PRACTICAL MAGIC

In this second of a trilogy of features celebrating SG60 and Tatler Homes Singapore's 20th anniversary, 20 voices share how Singapore's design DNA blends utility with imagination and style

- By Asih Jenie

August may have come and gone, but we are still celebrating the double milestones of SG60 as well as the 20th anniversary of Tatler Homes Singapore.

To mark this shared anniversary, we are publishing a trilogy of features that examines what makes Singapore design distinctive.

For this instalment, we posed a deceptively simple question to 20 designers, architects and makers: “What’s a gesture, material, or way of working in your practice that feels distinctly Singaporean?” Not in grand national statements, but in the details, instincts and habits that shape how we design, make and live.

The responses, diverse and thoughtful, reveal a design culture that is at once pragmatic and poetic, practical and inventive, deeply rooted in heritage, yet porous to the world. Read together, they paint a picture of how this oft-called “boring” nation in fact hides a considerate heart beneath its apparent pragmatism.

PLURAL VOICES

Architect Lim Koon Park of Park + Associates highlights how multiculturalism shapes the studio’s work. “Our practice reflects Singapore’s diversity—the absence of a single design style is owing to the diversity of our colleagues and ideas. We tend to avoid a top-down approach when it comes to design. Instead, it is very much a studio-like environment, in which designers are encouraged to dream up ideas for internal discussions and even crits. This ensures our minds and the spaces we produce stay fresh and flexible, with cross-pollination learning in between.” This ethos is especially apparent in the studio’s residential oeuvre, in which every project offers an opportunity for innovation, from clever layouts and passive cooling to 3D printing.