At the Furniture Design Forum, which was held on 11 March 2011 at Foyer 1 of Singapore Expo, three distinguished keynote speakers were invited to share their knowledge and experiences over their long and illustrious careers. About four hundred participants from the industry, media, government agencies and schools turned up for the Forum.

The first speaker was minimalist Japanese designer, Mr Naoto Fukasawa, who talked at length about the evolving interaction between environment and form through a photo montage of his own designs.

Next up, Mr Vincent Van Duysen, a prominent architect from Belgium shared about the various influences that affected his architectural and furniture works, while Mr Marco Cappellin, from the renowned Italy-based Moroso Spa, expounded on the continual exchange between art, fashion and design that had resulted in creative collaborations with artists and fashion houses.

Following the presentations, there was a lively panel discussion, moderated by Mr Tai Lee Siang, Chairman of DesignS and Group Managing Director of Ong & Ong Pte Ltd and Ms. Wendy Chua of outofstock.

For almost an hour, participants fired off rounds of questions, asking questions about the influences and creative ideas behind their designs while the speakers provided insightful, and at times humorous and candid, replies, illustrating with apt and clear examples the art, craft and business of their respective disciplines.