Missing last year’s Singapore Design Festival, qmark eagerly placed this year’s events into the calendar. There are MANY events, but a quick browse through that thick pamphlet tells me that there aren’t many that cater specifically to design per se. It’s more product placement than product process. Continue reading
21st July saw the soft opening of much-hyped frenzified Ion Orchard. Designed by UK-based Benoy Architects, Ion Orchard fills the high-end niche gap, converting Pinoy park into purchasing paradise.
Posted in Architecture, Events
Poof! qmark disappeared for 1.5 months. Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Events, Singapore, Travels
Tagged biennale, supergarden, venice
Perhaps the use of acid-free paper & good quality pigments, combined with proper care throughout the years make these pieces appear as if they were fresh off the printer! The texture of the pigments used, the layering of inks and the mad riot of fresh colours are revealed & their impact felt only on closer scrutiny, when one sees the actual work of art.
Such qualities are rarely/never captured in the glossy prints of the paintings in books or magazine graphics.
Here’s another chance to catch these paintings live if you missed the previous exhibition!
See details- 100 Warhols Plus Twenty Servings Of Soup On The Side.
keen on an art exhibition… anyone with a space for rent?
So here- back, after 3 weeks of roving, back to a new year, back to life and new hopes, back to SG, back to home, work… and eventssss!
sondre lerche, earth wind and fire, broken social scene? and not forgetting the freeeebies.
mosaicmusicfestival
book soon!
looks forward to the coming of march already.
(ArchiTours Publicity Poster)
The National Museum has catwalks in the ceiling.
SMU‘s architects didn’t know whether the grass screens would work.
The Gallery Hotel has a disguised “icon” representing William Lim Associates.
You can enter the Singapore Art Museum for free.
The Hwa Chong Institution was built up from many many many phases.
The National Library was designed for stack effect.
La Salle has an underground studio.
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The Russian delegate group we took comprised of people from diverse parts of the former Soviet Union.
Under the Kingshill Media Group, they organise architectural construction tours overseas very often.
Their delegates consist of chief architects and specialists and directors (!!!)
We hope they had a good time during the tours.
ArchiTours is part of ArchiFest, part of Singapore Design Festival 2007
urges you to sign up for ArchiTours if you haven’t!
Posted in Architecture, Events
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
HYBRICITY: SINGAPORE
LaSalle Level 5 (28th – 8th)
Objects As Architecture, Architecture As Objects
Sculpture Square (28th – 6th)
WOHA Reflects
WOHAGA (28th – 8th)
20/20 Base
National Library Plaza (28th – 8th)
10Touchpoints Winner’s Exhibition
National Library Plaza (28th – 8th)
President’s Design Festival
City Hall Foyer 3 (28th – 8th)
Brazilian Design Perspective: A Tribute to Oscar Niemeyer
City Hall Level 1 (28th – 8th)
Blurring Boundaries
NUS UCC (6th)
Plastik Blobular Worlds
Gallery Hotel (8th – 31st)
Karim Rashid Exhibition
Lightouch at the New Majestic Hotel
New Majestic Hotel (1st – 17th)
Interesting Venues: Old Supreme Court, City Hall, LaSalle, Emily Hill
and liberation!
Posted in Architecture, Arts, Events, Singapore
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.
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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!
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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)
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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.
and guerilla posts!
Posted in Architecture, Arts, Events, Singapore
You don’t want to miss this .
is excited!
OUTDOORS… & LIVE!…
Outdoor musical events seem to be a growing local trend.
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Free The Musique Raffles Place Park
Can’t wait to blog about this!
Unlike WOMAD (will do a short post following.. soon!), this other recent outdoor musical event comes without an admission fee- yes it’s FREE thanks to home-grown gig organisers Kinemat. And that does not imply a compromise in quality, in fact the 1st installation of the series sees independent local bands such as The Great Spy Experiment sharing the stage with Koop, the Swedish electronic jazz duo who performs live as a 7-piece swing orchestra. One word sums up the night of events- Amazing, amazing, amazing.
Local acts took to a 4-hr presence of the 5-hr event and one can’t help but feel that throughout a good part of the night, people seemed to be waiting; quietly anticipating the highlight of the night. But a major act as a ‘background’ to put the minor ones on the foreground is a great move considering the local music scene is still in its defining phase and isn’t as well received, yet. Though generally, local bands are still an introverted lot- there were little interaction with the audience as if the musicians were merely focused on getting their music right.
Local post electronic rock band MUON
Local duo DJ Dean & Kaye on the saxaphone
Thus, it was of little wonder, that the entire atmosphere took to a change the moment Koop and the mini orchestra were on stage- each of the members carried such comfortable vibes & energies that their stage presence as a whole was certain. Almost without hesitation they broke into an orchestrated swing of instrumental melodies, eventually joined by singer-songwriter Norwegian Hilde Louise Asbjørnsen with her distinctively infectious jazzy carabet vocals and those gentle sways in movement that sends you off to the Carribbean-scapes with a rendition of “Koop Island Blues”.
Koop- “Koop Island Blues” Live
The event remained in an all encompassing atmosphere throughout the night- the music was free, the grounds were spacious, setting casual & Koop’s performance attracted many passer-bys to simply stop by to enjoy the musique . And just round the corner, a man in his 40s, seemingly in a ‘homeless’ plight, could be seen sleeping on one of the ledges nearby as if the music was his lullaby.
It’s a pity I couldn’t stay right till the end, but the music continues to resonate even from a far…
Musique music!
More photos of the event here
is going to get Koop Island!
