Being Different or Making a Difference? | Nan Chyuan | TEDxNUS

In an era where creative ideas get shared so easily, architect Tiah Nan Chyuan points out the ups and downs of the creative process and the importance of working on ideas that actually make a difference.


Nan Chyuan is a director of FARM. He graduated in 2001 from National University of Singapore and went on to complete his professional education at the Architectural Association, London in 2004. He finds beauty in geometry and patterns, and believes that good design should be responsive, intelligent and sincere. FARM is many things at once. It is a cross disciplinary design practice, an architectural atelier, a curatorial team and community-centred arts organization. They call themselves FARM (or FARMers) because they like to cultivate a culture of imagination, and they believe in hard work. Since establishing its cross disciplinary design arm to collaborate with artists and designers in 2007, FARM has been working on projects that span across the entire scale spectrum of design that includes architecture, interior & product design. Architecture aside, Nan Chyuan likes to think that he is a semi-retired footballer.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx