vritimesShahnaz Interiors (M) Sdn. Bhd. marks 15 years of growth shaped by more than projects and recognition. From its creative roots to a multidisciplinary interior design and build practice, SHAHNAZ has grown through values of trust, responsibility, teamwork, integrity, continuous learning and respect for people. Under CEO Nazrin Shahnaz, the company enters its next chapter focused on stronger capabilities, smarter systems and meaningful design—while preserving the values that built its reputation.
As Shahnaz Interiors (M) Sdn. Bhd. marks 15 years, its story is not defined by projects alone. Behind its growth is a set of values that has shaped how the company treats its people, serves its clients, works with partners and delivers every space entrusted to it.
Fifteen years in the design and construction industry can be measured through completed projects, clients served, industries entered and recognition received. For Shahnaz Interiors (M) Sdn. Bhd., however, its most important measure of progress has been less visible.
It is the values carried through the organisation.
Values in how employees are treated. Values in relationships with clients. Values in the way consultants, associates, contractors, suppliers and vendors are engaged. And, ultimately, values reflected in the way a design moves from an idea on paper to a completed environment.
While Shahnaz Interiors marks 15 years as an established interior design and build practice, its creative roots extend much further. The journey began in 1990 through branding, advertising and event management, later expanding into signage and visual identity before evolving into the built environment. Those earlier disciplines taught the company how ideas, identity and communication influence perception — lessons that would eventually shape its approach to interiors.
Today, SHAHNAZ works across corporate workplaces, government and institutional environments, hospitality, retail, education, residential and healthcare projects. What connects these very different sectors is a consistent belief: design must serve a purpose beyond appearance.
For Chief Executive Officer Nazrin Shahnaz, that belief has become increasingly important as the company has matured.
“People may first notice your portfolio, but relationships are built on what happens after that,” she says. “Do you keep your word? Do you take responsibility when something becomes difficult? Do you respect the people working alongside you? Those are the things that determine whether people want to work with you again.”
That thinking is rooted in SHAHNAZ’s original vision and mission. The company committed itself not only to sustainable growth and client satisfaction, but also to providing a safe, productive and fulfilling environment for employees. Its mission called for superior service, repeat engagements, strong ethics, teamwork, professionalism, care towards employees and clients, and cost-conscious procurement without compromising the final outcome.
These principles have become increasingly important as the organisation has grown.
Inside SHAHNAZ, the belief is that a company cannot consistently deliver good work unless it first builds good people. Designers must be encouraged to think. Younger team members need opportunities to learn. Experienced staff need to be able to share knowledge. Project teams must communicate openly, take ownership and understand that every individual contributes to the final outcome.
The same applies outside the organisation.
No interior project is delivered by a designer alone. Behind every completed space is a network of architects, engineers, specialist consultants, contractors, manufacturers, installers, suppliers and vendors. For SHAHNAZ, those relationships are not simply transactional. Reliability, fairness, respect and accountability are essential because the strength of those partnerships ultimately affects the client and the project.
Over the years, the company’s values have evolved in language while remaining consistent in intent.
Its earlier principles described SHAHNAZ as solution-oriented, creative and innovative, proactive and responsible, ethical and trustworthy, continuously learning and empowered through teamwork.
Today, those values are articulated as Solution-Oriented Thinking, Creative Discipline, Proactive Responsibility, Ethical Practice, Progressive Mindset and Collaborative Capability. They emphasise turning complexity into solutions, balancing originality with technical discipline, taking ownership, acting with integrity, continually learning and bringing different expertise together to achieve a stronger result.
For Nazrin, values become meaningful only when they can be seen in behaviour.
“Values are easy to put on a wall,” she says. “The real question is whether we still practise them when a project is under pressure, when there is a difficult decision to make, when the budget is tight or when something has gone wrong. That is when values become real.”
That mindset has also shaped the company’s design philosophy.
As SHAHNAZ evolved, its thinking shifted from simply asking what could be designed towards asking what should be designed. The company began placing greater emphasis on human-centred design — understanding how environments affect behaviour, comfort, productivity, wellbeing and the way people interact with space.
That philosophy cuts across industries.
A workplace must support people, productivity and organisational culture. A retail environment has to connect brand with customer experience. Hospitality spaces must understand atmosphere and movement. Institutional environments require clarity, durability and responsibility. Residential interiors need sensitivity to the people who call them home. Healthcare, which later became one of SHAHNAZ’s specialist divisions, adds another layer of clinical, operational, technical and emotional complexity.
The sectors are different, but the principle is the same: understand the people and the purpose before designing the space.
Over the years, SHAHNAZ has worked on projects ranging from corporate and institutional environments such as S&P Global, MIROS, PUSPAHANAS and MyCreative Ventures, to educational, hospitality, residential and government projects, alongside an extensive portfolio of hospitals, medical centres and clinics throughout Malaysia.
Its journey has also required the company to continually adapt.
The pandemic accelerated new ways of working, bringing remote collaboration and digital design processes into daily operations while increasing attention to adaptability, safety, touchless environments, infection control and psychological wellbeing.
Today, SHAHNAZ is entering another period of change through digitalisation, artificial intelligence, advanced visualisation and stronger project-management systems. But technology is viewed as an enabler rather than a replacement for professional judgement.
The objective is to work smarter, communicate more clearly, make better-informed decisions and allow teams to spend more time on the thinking that adds genuine value.
Recognition has followed the company’s progress. Its specialist healthcare work received Hospital Designer of the Year recognition in Malaysia in 2021, Asia Pacific in 2022 and Malaysia again in 2023.
Yet SHAHNAZ sees another form of recognition as equally important: clients who return, recommendations that lead to new opportunities, consultants who continue collaborating, vendors who stand behind a project and employees who grow alongside the organisation.
As the company enters its next chapter, Nazrin believes the challenge is not simply to become larger, but to become stronger in capability, knowledge, systems and relationships.
Founder and design leader Nisah Karim remains part of the creative foundation and philosophy from which SHAHNAZ grew, while the next generation continues to carry those principles forward.
The company may change. Technology will change. Markets and design expectations will continue to change.
But some principles are intended to remain constant:
Do the right thing. Take responsibility. Respect people. Keep learning. Find solutions. Honour commitments. Protect the quality of the work.
Fifteen years have built the SHAHNAZ portfolio.
Its values have built SHAHNAZ.
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