 | | The Dispatch | | Nº126, Singapore Special | | | In partnership with Singapore Design Week | | One of Southeast Asia's leading economic and cultural hubs plays host to its annual design week from 26 September to 6 October. Meet the region's most interesting emerging and established designers, architects, craftspeople, makers and thinkers throughout the week, and discover Singapore's rich creative community as well as its role as a connector of creativity across the region. |  | | | Welcome | | Dear reader, We've just touched down at Changi for Singapore Design Week, when the city-state hosts a robust programme of events, exhibitions and activations — many of which we've detailed in our roundup here in The Dispatch. Of course, our team will be on the ground hosting Emerge, our flagship showcase of design from across Southeast Asia, developed in partnership with DesignSingapore Council. We'll also be hosting a small gathering to commemorate the winners of the Design Anthology Awards. In this special issue of The Dispatch, we share our picks of what to see during Design Week, take a peek inside the home of Singaporean designer Marcus Mohan of Sandal Studios and pay a visit to the new offices of botanical design studio This Humid House — and don't miss our extended feature on The Lo & Behold Group's new creative cluster, New Bahru. We hope to see you around town this week. Please do say hello. Simone Schultz & Jeremy Smart
Editors-in-Chief | | | Fiera | | Editors' Picks | | What to See at Singapore Design Week | | Our editors round up the best of what to see and do during the annual city-wide festival | | | The Pastille Collection by Emeline Ong at Emerge | | | Singapore Design Week takes place from 26 September to 6 October 2024. The programme of events, activations, fairs and talks follows the theme People of Design, which 'celebrates the everyday visionaries that shape our society through design, united by their collective aspiration to enhance how we experience life.' Here are our editors' picks of what to see and where to be throughout the week. | | | The districts of Bras Basah.Bugis, Orchard and Marina will each host a schedule of events and exhibitions that activate the neighbourhoods throughout design week, with programmes curated by a Singaporean designer: Bras Basah.Bugis by Hans Tan, Orchard by interdisciplinary group Plus Collaboratives and Marina by Nathan Yong. Each district has its own programme of events, so consult these lists when planning your visit: Bras Basah.Bugis, Orchard and Marina. | | | Designed by Nathan Yong, the Neufolk Design Pavilion will showcase exhibitions around renewability, emerging technology and care, with partners including Tapaestry by Lasalle, The Circular Classroom, Ipse Ipsa Ipsum, Semula, Ayer Ayer Project and Bewilder. The pavilion programme also includes a one-day pop-up table experience, Neutropolis, where new materials are invented by fusing food remnants with elements of metal, plastic, cement and wood and a degustation meal incorporates new flavours inspired by the same ingredients. | | | Plant: A Planter is Found, by Damian & Jenn for Hans Tan Studio | | | Ten designers and studios examine the rituals of daily life through the lens of design, with showcases that delve into a specific activity: Eat, Sleep, Shop, Read, Heal, Make, Plant, Commute, Display and Design. Participating designers include Atelier Fang, Atelier Hoko, Forest and Whale, gideon-jamie and Studio Juju. | | | Hybrid basketry lamps by Gabriel Tan. Image by Mark Cocksedge | | | Following its debut at Milan Design Week earlier this year, Future Impact 2: Homecoming is curated by Tony Chambers and Maria Cristina Didero and comprises newly commissioned works by Singaporean designers Christian+Jade, David Lee, Faezah Shaharuddin, Gabriel Tan, Genevieve Ang and Interactive Materials Lab, Tiffany Loy and Zavier Wong. While these designers work in varying mediums and scales, what brings them together is their interest in novel technologies or boundary-pushing production methods. | | | This two-day conference brings together keynote speakers and thought leaders to discuss the critical role that design can play in the areas of emerging technology, sustainability and care. | | | Furniture, design and interiors fair Find – Design Fair Asia will showcase more than 300 brands. The fair is complemented by the Find Global Summit talks programme, curated by Yoko Choy and featuring Joyce Wang, Dawn Lim, Gabriel Tan, Hyunseog Oh, Mario Tsai, Tina Norden and many more. | | | Rebound Lighting Series by Selena Placino at Emerge | | | Emerge, Design Anthology's exhibition of Southeast Asian design, returns to Find this year with an exhibition, once again curated by Suzy Annetta, of more than 60 designers who explore notions of value under the theme These Precious Things. | | | As part of the Bras Basah.Bugis Design District, R for Repair showcases donated personal objects that have been mended by designers. This iteration is titled Heal: Repair+ and focuses on mending the mind and spirit through donated objects collected in collaboration with Yishun Health Singapore. | | | The Italian architect will take part in a fireside chat about how emerging designers can stand out and how brands and producers can better collaborate with designers. Register → | | | Home | | The Patina of Life | | | | A once-derelict ground-floor apartment is now the warm, tropical-inspired home of designer Marcus Mohan of Sandal Studios | | | 'I believe in taking a slow approach when designing a home,' says Marcus Mohan of Sandal Studios. 'A lot of what I feel makes a home only comes with time. As much as I strive to add personality and warmth, my favourite part is seeing how the residents grow within the space and seeing the space evolve and age around them.' The designer's own home had temporal marks of a different kind. Located on the ground floor of a 1980s walk-up block, it was 'derelict' when the designer and his wife first visited, subdivided into many small, dark rooms and packed with kitchen equipment from the previous residents, who ran a restaurant nearby. Making a space in which they could spend a lot of time was critical for the pair, says Mohan. 'We're homebodies and we spend any free time we have at home doing arts and crafts and gardening.' And what the apartment did have was the potential to open everything up to the garden along the side and back: with a flip of the orientation, the living, dining and kitchen would get light and garden views. 'The new layout was largely influenced by the tropical lifestyle we grew up in,' says Mohan. 'We wanted the living spaces in this apartment to feel like one large outdoor veranda to gather, cook and dine.' | | | Textures are key to the cosy feel, with terracotta used throughout, again to evoke the ambience of the couple's youth and because of 'the warmth of the colour, how it changes when it's wet, how it feels cool when you're walking on it barefoot,' says Mohan. Much of the furniture is second hand, some from childhood homes. Collected art and trinkets are on display too, some made by the couple and others picked up on their travels. 'It's nice to be able to spot these objects around the house and recall memories from years back,' says the designer. Joinery is custom, in plywood with a stained finish that highlights the grains, tones and imperfections. Despite the couple seemingly cocooning, the side garden is accessible to the public. To maintain privacy, all the windows on that side of the house are hung above eye level for anyone standing outside, allowing the couple to open them for ventilation without prying eyes, and also removing the need for any blinds or curtains. It seems there's nothing rushed about the couple's life, and this is reflected in the choice of space, with the apartment one of a select few not yet redeveloped into condominiums. 'It's nice to see something distinctly from the past in an area that is constantly changing and redeveloping,' says Mohan. Text by Philip Annetta
Images by Rachel Loh | | | Dossier | | Room to Grow | | | | Botanical design studio This Humid House has moved into a new space in Kembangan, where antiques and treasured objects fill every corner | | | A large oil painting takes over an entire wall of This Humid House's new office in Singapore. In it, a wild landscape bursts with foliage, birds sit on leafy branches and, in the foreground, various plants frame a calm, shaded body of water that contrasts with the sunlit mountains in the background. Produced by Asian-American artists Martin Fu and Tony Ho, the painting was picked up by This Humid House founder John Lim at local antique store Hock Siong. It perfectly embodies This Humid House's work: artful, architectural and authentic. The studio's botanical creations are crafted not just from flora and foliage, but also from vegetables and fruits, light and shadow, and height and depth. The office itself is tall and deep, located in a two-storey 1970s industrial building in Kembangan, a subzone in the town of Bedok in the East Region of Singapore. The studio workshop downstairs is a bare stage, but the office has a domestic sensibility with an open plan that's the result of removing several walls. | | | 'We often work overnight for events, so I wanted the office to feel like a home away from home,' Lim says. 'There's a daybed at the entrance to encourage power naps. We also wanted to surround ourselves with beautiful objects from places that are meaningful to us. Our professional interest in the relationship between flora and vessels is central to our practice, and it's a dream to have our entire collection of vessels visible and displayed.' Of beautiful objects, there are many of all sizes. A beaded banner commissioned from local textile designers Tanchen Studio hangs at the entrance, proclaiming 'Truth and Beauty' — a phrase that encapsulates the studio's ethos. Indonesian artist Jumaadi's wayang kulit (shadow puppetry) piece Snake Wedding is a daily reminder that 'as a botanical design studio, we have the privilege of participating in our client's most significant life events: births, marriages and deaths,' Lim explains. Place and time are vital tenets of This Humid House's work and the studio furniture reflects that. The worktable dates to the early 1900s and is from the old Jakarta post office; the dining table and timber-and-leather chairs were both designed by Australian Norman Archibald for furniture brand Nore in the 70s; a paper lamp by New York brand Preziosi, inspired by the roofs found in some East Asian architecture, catches the light that pours in through tall windows.
In front of the oil painting, another long table becomes the nucleus of the studio's new Senang Supperclub, regular events where chefs are invited to prepare special menus to be enjoyed alongside conversation, drinks and a bespoke floral arrangement by This Humid House. In moments like this, the office truly feels like a home. Text by Luo Jingmei
Images by Sayher Heffernan | | | Magazine | | | | Issue 39 | | | | Our new issue delivers a global tour of the most interesting new design, style, travel, art and architecture stories from Asia Pacific and beyond | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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