LISTEN to your architects and designers, Myanmar homeowners and businesses are being told – and they are starting to pay attention. Myanmar architects and interior designers are used to complaining that they never get the chance to put all their ideas into effect but they are glad that people are becoming more aware of the important role of interior decoration in Myanmar. Private homes, business showrooms and even small teashops are beginning to focus on interior decoration.
Architect U Aung Kyaw Htun said very few people know enough to deny advice on interior design. People here do not accept architects’ guidance as they do in other countries. They just go ahead with what they like from their friends’ houses and their favourite things.
Ko Mg Mg Zay Lin of Zealmen decoration agrees, saying “the role of an architect is not very accepted here yet. Most architects here just try to keep the essence of design and their reputation when they get a project. They can’t create whatever they want. As an interior designer, I need to urge my customers to accept my ideas more and more and make fewer mistakes in their needs. But I can’t just ignore their demands” he said.
While architects and designers in other countries can insist on their designs, professionals here need to adjust in accordance with their customers. Moreover, most clients here don’t want to pay design fees, so construction companies have to provide them with design for free. Designers also said that people don’t want to pay for bathrooms and toilets, even if they can afford it.
Most Myanmar people make the mistake of having smooth stone laid on their bathroom floor. They think it’s easier to keep clean. But it’s dangerous for old people and children, who can slip and fall.
“When I bought my flat I thought it would be spacious enough for my family, and with so many windows the ventilation would be good. But when we moved in, there was one problem after another. The passageway was too narrow to take my bedstead, cupboard and some big furniture. So one of my friends told me to take the advice of an architect. When I bought this new house, I took the architect’s advice from the beginning” said 45-year-old U Mya Thaung.
Even though local customers are choosy, it is not difficult for designers to satisfy their needs, because most of the features customers demand are things they’ve already seen in other houses. Simplicity is not a priority here, as people believe beauty means complicated decoration.
In fact, designers urge clients to think about the living style they want before having it designed and decorated. They can choose classic, modern or even beach style if it can give full satisfaction and enjoyment.
“The point of good design is to ensure comfortable use – and not just in houses. The aim of interior decoration is for people to gain peace of mind at home”. U Aung Kyaw Htun said.
As single houses with big compounds need extra maintenance and security, there has been a trend here to decorate a spacious condominium apartment as if it was a single house. Some people have their house designed by an expensive foreign architect but when they show it to a local company to build, there are not enough materials here and it’s quite a headache to get the exact design.
“Sometimes customers want the colours of lamps and paints to match their decorated things, but no company even manufactures them. So I have to be creative to meet their demands. Once, my customer wanted the colour of a statue in the living room for the lamp. So I invented a creation with a car lamp,” said Ko Mg Mg Zay Lin.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But occasionally it does pay to listen to those who know best.
