Inclusivity And Relatability

Cubes Archifest

For a festival organised by a professional association, the 2018 edition of Archifest generated impressive statistics. Held from 28 September to 10 October 2018, it was attended by over 150,000 visitors and included a total of 45 talk sessions and eight exhibitions held in 16 venues. And with a handful of first-time collaborations (among them partnerships with independent cinema The Projector and shopping mall Milennia walk) and programmes for people all ages (from an exhibition and symposium dedicated to the silver generation to pan-island workshops for kids), it was also the most inclusive edition of the festival since its inception in 2006.

This was distilled in the festival theme ‘Design for Life’ and its three sub-themes: ‘Design for People’, ‘Design for Time’ and ‘Design for Environment’. The theme was derived from the Singapore Institute of Architects’ (SIA’s) vision to establish the architecture industry as one of the key drivers for promoting well being and life satisfaction in Singapore. “’Design for Life’ sends a message that it’s a celebration of life – something that people can easily relate to… That was really the synthesis of many different things that are happening in Singapore, Southeast Asia and the rest of the world,” said Festival Director Yann Follain of WY-TO.

The festival’s anchor venue, the Archifest Pavilion (pictured), was designed by Kite Studio Architecture as a fluid, multi-purpose open space inspired by one of the most iconic – if often overlooked – Singapore spaces, the HDB void. Multiple entrances allowed visitors to enter the pavilion from any direction. It was built with three-hole bricks skewered on rebar and anchored by steel plates in a dry construction method, allowing for the reuse of most of the materials.

At the festival’s anchor event, the SIA Conference, architects and industry experts (most of whom were under the age 45) presented their responses to the needs and challenges of our time centred around people, time, environment and life. And they in turn, threw some questions back at the audience to ponder. The discussion included the controversial subject of en bloc sales and the redevelopment of certain older buildings in Singapore.

“Every city or country needs to have layers of time. These buildings are likely going to go. The big question is, ‘Is that the right move?’ … What could a sensitive move be? I found that maybe there are different models, which are not either pure conservation or demolition, based on a series of value judgments – a way to find hybrid ways to use old structure in relevant new ways,” shared Ministry of Design’s Colin Seah on the topic.

“I hope that I will set the bar higher than the one that was set for me,” said Follain when asked about his hope for future editions of the festival, adding that one thing that the 2018 edition didn’t have the chance to discuss was gender representation.

“Women are under-represented in the architecture industry, which is a very strange phenomenon considering there are more women graduating from architectural schools. Where do they go? Is it because at some point they have to make a choice that men don’t? Is this still true in the twenty-first century? I think that would be a great topic to talk about in a future edition of Archifest,” he suggested. Photo by Darren Soh, courtesy of Archifest.