Jury Citation

1000 Singapores – A Model of the Compact City’ addressed the theme of the 2010 International Architecture Exhibition (La Biennale di Venezia) which was People meet in architecture, and the Jury feels it was executed in a very Singaporean way.

The design team understood from past experience that successful pavilions at Biennales were those which worked with a very singular idea. Following this observation, they developed a range of detailed concepts to showcase how Singapore’s urban life operates at many levels, from simple to complex.

They worked from using the traditional Singapore breeze block as a building material to create a pavilion that presented a range of ideas about living in Singapore and the country’s housing model as a paradigm for the world.

The choice of a linear model, which is a slice through Singapore, was a very original one which demonstrated the good balance between development density and open spaces as a model for the city. It also incorporated the notion of community housing and sustainability. It explained that 83 per cent of the public housing was built by the government, but owned by the people so that they felt a strong sense of ownership and took pride in their way of life.

Additionally, the introduction of 1000 postcards in the exhibition celebrated the ordinary life in this city. They were not tourist postcards, but were diverse, humorous, and full of humanity, capturing the essence of Singapore.

These elements all came together as a very complete, elegant and fluent piece of exhibition design that was highly regarded by its many visitors.

Nominator Citation

LAURENCE LIEW
CHAIRMAN
SIA AWARDS COMMITTEE

“1000 Singapores can house the world’s population using only 0.5 per cent of the Earth’s land area.”

1000 Singapores is a powerful example of how design can touch the heart and provoke the mind while communicating a very important message. This exhibition was Singapore’s contribution to the 12th International Architecture Exhibition (La Biennale di Venezia), People meet in architecture, directed by Kazuyo Sejima. Focusing on Singapore’s urban planning, with an emphasis on the scalability of the new towns and its high-rise, high-density housing, the project positions the country as a model of the compact city. The city is planned for 6.5 million people; multiplied a 1000 times, one could in theory house the world’s population of 6.5 billion people in a space equivalent to 0.5 per cent of the world’s land area. This was the provocative idea the curatorial team put forward through their beautifully designed pavilion, book and website. Monocle magazine noted the project was “…one of the Biennale’s highlights, expertly curated…”.

The curatorial team captured the visitor’s attention and imagination with a clear and simple exhibition design that looks at Singapore’s multifaceted planning and organisation. The many complex ideas surrounding the planning of Singapore were taken together to create an experience that was informative and focused. The calm setting also allowed the visitors to focus on the many ideas presented. Though the presentation was broad, it was extremely specific in its design. A stimulating visual journey that allowed the visitor to imagine and form his or her own impression of the Singapore model was created.

Central to the exhibition was a 1:1000 scale model of a section through Singapore. Metaphorically, 1000 Singapores exported a slice of this city to help visitors visualise how 6.5 million people can be housed in just 710 square kilometres. Surrounding the model were beautiful photographs of the urban landscape along this strip of Singapore. One thousand black and white images showcased the form of the architectural and urban variety; sufficiently abstract to draw one’s attention to the quality of the urbanscape. Moments of colour were distributed throughout the exhibition, rendering different groups of people in ‘family’ portraits-like poses that presented the different urban settings in Singapore. Examples are a group of cyclists, a team of grass cutters and a class of students. These were sprinkled as counterpoints to the black and white images. Juxtaposed against the photographs and sectional model were also various architectural diagrams elaborating on the scale and the organisation of Singapore’s landscape. All the information was presented in graphic form instead of text, allowing a clear and direct communication with the visitors.

Placed strategically in the context of a historic building, the pavilion complemented the setting as a beautiful architectural object. A linear tube made up of lightweight blocks transformed gradually, from a rectangle to a shape reminiscent of the archetypal pitched roof house. Symbolically, this alludes to a transformation from the high-rise housing blocks to single unit houses. The components of the tube were an abstraction of the ventilation blocks found in Singapore’s conservation houses, and throughout Southeast Asia.

The exhibition’s graphic design was powerful in its simplicity. The world map was utilised as its design motif, while the red dot referenced Singapore. The light blue background provided a foil to the more abstract architectural presentation of the pavilion, which included geography, maps and cartography.

A highly crafted and exquisite book complemented the exhibition. This compendium of essays, images, photographs, and diagrams, allowed visitors to examine the exhibition up close. The book also provided in-depth explanations, commentaries and critiques, on various facets of Singapore and its proposition to house the entire world’s population in such a small land area.

The website, as an extension of the exhibition, took the cue from the pavilion’s organisation. It provided detailed references that were precisely located where the diagrams and photographs were found in the actual exhibition. This allowed the visitor to travel along and explore the long slice of Singapore virtually. The website thus became the 1000 Singapores’ digital gallery, accessible anytime, anywhere. By sliding along the axonometric drawing of the slice of Singapore, one could get a more detailed visual experience of the photographs and diagrams pertaining to that area.

The exhibition’s three components — the pavilion, book and website — presented the subject matter in different forms. Each exploited its unique capability to communicate at varying degrees of detail. This created multiple levels of interpretation and ways to experience 1000 Singapores. The visitors were then prompted to give their feedback and thoughts at the pavilion and through its Facebook page. The entire exhibition thus acquired a sense that the model is not static, but a dynamic one, being a work in progress.

The team that designed and curated 1000 Singapores is an example of how great collaborations in design can produce well thought out works that are highly sophisticated and refined. The design of the pavilion, graphics, book and website coalesced wonderfully into a single presentation that was at once simple and profound. While the exhibit set a high level of intellectual depth, the presentation gave a sense of quietude and humility. At first glance, 1000 Singapores might seem audacious, but on closer inspection, it is a compelling idea that points to sustainability, settlement patterns, and the practices of human occupation. It is a discussion about all manners of footprints — not only the size of our cities, but also carbon footprints, chemical footprints, ecological footprints, economic footprints, etc.

The power of the design is in its simplicity and clarity. To distil from an explosion of information into one statement. To take that statement from the smallest scale to the largest scale, and back. From the local to the global. From the abstract to the literal. And finally, to invite one to reflect, share and discuss.