Florence Ko, co-founder of Furnitalia—a company known to have brought to the Philippines Italy’s finest and most innovative furniture designs, believes that Filipinos can be innovators in the field too. With her husband William Ko, she introduced modular furniture designs to the Filipino market with international quality and local innovation: Space2000.

“When we think of space, we want the Filipino people to have a solution for all the space they need in their house,” Florence says when asked about how they conceptualized their own furniture brand Space2000 after several years of importing Italian furniture into the Philippines. She adds, “In that case, we want to prove to the world that our product  are much better than the imported ones. And I think I have proven this already.”

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The brand was launched in the country in 2003 and has since then offered innovative and locally crafted modular home furnishings using global expertise and technology. Florence Ko says that the process of crafting all their products is what makes them more personalized and responsive to the needs of their clients compared to simply importing. She furthers, “We always ask the client, ‘What are your needs?’ We have to adapt to their lifestyle. So then we come in for suggestions and advice, since we specialize in this field.”

With the continuous innovation in the furniture-making industry, the Kos own brand of Space2000 have more in store for the Philippines and the world. As Florence Ko says, “We never stop doing innovations, and then you can see that our finishes, our design, I mean we just don’t stop there. Even though we know that this is selling very well, we still introduce new design and new finishes to everyone, to have more choices.”

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Watch the latest episode of BluPrint Conversations, where we sit down with Florence Ko to talk about how Philippine-made space solutions can be at par with global standards.

View more episodes of BluPrint Conversations on BluPrint’s Facebook page and on OMG TV.

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