Six of Singapore’s most progressive designers exhibited their sustainable creations at Future Impact in Milan.
16 May 2023
Text by Vanitha Pavapathi
DesignSingapore Council placed local design in the global spotlight with its exhibition Future Impact at this year’s Milan Design Week in April. Future Impact debuted six new works from Singapore’s most progressive designers at the historic and iconic Casa del Pane (Bastioni di Porta Venezia). The featured designers were Forest & Whale, Gabriel Tan, Nathan Yong, Studio Juju, Tiffany Loy, and Viewport Studio.
Co-curated by global design thought-leader and consultant, Tony Chambers, and Milan-based author and curator, Maria Cristina Didero, the exhibition highlighted Singapore as a hub of innovation and creativity, where design solutions and technology converge to shape a brighter future with a focus on sustainability.
Dawn Lim, DesignSingapore Council Executive Director, emphasised Singapore’s reputation as a futuristic and visionary city and highlighted the unique creative slant of Singapore design, which is transformative, impactful, and focused on making lives, cities, and the world better through design. “The breadth of work from these forward-looking designers represents Singapore’s contributions to sustainability, the evolution of craft, and the role of technology in design.”
Onyx is known to be one of the most fragile and brittle natural stones. Yet Nathan Yong took it upon himself to create furniture and interior objects from said stone. He adopted a patented technology to reduce waste during the production process, allowing the blocks to be thinly sliced into sheets and laminated to create dramatic shapes and volumes.
Studio Juju constructed the entire collection from Dekton Pietra Kode series – an ultra-compact stone slab material that has achieved its carbon neutrality for its entire life cycle. The OO collection consisted of five sculptural objects punctuated with circular holes, leaving viewers to imagine their purpose.
Gabriel Tan is no stranger to giving new life to unwanted objects. The Aiming for Peace lamp, inspired by the Flower Power movement, was no different and symbolised hope and harmony in today’s world of strife. The lamp’s ash wood base was made from furniture production offcuts, which supports the recycled steel pipe stem and 3D printed lampshade made from recycled plastic.
Textile designer Tiffany Loy collaborated with Singapore University of Technology and Design’s Digital Manufacturing and Design Centre (DManD) to develop advanced automated textile construction for additive manufacturing. They combined weaving and knitting with digital technology to create multi-material, pliable 3D forms, filling a gap in current 3D printing options. This allowed retention of material properties in the final product, envisioning a future world built with lines.
Voon Wong of Viewport Studio explored the potential impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on sustainable design by creating two sculptural room divider screens from waste metal parts in collaboration with Italian manufacturer Equilibri. One screen was designed based on conversations with the manufacturer while the other was generated through AI (Chat GPT). Viewers were encouraged to reflect on the role of AI in design and its future potential.
Wallflower is an interactive wall poster composed of multicoloured chips embedded with seeds to create evolving artwork that can be torn off, planted, and grown into herbs, leaving no waste behind. Forest & Whale also collaborated with Fab.Pub to create limited edition 3D printed vases with a root-like surface, elevating the form of the ubiquitous pot and drawing attention to the ritual of kitchen gardening.
Future Impact at Milan Design Week was a platform for Singaporean designers to showcase their innovative and sustainable design solutions to a global audience, and to inspire new perspectives and visions for the future. As a hub of creativity and innovation, Singapore continues to push the boundaries of design and make a positive impact on the world stage.
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