy on a year-round basis. Guests love the resort and come back because they like the way they feel when they stay there. Whether it be the casual beachside ambiance or the calming colors that reflect the ocean, every detail of a KAZE project’s story is carefully thought out and intricately placed into the interior design of a space.

Walking around the KAZE Interior Design Studio office, based in Saigon’s trendy District 2, there are a lot of brightly colored fabric samples scattered over the team’s desks. In the corner of the room, one person is watching a video on how to find the perfect lighting to create a specific ambiance. On the other side of the room, two team members are sat around a computer discussing how to improve the detailing of the furniture in a digital sketch. The decisions these people make have been influenced by their own interpretation of things they have seen, felt and experienced themselves.

Interior Design Trends in Vietnam 2019, according to KAZE

When asked, “What are the upcoming design trends for 2019?”, KAZE’s project designer Maria explains that nature will be a huge design theme for the year: “As people are focused more than ever on their environmental impact, so they will turn to nature for inspiration. Colors like moody hues of blue, forest green and cheery yellow will be introduced to our design palette, and calming earthy tones like mushroom grey will be used in materials. You may also see a lot of wood incorporated in our interior design projects this year.”

Designers and construction teams are also becoming more aware of their waste and construction trash production, and so they are finding new ways to be more sustainable and eco-friendly. KAZE Interior Design Studio is a leader in this sustainable movement. Fong-Chan explains that she has always pushed the company to be environmentally conscious and aims to use materials that are sustainable and long-lasting. However, she insists that there is more to be done and everyone can always improve.

KAZE Interior Design Studio’s junior designer Duong believes that the upcoming designs trends in 2019 will include block colors and in particular, the shade ‘living coral’, which is a retro orangey-pink, as well as stylized graphics. More specifically, Duong explains that vhils are on the rise. Originally created by a Portuguese street artist, vhils are typically made by scratching the surface of building exteriors to create faces or skylines and make the exterior beautiful again. Duong expects to see more digital interpretations of vhils in 2019 with fresh, exciting patterns used in the background. He envisions seeing physical or digital versions of them in hotels as well as restaurants and cafes.

When a Trend is More than a Trend - Saigon’s KAZE and Sustainability

It’s clear to see that KAZE Interior Design Studio is one of the major style and design influencers in Vietnam. The choices they make in their large scale projects will likely filter down and inspire smaller design firms and individuals. Fong-Chan hopes that others will start to take into account that KAZE’s success is largely to do with the team’s ability to put their customers first and focus on functionality before aesthetics.

It is clear that a major design trend for 2019 is likely to be a strong emphasis on the colours in nature. But what does that mean on a deeper level? Fong-Chan tries to encourage her team to see beyond just the “Instagram appeal” and focus on what’s behind the pretty picture. For example, the emphasis on nature-inspired design can also be used as a turning point for many people in the design industry to reevaluate their environmental impact as an homage to the beauty of their surroundings. In this way, KAZE Interior Design Studio hopes to enhance the experiences of people in Saigon not just through trends of fantastic form and function, but also creating enduring positive effects through sustainability.

Article credit: City Pass Guide