SUPERGARDEN

Objects of Conversation, Fields of Exchange

Preparing the ground and planting the seeds -

SUPERGARDEN presents Singapore's young, vibrant and evolving design culture by showcasing 22 conversations between Singaporean architects with artists, curators and graphic, fashion, and industrial designers, exchanging words and thoughts over pivotal design talking points such as architecture, fashion, art, graphics, media and industrial and urban design.

There is an upsurge of young and effervescent architects in Singapore who are operating in a creative community distinct from the existing organized architectural groupings. While the architectural profession has traditionally been fairly autonomous, this emergent architectural community is a hybrid that finds itself within a design environment, characterized by an uninhibited exchange of ideas between creative practices, erasing the borders between different design genres.

The current cultural and technological landscape has made it possible for architects to work in an expanded creative field. Not only do architects design buildings but they may also double-up as artists, curators, policy makers, activists, facilitators, etc. Thus, this generation of architects may not see their craft within as strict limitations but instead, as a buzzing hive of infinite creative activity.

This shift in style goes hand-in-hand with developments in technology, which have in turn, influenced the formation of web-based design communities. At the same time as the Internet and digitized information enabled rapid sharing and dissemination of ideas, it also creates a flattening of differences between creative domains.

The Garden
The Pavilion is an exhibition of Singapore's design culture at a moment of intense creative fervour, where architecture is actively redefining its aesthetic and professional and intellectual boundaries in relation to other design fields. It showcases Singaporean architecture and design culture at its most fertile - a homegrown culture steeped in interdisciplinary partnerships, chance encounters and provocative conversations.

Architecture's shifting preoccupation is a significant one, marking a pivotal point in the architectural realm - one in which Singaporean architecture is being critically reformulated in conjunction with other non-hierarchical, non-exclusive and highly influential creative disciplines.

SUPERGARDEN is a platform to showcase the intricate links between Singaporean architecture and its creative design culture through an ecosystem of design thought weaved by dialogues held between designers of different creative genres.

SUPERGARDEN's proposition is this: Singapore's emergent design culture grows through cross-disciplinary conversations between different design fields, which are further nurtured by the evolution of the Internet and digital media.

Visitors to the Singapore Pavilion will encounter a display, which expands conventional museum format in terms of categories, scale and narrative. Its purpose is that firstly, the exhibition will demonstrate the networks of design influence and conversations between diverse creative fields in a Singaporean context, and secondly, to allow similar conversations to develop amongst visitors who come across these designed objects in the Pavilion.

The architectural installation is a continuous surface composed of objects and spaces, which encourages conversations to bloom. In the forecourt, this surface appears as a footpath and park benches set within a garden. Visitors are urged to sit, rest and chat. The heart of the Singapore Pavilion is housed within a large room where the surface transforms into a large table that stretches the entire length of the space. On this table are 22 objects of different types, materials and scales. These include drawings, models, fabric works, books, household appliances, electronic devices, furniture, photographs, etc. Each object is accompanied by a series of short audio recordings that chronicle a series of conversations between the designers of the different objects placed on the "table". The conversations document exchanges of opinions, ideas and critiques between different authors around a designated object. Collectively, these conversations showcase previously unseen and unnoticed facets of communication between a new generation of Singaporean architects and designers.

Visitors can leave behind their responses to the objects and conversations on the "leave a comment" cards, or choose to record their reflections on a typewriter. The reciprocal action from a global audience extends and re-energizes the initial series of conversations between the Singaporean architects and designers.