FWD: Exhibit! (2)

As I sieve through Singapore Design Festival’s website, I realise the overwhelming number of events being planned! Singapore is really opening up to the creative class and the creative wave. Finally being recognised and “farmed”. Here’s more exhibitions (a sequel to Part I) which should interest the culture / design / architecture junkie.

Moooi and more
LaSalle Project Space (28th – 4th) . Talk (28th) 730pm

Go!

HYBRICITY: SINGAPORE
LaSalle Level 5 (28th – 8th)

Go!

Objects As Architecture, Architecture As Objects
Sculpture Square (28th – 6th)

Go!

WOHA Reflects
WOHAGA (28th – 8th)

Go!

20/20 Base
National Library Plaza (28th – 8th)

Go!

10Touchpoints Winner’s Exhibition
National Library Plaza (28th – 8th)

Go!

President’s Design Festival
City Hall Foyer 3 (28th – 8th)

Go!

Brazilian Design Perspective: A Tribute to Oscar Niemeyer
City Hall Level 1 (28th – 8th)

Go!

Blurring Boundaries
NUS UCC (6th)

Go!

Plastik Blobular Worlds
Gallery Hotel (8th – 31st)
Karim Rashid Exhibition

Go!

Lightouch at the New Majestic Hotel
New Majestic Hotel (1st – 17th)

Go!

Interesting Venues: Old Supreme Court, City Hall, LaSalle, Emily Hill

and liberation!

FWD: Exhibit!

The end of the year is here, and there’s surprisingly high number of exhibitions around about art, design and architecture! Well it’s largely because of the Singapore Design Festival, and it sure looks promising. Here’s the ones that I would like to attend (and you should too!):

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1 Utterubbish
City Hall 28th Nov – 16th Dec

Self-professed as a “UseLess” exhibition, Utterubbish stresses on how the transition from UseLess to Use is informed by design, and the importance of design in its ability to give value to society.

Utterubbish Website

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2 Neues Bauen (New Building) International 1927 / 2002
National Museum, The Canyon & The Concourse, 14th Nov – 06th Jan

(Lissitzky's Wolkenbügel 1924-1925)

Architecture enthusiasts will be interested in tracing the “New Building” movement, a Modern architecture which emerged from the German-speaking Europe. Moving away from Expressionism, this movement advocated the expression of a building’s functionalism in its external form and sought to improve people’s standard of living.

There is a total of 105 projects by 66 architects or groups of architects, shown through architectural models and photography. This is a well-curated exhibition, and looks more like an art exhibition with orthographics and perspectives like paintings and models like sculptures. Moreover, it’s free!!
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3 ArchiFest: Forum & Architours
Forum: NTUC Auditorium, 30th Nov – 1st Dec
Architours: 30th Nov – 9th Dec

This is a pilot festival aimed to increase awareness for architecture in Singapore and beyond. The Forum brings together many acclaimed and rising individuals in the field to discuss about their experiences and issues about the city / urban environment.

Architours (which I will be in involved in heh) will bring the visitor around various iconic and landmark buildings, discussing their relevance and importance in Singapore based on 3 themes about the global city, Singapore’s progress and entertainment architecture. We hope to engage more than a simple “tourist” explanation, and discuss what local architecture holds public eye. Do join us!

Archifest Website

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4 Alvar Aalto
NUS Museum, University Cultural Centre, 16th Oct – 08th Dec

(Aalto's Savoy Vase)

Alvar Aalto, a Finnish architect, has eluded many people with his idiosyncratic strategy and humanist approach towards design, and that perhaps is the reason why he has continued to intrigue and inspire many as one of their favourite Modern Masters. This exhibition focuses on his one-family houses, as well as NUS students’ works in analysing them. While this may not be an indepth survey of all of Aalto’s houses, it becomes interesting when they are seen via a student/learning perspective.

*Take note of a talk about Alvar Aalto on the 29th Nov 2pm at the NUS Museum.
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5 Shunmyo Masuno
PageOne, Vivocity, 30th Nov (1900-2000 hrs)

(Inner Garden for "Rifugio" 2002)

“There is beauty in the incomplete. If we find something imperfect, then that is what we pursue.”

So says Shunmyo Masuno, who presents himself as Zen priest, landscape architect, professor “in that order”. Here in Singapore to work on the Nassim Park Residences, he will be sharing his design philosophy amongst the “landscape” of PageOne bookstore.
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6 Inventioneering Architecture
Level 1 Atrium, Vivocity, 21st Nov – 08th Dec

(Swiss Flag)

I appreciate Swiss architecture, for their materiality and clean lines. And for once, 3 Swiss schools will be coming in a travelling exhibition to showcase the works of faculty and students. But the highlight comes not from the exhibition, but from the talks! For one, Andrea Deplazes (ETH Zurich) of our architectural construction Bible will be giving a lecture on Dec 7th 5pm at NUS and I URGE you to attend it! Of course, the other lecturers Dirk Hebel and Jörg Stollmann, Prof Harry Gugger (H&dM partner), Prof Manuel Aires Mateus (USI Mendrisio/AAM) are also impressive heavyweights in this powerhouse troupe!

(Constructing Architecture by Andrea Deplazes)

Talks Schedule (pdf)
Swisshouse Singapore Website
Inventioneering Architecture Website

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7 Singapore 1:1 (Island)
URA Centre, 16th Nov – 31st Mar

(Exhibition Poster)

A sequel of sorts to the Singapore 1:1 (City) Exhibition held in Nov 2005, this (Island) version showcases architecturally significant works outside of the city centre after a process of nominations. They bring to our attention some buildings which we pass by everyday but did not notice, as well as more prominent ones. Singapore 1:1 becomes like a catalogue of Singapore’s post-independence explored through architecture.

Exhibition Website

and guerilla posts!

Maki Makes

A case from the Japanese and their sense of the textured detail seen in the Republic Polytechnic.

MAPS, not SPAM

I

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Not Spam — Sep 4, 7:09 PM — [ View Post ]

To that list of things that are inevitable in life (death, taxes), you can add spam.
Spam in the kitchen, spam in the mailbox, spam in the email, spam in the blog, spam on the handphone, spam spam spamming spammed spam.

But there’s something unique about the spam that I receive in wordpress, as opposed to my hotmail or NUS mail. It is of a higher grade. It sounds like Neal Stephenson on steroids, a hermit autistic doctor with super vocabulary who has just been discharged from his secret corporate research lab to give a press release.

I’m intrigued by the grammatical viability of (wordpress) spam and how it can develop into sensical strings provided definitions for “avelox” or “aviane” can be found. Heck! The above spam can even be a play with extensive use of Alliteration, a treatise on medical jargon with the letter A. Shoot me if you must, but now I’ve fallen into the trap – I’m reading spam with intent, I’m observing spam with my precious time. But I believe, that a map is hidden behind the language, a free-form semiotic labyrinth that regenerates and evolves to put itself right in front of our eyes. Now allow me to read my Saussure…

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

II

On another note, here’s another visual, creative albeit weird consequence of spam: architecture by Alex Dragulescu. Spam can actually be a sequence of spaces to move through, now a literal map into a secret building, a hidden space….

moves into higher gear.

Lights no more

Just round the corner in the city centre (along North Bridge Road), the disused Capitol Theatre sits quietly, almost hidden from sight, awaiting a certain future…

Lost & Found

Light Construction

Non Void-decked

After a long haitus….

HDB- ground floor units

Malaysia [2]: Datum Day II

After spending a night chilling out at Bangsar’s TSB, we struggled to wake up to catch the 2nd day of DATUM:KL.

(Bangsar night street)

ZHAO XIAOJUN, CCDI, China

Sleepy morning transformed into a fun-filled entertainment segment by not 1, but a Chinese duo – Zhao Xiaojun from CCDI and his translator. It’s more like a crosstalk (相声) performance, really. Xiaojun teased his translator being popular among the ladies, leaving him speechless. Xiaojun spewed a long length of descriptive passages, and before his translator could finish his job, Xiaojun said its fine already. Funny!

But the presentation was really about PTW’s National Swimming Centre, something like a process journal. How PTW approached CCDI for collaboration. How each of them came up with schemes with water iconography but were totally different from each other. How they wrecked their brains out to come up with a 2nd scheme. How CCDI secretly made a model. How CCDI secretly showed the model to PTW. How everyone was convinced. How they derived an algorithm with Arup to come up with the structure.

Its a female counterpoint to the male H&dM Stadium.

CHRIS LEE & KAPIL GUPTA

Seriously boring. Maybe its the air-con, maybe its the drone of their voice, maybe its the use of so many bombastic words I can’t really be bothered to penetrate into their academia talk.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

BILLIE TSIEN, Tod William Billie Tsien Architects

Hailing from NY is Billie Tsien from the rising husband-n-wife firm, who in her presentation revealed an inclination towards the art scene. Mixing around with the NY art scene, drawing cues and inspirations from fine art and sculptures. For instance, their Folk Museum and 72nd Street Museum is based on a certain theme of “slow discovery”, by exploring the use of masks. And how she was inspired by the stones of Gyoji Garden in Kyoto.

Somehow their designs have this mature sensibility, refined, almost like looking at a painterly kind of sculpture or installation, understated and not too flashy like some bold designer streak.

CHO MINSUK, Mass Studies

It is scary when somone goes on stage and begins with a 500+-slide powerpoint. Either that guy cannot cut to the point or he is extremely proficient in slide-creation. Well it happens that Cho Minsuk is better – he is prolific, and gives a good lecture too. He began surprisingly with a tongue-in-cheek presentation on the urban condition, the state of urbanisation in Seoul, referencing apartment blocks to Warhol’s Marilyns and Campbells. This provides the framework to discuss his many designs, in his studies – “Matrix Studies” as well as “Movement Studies” (I’m sure there’s more if he had more time to speak)

(Cho Minsuk on urbanisation)

You can tell from his speech and demeanour that he thinks fast, is incisive and gets to the point. His explorations are clear in what they seek to achieve – iterations in strategy to move away from the faceless Warholian blocks. “Matrix Studies” works are based on a matrix, almost derivative of his early “Pixel House”: Missing Matrices in “Boutique Monaco”, Broken Matrices in a unbuilt Ho Chin Minh Building. Another series “Movement Studies” show “shameless” explorations in movement as can be seen in the distinctive Seoul Commune 2026 design. Definitely someone to look out for, and let me know if you can get a hand on that powepoint.

(Pixel House)

MA YANSONG(马岩松), MAD

Who worked with Zaha, Eisenmann and studied in Yale, his seminal birth work happened to be a fish tank. Warped like an aberration in the space-time continuum, the fish tank happens also to be really his aesthetic as well. Wacky skyscrapers a la Gehry, Purist contextless forms a la OMA, engineered buildings a la Calatrava, and sculptural shapes a la Richard Serra. Its like sculpture super big scale, beating Lichenstein and Christo, to create ring-shaped buildings, catapult buildings, Ikea flowervase buildings. It’s amazing looking at the renders, hearing him proclaim in slow stuttering English a 800m design, seeing how parti diagrams transform themselves into (un)built reality.

(Cantankerous tank?)

is sleepy.

Malaysia [1]: Datum Day I

If you are wondering what DATUM is about, it’s this conference in KL where a handful of semi-famous architects speak out about their works. Held in KLCC, it actually felt more like a food conference cos I seriously think we ate more there than do anything else. I must say their organisation isn’t very, erm, organised, but who blames them it has quite a huge turnout! (and if you want to get in free next year we know how shhhh…)

Anyway, I must commend them for bringing in a really diverse, albeit regional, mix of individuals to speak. Topic: “Design Energy”, but who ever really cares about these ambiguously overarching topics? So here we bring you the insights into the good, the bad, and the lucky.

(Pigging out)

TEO AH KHING, TAK Architects

Kickstarting the conference, with a bang no less, is the one who struck gold(oil) in Dubai [thestar]. Predictably, the only one in the whole conference who brought 3 ultra large LCD screens/projectors in specially just to show 2 six-minute videos about 2 outrageously humonggigantic designs in Dubai while playing orchestral dramatic Star Wars-esque music at earpiercing dB levels featuring nothing less than sweeping zooms, rollercoaster pans of a sensational CGI model, and ending off with surprise, fireworks! [UAEInteract] We thought we just saw a trailer for an archiporn show.

Talk about “arriving in style”. Well the thing I got back, at least, is an insider’s view of Dubai. You know how much you hear about Dubai, the images that they bombard you with, and suddenly here you get to hear a person who was personally involved in the place-making of this city and telling his tales about clinching his deals a little naively – it’s almost like listening to someone recounting an experience with the aliens.

MOK WEI WEI, W Architects

(Stiff Shot!)

Well, what to say, homegrown Mr. Mok spoke to us about his seminal works 33Robin and National Museum of Singapore, and then some more with the newly completed Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School.

I listen with particular interest to the school, how he works within tight space and budget constraints to add an additional hall wing, improvising with cheap materials (corrugated metal) and creative juxtaposition to achieve nice effects. I believe that good work usually stem from constraints, so you can see his logic for freeing the ground way, having light corridors etc.

LILLIAN TAY, Veritas Architects

Lillian Tay is another Malaysian architectress, whose presented work centres on the theme of de-materialisation, anti-monumentalism and the like. So its appropriate that her presentation is mostly about designs in Putrajaya, the mosqueland behemoth of Malaysia.

Unfortunately she did not make a lasting impression, except for these:
Malaysian buildings have to contain 80% of local materials?
One design (unbuilt) that showed a factory which uses ice as cladding. Its facade has pockets to collect water which freezes during winter and de-materialises for the rest of the year. Cool stuff.

RORY MCGOWEN, Arup

Now this guy is interesting. You might think an engineer is boring, but not with this guy. His presentation about how his career began at Arup and its progression was continuously spiced up with jokes and lively banter. I’ve been particularly interested with success stories nowadays and the varied ways to get to that success point. His was a mix of luck, risk-taking (singlehandedly moving to Japan to head a project as a graduate!) and a huge backing (Rem).

(His inspiration)

The last part was about CCTV [Slide in BusinessWeek], something which I’ve been hearing over and over, but today with new discoveries on how it was conceived between the brokeback partnership of OMA and Arup – as much as they seem larger-than-life in the buildings or the media, in actuality they are still like the students that we are: last-minute inspirations, dashing to meet the deadline, smartly cutting redundant corners, team effort and good management. But no ego here.

RYUE NISHIZAWA, Office of Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA

Dare I say it, highlight of the DATUM ends on the first day?! He appeared in KL with an atmosphere unlike the meteoric status that the West has conferred upon him. [SANAA in Designboom]

His presentation consists of many works, including the Naoshima Museum, Moriyama House under the Nishizawa Office, as well as the Toledo Museum [artbabee's Flickr] and Kanazawa Museum [Museum link] under SANAA. Like the photos, his/their aesthetic consists of pristine white shapes with seamless tectonics, articulated only by colourful occupants and furniture. You can hear about his Tokyo house in this exclusive video here!

(Sakamoto?)

I think he could have gone further if not for translation difficulties. Oh anyhow, as much as the alluring simplicity of his architecture can seduce people easily, I wonder if its too airy-fairy and disengaged from the real world. Sniggers behind me saying that its “not contextual”. Perhaps accepted in Japanese culture but I’m too sure abroad. It’s a revelation to feel that it became stale, after seeing slides and slides of the same aesthetic. I guess it works better as a singular image/work.

(Moriyama House Presentation)

in a free state of mind.

Malaysia [0]

After a longggggggg hiatus (while qmark was out having fun), we suddenly remembered that we actually had some stuff here going on.

So the trip to neighbouring Malaysia is to attend PAM’s (their version of SIA) annual conference, where they brought in speakers mostly from our region to speak about their work. Simple enough, but it was for me at least, an eye-opener, inspiring sometimes, disgusted sometimes, funny many times, sleepy too at times, yet ultimately an enriching experience being exposed to the innards of the architectural community.

After DATUM:KL, we went on a round-peninsula trip visiting different parts of Malaysia (Datum was an excuse to travel). Who says our neighbour is boring? Well if you peer and explore deeper, there’s much to discover, not to mention loads of fun, art opportunities, cultural depth and simply fun fun fun.

So here you go; we will soon post places and events topic by topic, inviting you into our little magical journey. Check back soon!

Datum Day 1

Datum Day 2

Putrajaya

Kuala Lumpur

Genting

Redang

Penang

Malacca

(Check out our Flickr pages for photos!)

is back too soon.