Every September, the idea of “Design” is imbued into the minds of Singaporeans, all thanks to the DesignSingapore Council’s (DSG) Singapore Design Week (SDW) 2024. This year’s theme focuses on the “People of Design campaign.” Yes, the creative individuals behind their works, concepts, and functional objects get the limelight. Last year’s theme spotlighted creating something for everyone by making things “Better by Design.”

The design festival made its debut in 2005. For 2024, there will be three main “design districts” —  Bras Basah-Bugis, Marina and Orchard —  for design afficiondados to trot and get inspired from 26 September to 6 October. This festival, organised by DSG, also represents Singapore at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Creative Cities Network. Our tiny Litte Red Dot nation joined the network in 2015.

While the everyday layman might not be a trained designer, DSG wants to send the message that creative people can come from all walks of life, defying stereotypical views that design is only relegated to real designers. DSG’s idea is to seed design and innovation into peoples’ minds, invoking positive change while making design democratic.

Each year, SDW becomes more extensive, and this year is no exception. While the number of activities remains about the same — 80 exhibitions, forums, and events — the current line-up is poised to have a greater reach through its expanded format. Some 127,000 attendees attended last year’s festival.

Much lauded designer Hans Tan, founder of Hans Tan Studio and associate professor in the industrial design division at the National University of Singapore, curated the Brash Basah-Bugis showcase. There are about ten exhibits in this busy civic district. Situated at the National Design Centre (NDC), you’ll find various designers from all over the world who have put together many interesting installations.

The Bras Basah-Bugis — People Of Design Showcase Series is curated by Mr Hans Tan, founder of Hans Tan Studio and an associate professor in the industrial design division at the National University of Singapore. The series collaborates with various designers and features ten showcases in the district.

Part of the district explores the empowering nature of design by putting it in the hands of people from diverse backgrounds.

Marina District Comes To Life

SDW debuts in the Marina design district, where design lovers can witness Marina Central and Marina Bay installations. At Suntec, Neufolk’s works pop up at the mall. The brains behind Neufolk are Mr Nathan Yong, founder of Nathan Yong Design, and a team of designers who are bent on materialising an idea: Bridging Tradition and Future in Design.

Neufolk combines “neu,” meaning “newcomer,” with “folk,” bringing common folk and their ideas to traditional society. “It’s important for brands to reinvent themselves continuously in today’s fast-paced, internet-driven world,” explains Yong.

In addition, he enthused that young consumers who lap up social media apps expect content to be fresh, engaging and speedy. He emphasised that brands must always look for ways to reinvent the retail experience and develop novel ideas to draw eyeballs.

Yong and his collaborators — Aaa Studio and HaveFun Karaoke — have dreamed up fresh and exciting concepts for the Reimagining Retail Experiences showcase to target the younger crowd.

As part of the Reimagining Retail Experiences showcase at Neufolk in the Marina district, he and his collaborators paired design firm Aaah Studio with HaveFun Karaoke to create fresh concepts, such as a content creation booth with props targeted at the younger crowd.

The HaveFun Karaoke booth expresses the many possibilities of a karaoke room that is not purely for singing but also a cosy and safe space for enjoyment, relaxation and even inspiration for Instagram moments.

Design Orchard’s Fruits of Labour

The Orchard district is internationally renowned for its shopping, but through the creative lens of two design impresarios, Mervin Tan and Cheryl Sim, from local design studio Plus Collaboratives, they’ve created Re-Route: Orchard (RR:OR) — this second edition of Re-Route built upon the success of Re-Route: Little India back in 2022.

Through nine months of research on placemaking, the design couple deep-dived into understanding how urban planners and residents shaped public spaces such as Orchard Road.

While Orchard Road is synonymous with shopping, some underlying connections, namely physical, cultural, and social identities, had to be uncovered and understood. An evolving relevance to global and local trends and government mandates tempers these.

Ultimately, RR:OR’s central theme stems from the idea of “adaptive reuse” — repurposing instead of demolishing structures. Working with their long-time client, the Singapore Tourism Board, the couple realised that traditional tour sales and marketing must be creative and innovative.

Ms Sim, 36, co-founder and design director of Plus Collaboratives, which specialises in spatial, graphic, and experiential design, explained that people’s appetites have changed. These individuals want an emotional connection to help them identify a location and make it memorable.

The concept of adaptive reuse also helped the couple appreciate old venues while allowing for a new relevance to elevate their values. The couples’ hard work and research paid off: they came up with more than 30 attractions — 13 installations, eight hidden gems, and 16 talks and workshops to sate curious attendees to RR:OR (reroutefest.com). The site provides visitors with a downloadable digital map available during SDW 2024.

Ms Sim also felt that exploring a range of opposites — new versus familiar, trend versus culture, what’s on the surface and what’s in-depth — could help people see Orchard Road with a new perspective

An excellent example of this idea: After shopping at a luxury store like Dior at Ion Orchard, you can stroll into a 20-year-old family-run chicken rice stall in Lucky Plaza. Mr Tan, Plus Collaboratives’ co-founder and creative director, emphasised the importance of RR:OR being adaptive as one had to reimagine the possibility for relevance. He curated these installations to demonstrate how adaptive reuse works for designers, attendees and tourists.

This year’s RR:OR includes the Clancy Boutique Alteration Centre, where attendees can discover this time-honoured clothes alteration business, which has been in Far East Plaza since 1994. Located in the same building, Shashlik Restaurant is also a Russo-Hainanese culinary gem, opened in April 1986 by Hainanese chefs who worked in the Russian eatery Troika Restaurant before it shuttered.

Mr Tan also worked with co-curators such as fashion director Daniel Boey and a team of 33 designers and illustrators to create novel ideas for street fashion. Dubbed “Street Fashion: Rain Ready”, he curated students’ works from Raffles Design Institute to present intriguing sartorial ideas inspired by Orchard Road’s history as an open canal. These bright and innovative clothes blended style and functionality, providing fresh insights that catered to climate change and environmental challenges.

Don’t miss out on “Chairs Reimagined,” a creative exhibition in which the humble and ubiquitous classic kopitiam chair underwent imaginative modifications. Visitors can gawk at the fascinating pieces that have been transformed to reflect social behaviours and the evolving needs of Singapore’s communities.

This year’s festival also features content aligned with SDW’s three pillars: Design Futures, Design Marketplace and Design Impact.

Design Futures will delve into the designs of our not-too-distant future. Mr Hans Tan emphasises that emerging technologies, sustainability, and care are core segments of the Design Futures pillar, which has impacted his approach.

“For the Design installation in the main showcase, I added culture because I believe design plays a pivotal role in shaping it,” he opines.

Located at the National Design Centre (NDC), the exhibition is curated according to four “tracks,” each focused on a distinct theme: Emerging Technology, Care, Sustainability, and Culture.

The EAT: Transformative Seeds exhibition at NDC is not to be missed. Curated by Fang Hu from China, she and her team delved into a food design exhibition where seeds such as corn take centre stage. “Popped Grain Archive” by Yongxin Lai, China, is an exciting installation that helps us understand the cultural significance of seeds from the perspective of taste, sound, and tool design through interactive experiences, products, and kinetic installations.

You get to see the grain extruder machine by Atelier Fang, where grains such as rice and corn are processed through extrusion devices to attain striking tubes, spirals, and lines.

There’s Singapore-based designer Benjamin Koh’s Zero Waste System: Expandable Porous Material, where he envisions using a bio-based, expandable material derived through fermentation to “grow” garments directly into a final shape. Hence, he exhibited metal tins shaped like T-shirts where the fermentation material could be grown. Talk about a self-sustaining fashion industry idea that could take off!

In addition, attendees can witness the works of primary school students and senior citizens, many of which have expressed their creative experiments through workshops conducted by four design educators.

“This experiment in democratising design highlights that design sensibilities are accessible to all and can enrich various contexts,” Mr Tan explains.

On the other hand, Design Marketplace is an interesting zone where you can see global lifestyle trends through the lens of Southeast Asia’s design communities.

For more information, visit: https://sdw.designsingapore.org, www.reroutefest.com, and https://marinacentral.com.sg/happenings/sdw2024_neu-folk/
Period: 26 September to 6 October 2024.

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