Future Impact 3: DESIGN NATION celebrates Singapore’s forward-looking design scene

Text by Yen Kien Hang        

Opened at the cathedral setting of Chiesa di San Bernardino alle Monache, located in Milan’s historical Cinque Vie district, Future Impact 3: DESIGN NATION proves to be a showcase full of Singapore’s ingenuity in design. Divided into three parts, curators Tony Chambers, Maria Cristina Didero and Hunn Wai (of Lanzavecchia + Wai) brought together 14 Singaporean designers to explore the country’s evolution through the lens of design.

At the centre of the show was the Future Impact series spotlighting eight works from designers Claudia Poh (Werable), Ng Sze Kiat (Bewilder), Olivia Lee, Randy Yeo (Practice Theory), Sacha Leong (Nice Projects), Wei Xiang, as well as design studio Supermama and a collective formed by FARM, Vouse and Changi General Hospital. Amongst them, Olivia’s Matahari design caught our eye with a very rudimentary-looking, but in fact, quite a common steel solar cooker in Southeast Asia.

“In Singapore, where solar irradiance averages 1,500 kWh/m² annually, it is clear why pursuing solar energy is not just sensible, but essential for modern times,” explained Olivia. “By reframing off-grid, analogue technology, Matahari serves as a discourse on sustainability and a reminder that the Sun’s power, in its infinite abundance, has always been within our reach.”

Similarly, the concept of Kintsugi – a traditional Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the pieces with lacquer and gold powder – has turned mainstream recently due to its sustainable philosophy. And Supermama’s reinterpretation by using gold-plated 3D-printed resin to reconstruct lost fragments (instead of merely repairing) of broken ceramics has yielded a new creation: aptly named “Kintsugi  2.0”. Not only were these golden skeletal lattice inserts fit for the modern age, but they also bridged old traditions with digitally generated techniques. “By modernising the traditional Japanese art form of Kintsugi, we can therefore speak to the future of product renovation,” explained John Tay, Lead Designer at Supermama.

Flanking Future Impact are the past (Little Island of Brave Ideas) and future (Virtuoso Visionaires) of Singapore. With the former, a sense of nostalgia comes through unequivocally as visitors ran through the best hits of the past: from Singapore’s unique public housing system and robust public transport system to beers brewed from Singapore’s reclaimed water and colour-coded plates in hawker centres.

The latter, on the other hand,  featured works by six emerging design talents that explore topics such as leveraging artificial intelligence to redefine Singapore’s multicultural identity, an exploration of Singlish (Singaporean Colloquial English), examining post-consumer waste and circular design practices, as well as sustainable designs for living spaces – all in all,  painting a picture that empowers the next generation of designers to think creatively about contemporary challenges and cultural shifts.

Since its edition in 2023, Future Impact has seen the country’s designers face local and global challenges with resolve, while demonstrating Singapore’s role as a global hub for design. When asked about his thoughts on co-curating the show Hunn Wai said: “I am deeply honoured to be showcasing the design excellence of our Lion City to the world at Milan Design Week. Singapore is well-known for thriving through ingenuity and resourcefulness and now, the future lies with the new generation of globally attuned, self-aware innovators who can continue this legacy.”

More on Future Impact:
https://designsingapore.org/events/future-impact-3-design-nation

Image courtesy of DesignSingapore Council
Photography by Mark Cocksedge

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