Category: Design

A “Singa­pore Design” Myth: How a Dragon Playground Went from Near Extinction to a National Icon

The Year of the Dragon in 2024 saw dragons pop up across Singapore. Some lined the streets of Chinatown and took centre stage in festivities. Others starred in advertisements and even popped up inside shopping malls. The creature representing last year’s Chinese zodiac was embraced by businesses and organisations as part of the traditional Lunar New Year celebrations.

While there were many different versions of the dragon, one design stood out: a geometric rendition with mosaic-like skin and an octagonal eye, popularly known among locals as the “dragon playground”. It was nowhere in sight during the last Year of the Dragon but appeared everywhere 12 years later. The recent popularity of the design was even more curious considering it is based on a playground that was first introduced in Singapore over forty years ago. Several were built along with new public housing estates in the 1970s and 1980s, but almost all were demolished by the early 2000s. In fact, only four examples of the dragon playground from that period still stand today.

How did a nearly extinct design return some two decades later to become a popular national icon? This revival reflects the expanded role of design in Singapore since the 2000s. As the country began developing a creative economy, design was recognised more than just a tool for industrialisation, but one that can also shape culture and represent national identity. The story of the dragon playground demonstrates how ideas of nationhood are neither inherent in a design nor solely inscribed by the designer. Instead, “Singapore design” is an ongoing construction that evolves alongside changing ideas of the nation in the country.

➜ Read the full essay in Issue #1 of the SAM Design Collection Journal

Critical of / for what?

This project embarks on an investigation of what it means to teach, learn, and practice criticality in design. Set against the backdrop of a neoliberal economic system and an industry constantly disrupted by emerging technologies, it takes a deep dive into the tension between education and professional practice. It examines how design, as a field increasingly seen as crucial to navigating the future, is being redefined—and whether “criticality” is being nurtured or neglected along the way.

Prior to the Fellowship, initiators Candice Ng, Justin Zhuang and Vanessa Ban had conducted interviews with 12 local educators and designers on this topic. The Fellowship supported the organisation of an invite-only panel discussion, hosted at the SAM residency spaces, to further explore the role of criticality in Singapore design practices and how it is taught in local design schools. The primary goal of the event was to foster dialogue between industry and academia and encourage a shared understanding and vocabulary to advance the teaching, learning and practice of criticality within contemporary design practice.

➜ Read more about the project at the SAM Design Collection website

 

Nests: An Ode to Domesticity

“We understand the each nest as a living organism that includes the people, the places and the things that inhabit it as well as the daily rituals of its maintenance in a specific context. In this sense, the domestic space is not a static and inert thing. It is the place where life happens, where a lot of effort and work must occur in order to reenact life day after day.” — Manuel and Isabelle

Over the last 20 years, Manuel and Isabelle Der Hagopian have lived between Singapore, Vietnam, and Switzerland. The couple have built various dwellings in each location to house their lives and redefine their domesticity as a fundamental need. Each ‘nest’ arises from intimate conversations between them and the spaces, giving birth to meticulously crafted spaces and lovingly curated interiors echoing with the spirit of the local culture.

In a dialogue between regional influences and their own tastes, seamlessly integrated with Modernist spatiality, the dwellings reflect the pairs voracious curiosity for the spirit of the places they live in. They strip architecture to its most elemental to reveal its raw emotions hidden within, questioning contemporary standards of domesticity and comfort, bringing to life an intimate relationship with each setting and infusing the space a unique sense of belonging. Each is also filled with possessions, including found objects and antique furniture collected from years of travelling, transforming these abodes into biographies of the couple’s lives.

Nests features six of these dwellings—Seng Poh, TB80, Bi Khi Ni, Thi Sach, Beaumont and Diablay De—as seen through the lens of Khoo Guo Jie. The photographer’s images of the life and love that imbue these spaces are curated into booklets that are designed to express the unique character and materiality of each nest. Together, they weave a voyage across different habitats and offer an introspective journey back home, in all the senses.

➜ Read the essays and view the homes in Nests: An Ode to Domesticity