30 Years at the Intersection of Design, Hospitality & Asia

For more than 30 years, french-born Richard Le Sand has worked across architecture, interiors, furniture, FF&E and art, with a career shaped in large part by twenty years spent working and living in Asia.

His career began with furniture and product design. As Founder and Creative Director of Akar de Nissim in 2012, he developed furniture and accessories in close collaboration with designers, craftsmen and manufacturers. This experience gave him a practical understanding of materials, production and the relationship between design intent and the finished object.

He later moved into architectural and hospitality practice, working directly alongside Soo Khian Chan at SCDA Architects and Jean-Michel Gathy at Denniston.

At SCDA, he worked across hospitality interiors and contributed to the development of the practice's art consulting capabilities. With Denniston, he worked on bespoke furniture development for hospitality projects in Bangkok and New York.

His twenty years in Asia — particularly in Singapore — gave him first-hand experience of the region's design culture, craftsmanship and manufacturing networks, as well as its rapidly evolving hospitality landscape. His work has since extended across Asia, Europe and the United States, including New York.

More recently, Richard has worked as a consultant to Studio Akamá, providing FF&E and Art project management across residential and hospitality projects.

Today, he works independently with architecture and design studios, bringing senior expertise in FF&E, furniture, accessories and art to architecture and design studios that need to extend their capabilities beyond the core design team.

His role is to bridge the space between design intention and execution — helping studios develop, source, coordinate and deliver the elements that turn an architectural vision into a complete environment.