Johnson & Johnson is set to launch a new Design Lab in Science Park, Singapore, in a bid to consolidate its Singapore offices into one place, with beauty and vision being a key focus of the facility.

Set to open its doors in May, the new facility will be the company’s first design lab outside of New York, and is hoped to make Singapore a ‘central hub of locations’ in order to gain insight into the Asian markets, according to Chief Design Officer Ernesto Quintero.

Government agency Singapore Economic Development Board has helped J&J develop the site, with J&J still looking for a site leader to head up the new facility, . It is thought Singapore was chosen as the location due to its good infrastructure, with the design centre focusing on collaboration and idea sharing.

Speaking to The Strait Times, Quintero said, “For us to succeed in the future, knowing that the Asia-Pacific is going to continue to blossom, we need to have that design and insights capability here in the region.
“As we start to take ideas and prototype, we might see some 3D printing, we might also do partnerships with some of the education institutions here.”

Dr Beh Swan Gin, Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board, continued, “What Johnson & Johnson is doing fits in very nicely with where we are shifting the economic growth model, which is one that is going to be premised on innovation-led economic growth.
“The reason we do that is the large scale of the wants and needs of Asian customers, and quite often they are unmet because the price points can be different, the context in which the needs are expressed are different. We’re hoping more companies based in Singapore will start to innovate to address these needs.
“And design is one way to interrogate what the customer wants.”