As interior designers working with Forbes-listed families and multi-generational estates in Singapore, we’re often invited into homes that carry deep emotional weight and significant financial value. These are not ordinary residences. They are places of legacy, privacy, and heritage. When a family like this approaches us, the first conversation rarely begins with colour palettes or mood boards. Instead, the question is far more fundamental: “Do we need an architect, an interior designer, or both?”

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It’s a question rooted in the desire to protect what the family already has, and to elevate it in a way that respects both tradition and modern living. Our most recent project began exactly this way. A Forbes-listed family came to us seeking clarity. Their residence which is grand, layered with history, and built to house multiple generations that required thoughtful transformation. Yet the family wanted certainty about how to begin. Should the journey start with an architect? Or should the interior designer lead?

From our perspective, every home begins with understanding its bones. Architects bring a structured, technical lens that is indispensable in the early stages of planning. In Singapore, where land is precious and regulations are stringent, the architect becomes the guardian of structural integrity and long-term feasibility. They help the family understand what is possible, what is permissible, and what would stand the test of time. For families whose homes are multi-million-dollar assets, this level of clarity is invaluable.

But the moment the structural conversation settles, another layer of dialogue begins that cannot be captured in plans or elevations. This is where an interior designer’s role becomes essential. When we stepped into that home, we did not see walls, beams and circulation patterns alone. We saw the daily routines and storage wishes. The way the grandparents moved through the house. The intimate spaces where the family would gather after long days. The subtle preferences that shape how each person rests, works and connects with one another.

Designing for a family requires listening at a different depth. Luxury, at this level, is not loud. It is not about grandeur for the sake of display. Instead, it is defined by ease, quiet confidence and the kind of comfort that cannot be purchased off the shelf. Our role was to translate the structural possibilities laid out by the architect into spaces that feel intimate, intuitive and beautifully livable.

As we guided the family through this process, it became clear that neither profession, architect nor interior designer stands above the other. Instead, each shapes a different dimension of the home. The architect ensures the residence is structurally correct, proportionate and future-proof. The interior designer ensures the residence feels coherent, elegant and emotionally attuned to the family’s lifestyle. When these two disciplines collaborate, something extraordinary happens: the home becomes both architecturally impressive and deeply personal.

This is why the most successful luxury residences, whether in Singapore, London or Los Angeles are never built by a single discipline alone. A truly exceptional home is the product of vision and interpretation, form and feeling, structure and soul.

One question that often surfaces with UHNW families is whether design fees are necessary. Our answer is always the same. In the luxury segment, design fees are not a cost; they are protection. They safeguard the investment by ensuring the home is planned meticulously, built intentionally and designed with long-term value in mind. Mistakes in homes of this calibre are not small when every decision impacts comfort, maintenance, heritage and future valuation. Professional design eliminates guesswork and replaces it with expertise.

Throughout the project, what guided every decision was not the title on a business card, but the family itself. Their rhythms, their rituals, their privacy, their aspirations. We would often say that the best homes are not designed, they are discovered, through dialogue and understanding. And this family, with all their global experience and refined expectations, wanted a home that felt calm, grounded and timelessly elegant.

By the end of the process, the question the family originally asked would be “Do we need an architect or an interior designer?” felt almost irrelevant. The real value lay not in choosing one or the other, but in orchestrating both in harmony. Together, these perspectives allowed us to create a residence that honours its heritage, supports its present, and holds space for its future.

For families at this level, luxury is not defined by what others see. It is defined by how beautifully the home supports the life lived within it.