“When we started out, people doubted we could survive in the industry and be profitable. Now they think differently”. Singh Intrachooto

Singh Intrachooto is an architect and designer with a science background. He found himself on the designer path very naturally, using scraps to make furniture. He notes that designing can be perceived as luxurious and wasteful, but he believes it can help solve problems when designs are “eco-friendly and sensible”. He also preaches energy efficiency. 

What makes this designer’s furniture innovative is the wide range of materials used to make it: wood, steel, fabric textile, paper, leather and even orange peel and lemongrass! He encourages reusing rather than recycling: these materials are retrieved from construction sites, factories, community and waste disposal sites, showing that sound, green designs can be achieved even with the most unlikely resources.

When he’s not designing, Intrachooto teaches. When asked about his students’ receptivity to his preaching “green” as an integral part of designing, he chuckles before explaining: “I had a lot of complaints”. 10 years ago his students didn’t see the value in designing green. Now they do and they realise they were ahead of the pack.

The Thai designer also trains other architects, something that baffles many. His motivation for doing this is to enable his competitors to have as positive an impact as him, build up a strong group of environmentally friendly design firms and, hopefully, attract more firms from Europe and the USA to exchange ideas and collaborate.