KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — They met, became friends and eight years later co-founded an architectural firm that is gaining quite the reputation for break-out projects like Plan B and Sekeping Kong Heng in Ipoh and restaurant Hit & Mrs in Bangsar.
Adela Askandar and Farah Azizan set up Studio Bikin in 2012. “We met while I was studying back in 2004. Both of us have mutual friends in architecture and that was how we got to know each other,” said Farah.
Farah went on to work with a well-known landscape architect while Adela was doing things on her own. Adela had just returned from the UK and the both of them did one-off projects together. From their collaborations, they could see that they complemented each other.
In the beginning, Adela and Farah worked out of Farah’s house in Bangsar. Farah wanted to redesign her place so it became one of Studio Bikin’s first private residential projects.
A lot of Studio Bikin’s clients are private residential projects but the firm has been commissioned to do commercial projects as well. One of the ongoing projects involves revitalizing Asian Heritage Row.
Known as one of the city’s nightlife destinations back then, it has become rather tired and run down. Studio Bikin is working on 12 shophouses there.
“We are going to strip away the junk and give it a whole new look,” said Farah. “It will be contemporary but we will maintain the original architecture, highlighting certain details and putting in new insertions,” said Adela.
With a handful of full-time staff and a couple of interns, Studio Bikin’s projects are shared equally by Adela and Farah. “Farah is the design director while I’m the managing director. We both have our own roles in Studio Bikin. As a team, we are able to manage more jobs together, working on a wider range of projects while managing operations. We have to do things on time and we balance the dynamics of the team,” said Adela.
One of the key things Studio Bikin is known for is their support of local artisans. Kedai Bikin is an extension of their architectural work where they engage Malaysian crafters to make furniture.
Kedai Bikin first made its debut in Publika at Art Row, a space for designers to showcase their work. “We were approached by Nani Kahar of Publika to be part of Art Row,” said Adela.
Usually the lease expires after three months on Art Row but Kedai Bikin extended it for another month due to popular demand. During that time, Studio Bikin also became acquainted with designer Lisette Scheers and they did some work together.
While Lisette focuses more on the visual designs, Studio Bikin took charge of the interior, furniture and architecture of the project collaborations. “There is a symbiosis in the way we work together. We also sold her stuff at our shop at The Art Row,” said Farah.
“Lisette uses a lot of patterns and bright colours in her designs while Studio Bikin is more of a pared down, structured design so there is a natural symbiosis,” she explained.
Lisette owns a design firm called L.Inc at Jalan Kemuja in Bangsar that also now houses a cafe called DR.Inc, a business partnership with F&B veteran Jeremy Chin.
Studio Bikin shares the ground floor space with DR.Inc. Contemporary, with natural sunlight, the Studio Bikin office is a beautiful working environment. Most of the furniture you see in DR.Inc are Kedai Bikin’s designs.
“We engage different craftsmen to make Kedai Bikin furniture. We don’t have our own workshop so we get local craftsmen; one does steel, another that does stringing and a rattan guy to do various parts of the chair, for example,” said Farah.
“We are like the co-ordinator of the furniture where it is not limited to just one person. In other words, we are the architect for each piece,” said Adela. One example is the ‘pasar malam’ chair which is not an original Kedai Bikin design; it is something most Malaysians would be familiar with.
But what Kedai Bikin does is to upgrade the specifications, give it new life while supporting local artisans. Farah expressed that she is really curious to find out how the ‘pasar malam’ chair came about, the true origins of the chair made of steel and metal strings.
Adela said that Kedai Bikin is not a separate entity of Studio Bikin but part of it, a whole big business where architecture, interior design, art, furniture and landscaping are intertwined. It is a holistic design where there is no division.
People often mistake Kedai Bikin as a furniture shop but they don’t realise it is part of an architectural studio where interior design and furniture go hand in hand with buildings. “One of our mottos is ‘why fake it when we can make it’, so we will do our own take of a design,” said Farah.
As local architects and designers, Farah and Adela are “plugged in” to this creative network of Malaysian artisans. There are a lot of collaborations, projects and artwork that are created by this artisanal network. Some you might recognise, some you might not but at the end of the day, it is not about whose name is up on the wall but a collective effort of passion.
“We want to provide a platform for local designers to showcase their products,” said Adela. When they were working on Kedai Bikin, the Studio Bikin consultancy work took a back seat for a period of time.
Now, Adela and Farah are focusing on their commercial and private residential projects. Kedai Bikin remains an ongoing thing and they have put their works on consignment basis at retail outlets.
Retail is a different ball game altogether and at the start, they were not prepared for the volume of orders. Over time, everything fell into place and there is an organic growth for Studio Bikin as a whole.
At the end of the day, what Adela and Farah want is to be able to keep a close eye on projects, not letting the concept slip through their fingers. “Both of us have a foot on the work and we want to be hands-on in what we do because it reflects on the quality of our work,” said Farah.
Studio Bikin
8, Jalan Kemuja, Bangsar 59000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
+603 2201 8803
www.studiobikin.com
