Archifest breaks new ground

Business Times, Archifest breaks new ground

Annual celebration of architecture moves out of The URA Centre and into a local district for a community-centred experience

FOR the first time in its 17-year history, the Singapore Archifest is dispersing its exhibitions, installations and programmes across an entire precinct instead of convening in a centralised venue. The annual festival celebrating architecture and the built environment has embraced Kampong Glam as its precinct of choice this year.

It has erected several beautiful installations across the bustling area. They include a series of intricate shelters displaying poetic lines that contemplate the human journey from life to death; an open-air communal space boasting interconnected tables in the charming shape of dulangs (or round food trays); and a meeting place set around a cluster of trees adorned with strips of colourful cloth-like maypoles.

Festival director Calvin Chua says: “We’ve observed the positive impact on the neighbourhood when a festival is decentralised and embedded within neighbourhoods. It allows for more public participation and enlivens urban public spaces… We chose Kampong Glam because it is very much the representative ‘centre’ of Singapore in our nation’s history as an important trade hub, and has since been rejuvenated in modern day to become a hip tourist destination that attracts travellers from all over.”

Organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects, the festival is usually centred at The URA Centre. But Chua, founder of the research-oriented design practice Spatial Anatomy and adjunct assistant professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, decided to move the festival entirely into the neighbourhood, to explore “the interaction between old and new” and “embed meaningful architectural discourse into the physical landscape of the city”.

One of the best installations is titled Collective Memories Of Kampong Gelam designed by Jerome Ng, Zed Haan and Kevin Ong. Built just across the road from the old Malay cemetery along Victoria Street, the installation comprises a series of structures with intricately carved walls. Some of these walls carry poetic words evoking the journey between life and death, between struggle and triumph, and between faraway lands and Singapore. When the sun strikes at a certain angle, the words are projected onto the walls of nearby shophouses.

Another crowd favourite is the Dulang-Dulang installation by Syazwan Hanif and Syafiq Jubri. The humble dulang – that steel round tray used for serving food such as nasi ambeng – has been reinterpreted as beautiful interconnected table tops. At the centre of each table cluster are small potted gardens with plants commonly used to prepare local meals, such as pandan, lemongrass, turmeric, Thai basil and chilli.

Embracing change
Acknowledging the common perception that Singapore is a city under constant renewal and reconstruction, Chua decided to address the issue head-on by centring this year’s festival on the theme “Interim: Acts of Adaptation”.

He says: “We need to differentiate ‘constant change’ in terms of tearing down buildings and rebuilding them versus ‘constant change’ in terms of adapting underutilised buildings and public spaces to allow for social interaction. The former is unsustainable, while the latter enables a more active public life.”

He explains: “‘Interim’ is a planning and policy word that is very familiar in Singapore. Whether you are a professional in the built environment industry or the general public, you’ll come across interim spaces in our city. If you look around, it’s there in interim hawker centres, bus stops, and parks – which are discrete, stopgap interventions lasting for about three to six years, facilitating the temporary functional needs of the city.

“But we’d like to push the definition of ‘interim’ further: Can the idea of the ‘interim’ exist beyond a stopgap intervention, but rather embrace constant change within a single building structure or empty urban space, where the space is constantly adapted for various uses, instead of tearing down and rebuilding? Can we use this idea of the ‘interim’ to explore a constant, incremental evolution of the city?

“We are also thinking about the ‘interim’ from a time perspective. We are currently living in an interim period. Our actions today have an impact on the future. Part of Archifest – specifically its Incubator programme – is dedicated to generating design ideas for responding to pressing issues such as the future of health and intergenerational spaces, the future of agricultural spaces, the issue of building circularity, and so on. We want to consider the ‘interim’ as a valuable paradigm of architecture that can create a better future for our society and shape a more resilient and sustainable future.”

Chua is calling for an entire change in mindset so we may recognise the current period as an opportunity, where our present actions hold the power to shape a more resilient and sustainable future.

Crowd favourites
As always, the festival’s biggest crowd-pullers continue to be the Architours, drawing both enthusiasts and curious visitors alike with the promise of exclusive access to the city’s best newly built projects. These encompass a wide spectrum, ranging from opulent residential estates to vibrant commercial spaces that are typically off-limits to the public.

Several of these tours are led by the architects themselves, who offer not only a window into the creative genesis of these projects but also profound insights into the process of design and construction. Highlights include the Envelope House designed by ASOLIDPLAN, the Singtel Waterfront Theatre by Architects 61, House 11 by Linghao Architects, House At Terubok by CDG Architects and Project #13 by Studio Wills + Architects.

The last project, for instance, is a renovation of a 30-year-old HDB flat into a sleek multi-level home-cum-office space, complete with a dining room that seamlessly converts into a meeting area, a tranquil tearoom for relaxation and contemplation, and a lounge for leisure and entertainment.

Chua says: “Architecture and urban design is something that we often take for granted – we don’t consciously take notice of it, and we don’t usually see the effort and thought that goes into designing and building structures that we utilise and interact with every day. Through Archifest, we hope to encourage the layperson to uncover and understand the value of architecture, as the design of a city and its architecture inadvertently impacts our way of life whether we know it or not.”

Besides the Architours, other festival highlights include the Archicraft workshops, which teach batik-making, 3D-printing and AI art to novices, as well as the Festival House (at 45, 47 Sultan Gate) programmes which feature film screenings and an exhibition of interim architectural projects across the world.

Archifest runs from now till Oct 28. The public installations will remain on display till Apr 28, 2024. For more information, visit archifest.sg