Inspiration nation
We turn into a one-way street in Singapore’s Chinatown on a drizzly Wednesday afternoon. A pumpkin-orange Peranakan shophouse stands quietly on one side, refurbished into a charming boutique hotel called Naumi Liora—my home for the next few days. This is Keong Saik Road, lined today with colorful heritage houses inhabited by hip restaurants, pubs, specialty stores, and design studios. It’s definitely an underrated hangout for the too-cool-for-school. But in the ‘60s, Keong Saik was a prominent red light district, and these same streets were flanked by brothels.
At night, when I do quick runs to 7-eleven, I walk by the chic yuppies getting out of their sports cars, and lining up to enter a secret bar next door called The Library (where a password is required to get in). And just across from my hotel, reggae music blasts from the tiki bar on the roof of the Potato Head. Potato Head is a four-floor lifestyle experience that cannot be missed. Going through their hand-painted hallways and winding staircase is like a tasteful trip down Alice’s rabbit hole: from their roof deck garden on the fourth floor, you go down to a rock n’ roll speakeasy on the third, a casual artsy diner on the second, and a self-service burger joint on the first. It’s wicked cool.
This nightlife is an interesting contrast to what waking up in the neighborhood the following morning is like: a quiet walk to a small family-run Chinese food stall for a traditional Singaporean breakfast of soft-boiled eggs and Nasi Goreng.
Celebrating design
Experiencing this part of the city gave me a glimpse of what Singapore has grown to become: a modern city bursting with creativity and innovativeness, while carefully preserving the traditions of their past — a nifty amalgamation of the new aesthetics with old.
This became even more evident as I immersed myself in the 2nd annual Singapore Design Week, organized by the DesignSingapore Council, who collaborated with different groups to come up with an impressive, albeit, overwhelming lineup of more than 60 activities, programs and exhibitions. A week is not enough, really, to see everything. But they have an array of activities your creative juices would drool over.
The anchor event is SingaPlural 2015, organized by the Singapore Furniture Industries Council in partnership with eight other network partners of DesignS. It’s a walkthrough an old police precinct at 99 Beach Road, and the idea of the tour is to take you through the process of creative thought: from the conceptualization of an idea, down to its execution, and then translating this into entrepreneurship. This was presented via installations, curated design spaces and symposiums.
Hot trends
Other highlights of Singapore Design Week include the highly sought-after Maison & Objet Asia trade show, and the International Furniture Fair of Singapore. Both are massive exhibitions that bring together talented players in home decoration and design from around the world, showcasing some of the hottest trends under one roof. You’ll be dizzy looking left and right at a comprehensive range of furniture pieces from quality exhibitors. A few local names like Ito Kish, Ann Pamintuan and Vito Selma have booths in these trade shows, and proudly represent Philippine design.
Mad genius
But one impressive and really well curated exhibit from Singapore Design Week is the show New British Inventors: Inside Heatherwick Studio. It showcases the works by the studio of renowned British designer Thomas Heatherwick. If you don’t know who he is yet, you should Google him pronto. Check out the 2012 moving Olympic cauldron made of 204 copper petals. He was the mastermind behind that. He also envisioned the award-winning UK Pavilion during the Shanghai Expo in 2010, which was a box lifted in the air by acrylic silvery hairs protruding from all angles. One can only imagine how jaw dropping these structures must’ve been in real life. The Heatherwick exhibit takes you through the inner workings of his mind—a genius, sometimes mad one, but no doubt excessively brilliant. By the end of the trip, I was brimming with inspiration.
Hub of design
This year, the city celebrates their 50th as an independent nation. What was once a small port, has grown into a wealthy hub with a burgeoning arts and culture scene. And though the great statesman Lee Kuan Yew just recently passed away, his legacy is evident as ever, especially with the conclusion of the Singapore Design Week.
Every time I return to this city, it always presents something new. And there is no doubt that next year’s Design Week will promise something even more remarkable.
