Name: Customization at Scale: How Designers & Makers Collaborate
Uploaded: 2025-12-02
Duration: 21 min
Description: How does a designer and a maker work together when they have to furnish large spaces under pressing deadlines and budgets? How do they balance between ready-made pieces versus customized ones? Hear from a principal at an internationally renowned architecture and interior design firm and the CEO of a company specializing in high-end furniture.

How does a designer and a maker work together when they have to furnish large spaces under pressing deadlines and budgets? How do they balance between ready-made pieces versus customized ones? Hear from a principal at an internationally renowned architecture and interior design firm and the CEO of a company specializing in high-end furniture.

Customization at Scale: How Designers & Makers Collaborate

Conferences

Now on some more places where we like to relax, restaurants, bars, and hotels. Our next conversation revolves around the dynamic relationship between designers and makers who furnish these spaces. Tina Norden is the managing partner of Konrad and Partners, the renowned architecture and interior design practice founded by Sir Terence Conran. Dyke Hironaka, CEO of Stella Works, heads up an international brand known for their contemporary high-end furniture. They discuss how they collaborate under time and budget constraints in the fast-paced hospitality industry and provide customization at scale to make their environment feel distinct, elegant, and evocative. Please welcome Tina Dyke and Tony Chambers for this session. Please join us. Hello again, everybody. I hope you're enjoying the sessions so far. We have a great one now, customization at scale in the hospitality industry. So I know we're all very familiar with enjoying the benefits of well designed hotels, restaurants and bars, but we're going to dig into the The making of such places and the complicated and nuanced industry that makes up that great industry. We are joined by Tina and Diske, and I thought it would be useful if we start with an introduction to your both of your companies, your businesses. Um, to give the background and the origin stories of who you are and what you're about. So I think let's start with you, Dia. Tell us about the origins of stellar works and what your unique selling points are. OK, thank you very much for inviting me for this event. So it's a great honor. So my name is Take Hironaka. I'm a CEO of Starbucks. So Starbucks is a Japanese owned furniture company based in Shanghai. And we have a mid-size factory co-owned with the French manufacturer. With about 120 workers. And 80 of his staff. So we also have sales offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, and Tokyo. So we learned two main businesses. Custom made furniture and the furniture collection. Each accounting for about half of our business. So we focus on the hospitality industry. Uh, business, uh, uh, business model is unique because we can provide affordable custom-made furniture for hospital project. While also offering our own original brand. Our production aim to achieve the finest furniture, furniture through a Japanese quality management system. French technology. And Chinese craftsmanship. So this is a brief introduction for Andy, from what I've known of the brand for many years, 2012, is that right? the brand was founded? Yes, brand, it started from 2012, yes, and you hinted at it, but I think it is so significant. Japanese origin, but headquartered and made in Shanghai in China, to this very, very high spec. And you brought in the French historical French cabinet maker Laval to bring in some of that know-how of making with training and using Chinese craftsmanship, and I think that made such an important statement to the design world that China does high quality at a time when there was a misconception that it only produced lower quality. So I think it's a significant. Message, but also a combination of three different cultures and methods of know-how. And here's some examples of the hospitality work you've done and your business, as you said again, is twofold. You have a collection where you work with great designers globally, but you have the bespoke elements where you make furniture. Specifically for particular projects and work with great design companies such as Conran and Partners and Tina here. So Tina Tell us about the rich history. And the origin story of Conran and Partners and of course your charismatic and hugely influential founder Terrence Conran. Absolutely. So, um, we're an architecture and design practice, um, born in London about 40 years ago, and founded by Sir Terence Conan, who was actually a furniture designer and fabric designer to start off with. So as a studio, I think we have very great empathy and understanding and respect for furniture design and for the detail and craftsmanship that goes into that. And from that, we've gone on to design restaurants, of course, then hotels, residential, etc. um, but we come from that kind of foundation of kind of touching things, making things, and, and, and understanding how people utilize their space. Um, about 7 years ago we opened a studio in Hong Kong, and we've always done a lot of work in Asia. That's kind of where our heart lies in many ways, starting off in Japan and then coming into Hong Kong and the kind of greater Far Eastern region really, um which I'm looking after and I have a fantastic team. In Hong Kong that supports me with that, but our studios very much work collaboratively. That's one of the themes today, of course, and between London and Hong Kong, and we like the fact that we get the kind of the European design houses and Asian heart kind of vibe, and that means that we can address briefs in both continents really that we're operating in, you know, very carefully and with a lot of thought and with a lot of understanding of how people want to kind of engage with their spaces and how they wish to live. So, um, most of the projects that, that I'm sharing with you today are actually based here in Asia because we felt that that was most relevant, um, and all of them are of a scale that we can really kind of craft the environment and really kind of pay attention to how people engage with their spaces. Um, and something that was said earlier about OA actually, um, really resonated where he was talking about architecture actually ultimately creates spaces for people and I think that is. Even more true for interior architecture that we I mostly work in um but really it's about a people-centric experience and of course technology helps us getting there but fundamentally it's about what you see and what. It's about people. It's about the experience that people have and the huge influence that design. And furniture in particular and environment has on you as a as a customer. These we whizzed through some beautiful projects again. These last four are collaborations you have Stellar works and Tina have done together. There's 4 images here and this is where I think is a moment where I think it would be useful to really explain how this relationship works and how this collab collaborative process works. A hotel project or a restaurant or a bar. How, what is the origin of that? Where's the procurement? Is it the owner of the place? Is it another department? is it is it who starts first? Is it the designer that then approaches a manufacturer such as Silhouette? Is it the other way around? Is it somewhere in between the two? I mean, the ideal case scenario should be that the vision originates with the designer. Um, and that we then collaborate closely with the people making it, so that would be the kind of the, the ideal story if you like, but there is a dark horse called procurement in our industry that I think all of us as designers are very much familiar with and the, the, the, the process is not often as linear as we would like it to be, um, and, and at times we even get kind of slightly cut out of that and something comes out on the other side that Wasn't really what we were expecting. So the idea, the ideal route really is that there is a close collaboration between the people designing and the people making and then of course also understanding what the financial aspects of that might be because that's where procurement of course comes in and that's where sometimes things can go slightly awry. And elaborate on the issues with that. You have a vision that may be the person who's commissioned you has a vision, but then there's an intermediary that might Cut this vision. That's right. I mean, basically, you know, I think every designer will understand what I'm talking about, you know, we designed something that of course needs to be built and there's a cost attached to that and that at times it's, it's difficult for us to, to estimate because different countries do things differently. Procurement works different, differently, you know, some things are more expensive in some countries that are cheaper somewhere else. So it's a difficult one for us to, to, to fully gauge. And also, quite often we're not necessarily being told what the budget of a project is, uh, which seems crazy, but it does happen more often than you think. So we are often in a situation where we are over budget, you know, the dreaded VE that happens, and how do we make things happen according to our vision? That's where procurement comes in, purchasing things. That's what procurement is basically, um, and, and often that's done by agencies, sometimes it's done by by the clients in-house, but Obviously these are money people and um you know, if you have many people that have an understanding of design, then you're, you're good. If you have many people that that don't, then you end up with something, well, this is a chair, what's the problem? And when there's a big difference between this chair and this chair and how it's made and how it's crafted and how it lasts. And do you think we're still in a d scale or you know both, we're still in a period where there needs to be more education on the value of good design and the effects and the positive value that good design has to prevent this potential problem of the person involved with procurement not really appreciating it and cutting costs, I think, you know. The bigger, uh, bigger projects, so, you know, they are focusing on the budget control. So, of course, you know, everybody wants to have a good quality of space and also furniture. But yeah, so because of the, you know, budget issues, so you know. Sometimes uh designer don't know, don't know. So who is the manufacturer? And there's a very small communication between manufacturer like us and then designer, but we believe, you know, to have a better quality in a product that in a communication is very, you know, very much needed. So. Yeah, that's something we need to improve. So yeah, and it's not just aesthetics, of course, it's it's efficiency, longevity of the product. I mean, to me that must be, it seems it would be an easier message to communicate, but again there are different complications of I mean, projects are very complex, you know, and, and the type of projects that we all kind of get involved in hotels, for example, you know, we said earlier, 5 years, 7 years until the hotel completes, it's a very complex kind of product. And so you know there are so many factors that come into that and one of them is that often you have people investing in the hotel that maybe are not going to be staying involved for a very long time. So what that means is that there's the capital investment when you're building something and there's a life cycle cost. And I think nowadays, particularly when you think about environmental concerns, we should be thinking about life cycle costs. So if you're spending a bit more money on good quality furniture, flooring, whatever it might be. Arguably it should last a lot longer and so it's much better value for money. It's better for the environment. You don't have to replace it very quickly, all of these good things. But of course if you have an investor who's mostly interested in producing the hotel, whatever it might be, the asset, and then selling it, they won't be so interested in the life cycle costs because that's someone else's concern. And I think what we need to do as an industry, talk a lot more about those different aspects and about the life cycle as well as the capex to make sure that we get true value for money in our project. And you see that as well, this, this issue you are producing furniture that has a life, a long life cycle that is core to what the brand is about, but you find issues where maybe people are not appreciated and maybe want quicker change. Yeah, so if you, you know, the owner or procurement company just, you know, pick up the the cheapest manufacturer, so you know, who has less experience about engineering. So maybe you know the owner need to, you know, uh uh pay a lot of money for maintenance or maybe even they need to change 3 times in the 10 years. So we need to think about, you know, the, the life, you know, the long life of the product. So this is a, you know, a good for benefit for the owner side also. And of course it reminds me there's the thorny issue of cheap copies, which is an eternal issue with design. Again, is that how do you convince a client, a procurement department that Stick to originality, invest in innovation. We need new things and better things. Tina, is that an issue you face? I mean, we, we try and have the conversation with our clients right at the beginning. Are we buying furniture or are we making furniture? It's a very, very important conversation and you know, often that's avoided. So we try and understand that at the beginning. If we are specifying furniture, then, you know, the rangers, for example, you saw some of the projects there that were pieces of furniture that can be bought off the shelf. The joy for us as designers is it's done. It's a chair that's designed that's comfortable. Someone tested it. Some worked on it for years to get to that point. We don't need to worry about it. And when there's something that's made bespoke, there's a lot to worry about because there's a huge process we need to go to to make sure that that particular chair is equally as good and equally as comfortable. And that's where, of course, you know, manufacturers like Dasu come in because they can help us as designers when we're busy doing everything else around it and to actually focus in on that. and making sure that the pieces that we design can actually be build um are affordable and are comfortable and all of those kind of. So this is where your relationship is key. The designer with the manufacturer, you have a concept, you have a vision, you know how things are made as well, but there's an expertise here with a, with a company like Cella works and Ice G um, to ensure that that new piece of furniture. Stands the test of time and is steady. Now, we are talking about the future, future tense and prototyping. The future and AI, of course. I know it's a difficult area in the creative industries, but for you. You are using AI workflows to help, particularly in this area, I think where it's an engineering problems. Is that right? Uh, so actually, you know, to be honest, our industry is quite behind about this kind of, you know, uh, technology, but, you know, me personally, I want to try to use AI for engineering part. So for instance, You know, we have a lot of uh custom made projects. Every single hotel project, you know, there's a lot of, you know, 100 to 200 pieces of different type of furniture. But every furniture we design, you know, uh, we, we need to do the make a drawing in a fast time for this only one chair or, you know, cabinet or something. So, uh, but you know, we have a lot of archives. You know, we designed a lot in the past, but if AI can use this kind of archive and study and then help to to uh to do the engineering, so that makes more uh helpful for designer also and then for us, you know. So the for the project you know timeline is also one of the big issues. So if it can help, so time will be more shortened. So give us an average, an average timeline for, for example, one hotel, uh, 200 pieces to make a, you know, all short short drawing, maybe it takes 1 month to maybe 45 days. But it's quite long, very, very long time actually, 45, yeah, but yeah, so, but if you use AI maybe we can, you know, shorten this time so. So it's, it's helping you. A is helping you on those more practical behind the scenes way in the design industry there is an anxiety about AI, about again sophisticated copies being able to design, but you have strong opinions on that, I think, you know, I think it was actually said very eloquently this morning already and people talked about, you know, what AI can do for us and where humans are still very, very important, and I completely. Support that. I think there is something about the human touch and about understanding how we like to use our spaces, how we enjoy space, how we perceive spaces that that will always be there, but AI should be something that can assist us getting to that point quicker because that's what we all need to do. There's a lot of kind of, you know, pressure on fees. There's a lot of pressure on programs. So you know, that's where we as designers, where we like to procrastinate and think about things for a very long time and kind of get it just right, where we can get some help in doing things. And I'm talking probably more about the not menial tasks, but the task that can, you know, that that that take a long time but don't necessarily need ultimate creativity if that makes sense. Research is one of them, adjusting things, you know, three dimensionalizing things, you know, looking at, you know, pieces we're designing in three dimensions, you know, quickly and fast. That's kind of that's that's where we're really excited to kind of and I would imagine where you are communicating a concept. Absolutely, even though, you know, presentation. In particular, you know, I found that if you can't present in person, you're already on the back foot, you know, it's great doing things via VC, but there's nothing better than being in a room with people, seeing someone's face, seeing someone's reaction. They're starting to play on their phone. They're clearly bored. You've got to move on. You can't see that on a VC. So I think that kind of human interaction, particularly in the design process, is really, really important, and that of course feeds also into working with, you know, our various partners and our, you know, our, our makers and, and, and, you know, furniture designers. And looking to the future on a more practical level and avoiding not necessarily technology plans for you to in the near future, are you working on more projects. We see 4 beautiful ones there, but is there an expansion? Are you after today, will you be knuckling down and thinking of projects for the future? Uh, for me, so, you know, as an Asian furniture manufacturer, so, uh, actually, uh, let's say, uh, in the world hotel project, around 80%, uh, furniture is coming from Asia. To the hotel process in the world and then within that maybe 80% is being made in Asia in Asia, yeah, yeah, and then so I don't have a, you know, specific number, but I feel that around half or more than half is a copy. Unfortunately, but you know, if we, uh, you know, we have an attitude that we Believe design is a value, you know, so then, you know, a lot of the uh manufacturer in China or Vietnam, they, if they realize, uh, you know, designs are more important for their business, so I think, you know, this copy issue will be decreased in future. So this is something I want to contribute. So is this your mission to communicate? Yes, the value of Not only well designed products, but very well made product is good for business, and I think that's a great message to end on. Thank you very much for sharing your insights on this beautiful world of hospitality and restaurants, bars, and hotels, and how you collaborate together to get the best results. So thank you so much, Tina and Dike. Thank you.