Design Collective Architects

Design Collective Architects (DCA) together with their associate design practice Essential Design Integrated (EDI) is a young and vibrant architectural practice based in Malaysia, whose projects thrive on the close collaboration between architects, interior designers, landscapers and users.

DCA’s design philosophy focuses on the issues and processes concerning customization, creating BESPOKE architecture.

As a practice, DCA is process based. The process begins with accumulating a synthesis of site, programme and people. The source of inspiration for a project comes from a special relationship between DCA, their clients and their clients’ relationship with their personal circumstances.

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La Concha by DCA Plus frames a coastal panorama at Port Dickson

The search for beachside property brought a KL-based Spanish businessman and his German spouse 95-odd kilometres south to a Port Dickson locale, and fortuitously, a vacant 0.14-acre plot. With its stunning view of the Strait of Malacca, the acquisition was a no-brainer; land in hand, the couple began their search for an architect. The eventual appointee, DCA Plus, the offshoot of established practice Design Collective Architects, gave them the dream getaway they desired. And stylishly so. The site’s surroundings underpinned the idyllic proposition; thick tropical vegetation and a marina’s piers and yachts paint a mariner’s tableau within a man-made cove. The marina’s encircling breakwater is a peninsula of housing plots, one of which is La Concha, DCA Plus’ modest yet engaging design. Cutting a boxy two-storey profile against a south-facing horizon, the 5,541 sq ft house features a contiguous envelope of metal decking that shields its east and west sides. “The design is really about an enclosure of privacy,” says director Chan Mun Inn. “There are no neighbours at the moment. But eventually the house will be sandwiched by…

Q&A with Chan Mun Inn, Design Collective Architects (DCA): I’m an introvert working in an extrovert world

Tell us about the genesis and development of DCA. DCA came about almost 25 years ago when David Chan and I got together to work on bespoke and custom-designed homes, at a time when many architects shied away from them due to their complexities. Both of us have academic backgrounds teaching architecture in universities and working with students with drawings and models. This working methodology is carried through and applied to our ways of working in the office with ideas discussed over hand-made white models and sketch plans. This process of ‘making’ helped in addressing difficult sites and projects and provided an effective means of communication with clients. DCA has since expanded to include sub-studios like EDI and DCA+ with additional and new partners and directors and we are looking forward to celebrating our 25th year anniversary in 2026. What are some residential projects you have recently completed? It’s usually the smaller ones we find closer to our hearts. They’re the ones with a bit more design exploration and ideas usually due to site constraints, owners’ needs and cost. One…

Design Collective Architects syncopates glass and concrete planes within a multigenerational Bukit Tunku home

Of the many residences that striate the slopes of this Kuala Lumpur enclave, Max House is ostensibly on the cutting edge of design. Manifesting the materially-restrained zeitgeist of modern regionalism, this 2,344 sq m four-storey residence doesn’t shy away from limelight. Surrounded by native trees, its pool, decks and floors are dramatically stacked, the defiance of gravity amplified by glass bands that span the house’s 4.2m-high floors. Yet behind the razzle and dazzle lies a considered scheme, one that reconciles the wants of homemaking with the everyday needs of two generations living under the same roof. Overhangs and Underpinnings The abode’s natural poise can be partly attributed to its underlying structure. “There was another house here back in 2018, when the land was acquired,” says Yeow Wai Seng of Design Collective Architects (DCA). “Since it was in relatively good condition, we tried to reuse as much as we could in terms of its structure – foundations, floors, columns.” He adds, “Preserving the mature vegetation was also a high priority, as was maintaining perimeter slopes so as to minimise soil disturbance…

Design Collective Architects

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