Hans Tan’s design practice deploys design as medium, making use of utility as a pretext for visual discourse, while maintaining a keen focus in developing materials and processes. The embedded narratives in his works comment on design and its industry as a phenomenon, especially in the context of heritage, consumption and waste. His works have won multiple awards, and are held in private and corporate collections, as well as permanent collections of several museums such as M+ in Hong Kong, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, and Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics in the Netherlands.

In 2018, Hans was honoured with the Designer of the Year at the President*s Design Award, for the impact of his body of work and his contributions to the design community through education.

His penchant for design pedagogy is guided by the concept of “Deformative Inquiry” developed from his personal practice. It emphasises on “deforming” as a starting point for imaginative thinking, exercised at the intersection of thought and hands-on experimentation.

Hans has received multiple teaching awards – he was placed on the university honour roll in 2018 for being a three-time winner of the NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award, and the school honour roll for having been awarded the school teaching excellence award five times. In 2019, he received the Outstanding Educator Award, the university’s highest award for teaching.