MANILA, Philippines - What happens when you put 12 individuals with strong aesthetic points of view under one roof? Will it be chaos? Designer Jamie Durie, who has been hosting the show for five seasons, expects drama — beyond putting the toilet seat down and not pinching the toothpaste tube at its middle.
There’s going to be some profound arguments in The Apartment: Rising Stars Edition, the Sony Channel show’s 6th season. After the celebrity edition, the 10-episode series will be having12 up-and-coming designers competing for the title of the next style superstar and a grand prize of $100,000. In this reality drama, the contestants live under one roof and undergo design challenges — kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, color, outdoors. Their individual skills are tested under time pressure and fixed budgets, making it a baptism of fire of sorts for them. With TV as their platform, the contestants get to show off to the judges: award-winning hotel and furniture designer Jamie Durie, home product designer and TV personality Genevieve Gorder, and head judge, world-renowned interior designer Laurence-Llewelyn Bowen.
“I’m looking for lots of drama. I’m looking for lots of beautiful, fresh ideas in architecture and design, in furnityre design,” says Durie. “These are the things I’m passionate about. I’m looking for relevance. I’m looking for something we haven’t seen before. And I’m also looking for an abudant amount of ideas to come out of this fresh, young group of rising stars.”
He adds, “I think it’s amazing, you know, when you put creative people all together in one room. You know, it’s quite surprising how many of them start to clash and, you know, a lot of them have some very strong ideas and not lot of them wanna back down. So it’s great TV as we would say.”
Durie, who champions environmentally-conscious design, says, for him, good design is all about sustainable design. “It’s about treading lightly on the environment, the sophisticated approach to material choices. It’s also about fun and clever decorating,” he explains, adding that he definitely thinks Asia has embraced these concepts.
“There’s been plenty of movement in the environmental, architectural community. And it’s been quite inspiring. I really watched with bated breath a lot of beautiful work come out of, particularly Singapore, over the last few years. But a lot of beautiful furniture design from the Philippnes as well, and Surabaya in Indonesia,” he says. “I encourage all designers to be creative as possible but also to be as respectful as possible to the entire environment. I mean everyone has to think about treading lightly on the environment. We’ve done so much damage to our planet over the last hundred years. We’ve got to pave the way for our children.”
“Everyone can make a difference when it comes to the environment. I mean, you can choose energy — efficient light bulbs. You can choose solar power. You can choose a solar-powered hot water system. I mean, there’s plenty of choices out there. It’s just about being responsible and if we care about our children, it’s about, you know, protecting the planet for their future. And in terms of design, there are plenty of cost-effective ideas that can add a lot more value and a lot more designs in your home. I mean and it starts with paint, actually. Paint is one the most powerful tools in a designer’s handbook. Because, you know, you can make big changes for not a lot of money,” he adds.
Considering almost half of the contentants this season are either Asians or based in Asia, perhaps we can rest assured that the judges will be pleased with all the sustainability efforts that will arise this season. As this season’s title implies, they are relative newbies in the area of design and architecture. What edge do they have over the professionals? “I think the experienced guys, sometimes their training gets in the way of their freedom of ideas. Where when you get somebody that comes from the fashion world, their ideas are incredibly courageous and without boundaries. So it’s gonna be really interesting to see what comes out of this,” he says.
The 12 designers joining this year’s The Apartment are Malaysia-based interior designer Ernest Loh, Malaysian architect and The Sims fan Winston See, Singapore-based actor and real estate businessesman Paul Nagaoka, Vietnam-based Polish model Aleksandra Flasz, interior design company owner from Bali Khaled Mallahati, Australian real estate agent and stylist Beck Kowalski, Australian ACE Design awardee Ben Woodbury, Australian business owner Ally Marrote, China-based designer focusing on subtropical culture Andes Lurer, Thailand-based Brazilian model Kamille Nassif, Thai night club manager Cara Ditta-In, and Filipino radio DJ and freelance designer Natalya Punto.
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The Apartment: Rising Stars Edition premieres on March 16, Thursday, 7:55 p.m., on Sony Channel. For information, visit SonyChannel.com/TheApartment or @TheApartmentTV on Facebook and Twitter.