Design’s Big Issues At Saturday Indesign
Saturday Indesign 2019 on Saturday 12 October was a full day of design immersion: filled-to-capacity Design Conversation panels on must-know issues; impressive installations and showcases by 25 product exhibitors; plenty of networking and hospitality; prizes and workshops aplenty; serious debating of the cultural and industry developments affecting practice; but also laughs and good times.
For us at Indesign Media Asia, the joy of the day is the connection it fosters among diverse members of Singapore’s design and architecture community – and with the design-interested public. The day is also about the opportunity for us all to position ourselves within discussions about themes and developments crucial to design practice – via the thought leadership of key figures from the design and architecture industries and leading product brands.
Sustainability, for example, emerged as a critical topic in a number of the panel sessions, as well as in the product installations of a number of the exhibitors (such as Flokk, pictured, which showcased its sustainable supply chain). Such overlaps gave the day that much more meaning and impact.
The day was focused on just two locations – the Tan Boon Liat Building (TBL, where 15 showrooms participated with special installations and activities) and our nearby Curated Space at Theatreworks, 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road (where ten brands showcased their finest). Free Saturday Indesign shuttle buses and a walking route between the locations made getting around a breeze.
The Saturday Indesign Design Conversations have been attracting big audiences since 2015, and 2019 was no exception.
The first session at the Curated Space examined wellness at two new workplaces at Paya Lebar Quarter. Session two explored the open-ended world of retail design and asked just who is driving consumer experience these days – and how.
Session three, held at Journey East at TBL, explored design for compact living, and the novel ideas employed by designers and architects in HDB flats and apartments here in Singapore. At the Vitra showroom at TBL, designpreneurship was put under the spotlight via the practice of three early-to-mid-career designers and architects (read more on page 48).
Back at the Curated Space, sustainability was the key topic of the afternoon’s sessions. The fourth session discussed how we can design more sustainable hotels and hospitality experiences in the climate-change era – importantly, going beyond operational matters. The Saturday Indesign Debate was, once again, a powerful way to end the day. Our debate team returned from its 2017 Saturday Indesign debut, and argued about whether designers are lazy when it comes to sustainability (read more on page 149).
Said Maria Warner Wong, Design Conversations speaker and Design Director at WOW Architects | Warner Wong Design: “Thank you for an inspiring day. We need many more days like this, bringing more people to the table, including developers, owners, operators, legislators, educators, journalists, environmentalists and enthusiasts.”
Our thanks go to all of our exhibitors, partners, sponsors, helpers (from Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Design), and of course the attendees who made the day one to remember. See more event photos on pages 156-157, and see you at Saturday Indesign 2020! Photo: Vernon Wong.