words by Anandhi Gopinath
Inch Lim | Photography Law Soo Phye
Having started his career as a landscape designer much later in life, Lim In Chong – better known as Inch – brings a unique perspective to the table. A businessman who found the freedom to pursue his dreams to be a designer in his 40s, Lim’s approach is markedly gentle, teems with meaning, and considers the environment in a sensitive and innovative way. This renowned master of scenography has designed award-winning show gardens in Japan, China, Singapore, the UK, France and the USA, in addition to private and commercial gardens in Malaysia, Japan and Sri Lanka. Lim’s creations are informed by an extensive knowledge of tropical plants and spatial awareness, making him one of the country’s most sought-after landscape designers for his signature style.
InCH – Gardens of Imagination is a compilation of his projects right from his start in the business in 2006 to the present day, providing a retrospective of his entire oeuvre. “I’ve got all this work and I’ve been trying to put them in one document, which proved to be difficult because it was all over the place,” he says from his well-appointed base in historic Jalan Sin Chew Kee. His landscape practice, Inchscape, occupies the lower floor of one of the old-fashioned structures in the area, while his living quarters take up the upper two levels. “As I sorted everything out, the idea of a monograph emerged to be the right thing for me, but the publishers I’d worked with had very different ideas from mine.”
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Lim started the painstaking process of collating the projects he wanted to feature and getting the accompanying imagery organised two years ago – some of which were captured by legendary architecture and interiors photographer Lin Ho. Earlier this year, all the moving parts involved in producing a book like this fell into place. British-born architecture professor Robert Powell, who has himself authored several tomes on design and architecture in Malaysia, agreed to contribute as well.
The final product pays tribute to a successful career marked by a mix of projects that are alternately whimsical and practical, of transient gardens and permanent projects, lush greenery and geometric structures. But mere navel-gazing retrospective this is not – Powell’s descriptive foreword and Lim’s own poetic way of presenting each project makes this book a treasure trove of ideas and inspirations that guide homeowners of any proclivity to reconsider the potential of their own spaces.
In revealing Lim’s early life and his curiously late beginnings into the world of gardens and landscape design, and in due course, to designing houses and interiors, the book allows the reader to better understand his ethos that, in an era of institutional demarcation of design disciplines, there are, in reality, no boundaries at all.
Photography Law Soo Phye
Although Inch Lim jokes about not wanting to do it all over again, he already has a second book in mind – this time, focused on the architecture, landscaping and design of his home in Batu Pahat, Johor. “For 40 years, I have laboured on this garden, creating a property with a complex web of life from the lowliest of microbes to mammals like humans. The garden is built so I can pass it on to the next generation, and in a better state than I found it many decades ago… Specifically, it is designed to showcase the close relationship between man and nature. This project portrays my many experimentations in tropical architecture, and lessons learnt from nature and landscape design.”
And then, of course, is the work Lim has continued to do between the completion of his first book and the point at which he chooses to retire – should that not be immortalised too? “Retirement for me is a moving target,” he laughs. “Of course, the idea of living in the countryside of Batu Pahat is appealing, but so is the work I do now. Every time someone comes to me with a new idea, I cannot help but say yes, because the appeal of working on something new and creative is what I love most about this job.” He’d best prep for book three, then.
