Tag: Design History

Eulindra Lim: The Rise of the Women in Singapore Design

In 1966, the advertising industry in Singapore and Malaysia recognized the “Best Asian Designer” for the first time—the prize given by the Creative Circle, an annual award show organized by the advertising agencies in the two neighboring countries. This honor was presented to Miss Eulindra Lim. An art director at S.H. Benson—a British advertising agency that was one of the largest in the two former colonies—Eulindra was recognized to have distinguished herself among the local advertising workforce of primarily Chinese, Malays, and Indians. They worked in agencies traditionally owned and led by white expatriates from Australia and the United Kingdom, a legacy of how the advertising industry in Singapore and Malaysia had developed with colonial industrialization.

However, both colonies had become independent nations by 1966. The Creative Circle was established four years earlier to elevate local creative standards and ultimately nurture “top creative people to originate and lead in this field—in their own country.” While the award initially recognized only the best work in various categories each year, the addition of the “Best Asian Designer” prize from its fourth edition sought to spotlight local talents and attract more of them into the industry.

Mr. Peter Morgan-Harry, the managing director of S.H. Benson, said about Eulindra’s achievement: “As a career, any serious-minded young man or woman joining the business at the moment can look forward to a very bright and successful career. There is every prospect of the expenditure on advertising rising rapidly during the next ten years.”

Besides an effort to localize, Eulindra’s win could also be read as the rise of women in Singapore’s advertising industry. In 1966, barely a quarter of the country’s economically active population of over 576,600 was female, and the majority were employed in the community, social and personal services. The advertising industry was no exception, having been long been “exclusively a man’s world” where women were thought to be not as capable as men. This began changing from the 1960s, when an estimated 100 females “held coveted executive positions.” In the 1970s, Eulindra  joined their ranks when she started her design studio, Eulindra Designs, which worked on several significant projects that supported Singapore’s modernization into a global city-state. The studio’s success encouraged the rise of other female-led creative agencies that have become a part of Singapore’s creative community today.

➜ Read the full essay in Women Graphic Designers: Rebalancing the Canon

Capping Modern and Tradition: The “Revolutionary” Roof of the Singapore Indoor Stadium

COURTESY OF KAWAGUCHI & ENGINEERS

Some have likened it to a traditional Japanese hat. Others see the outlines of a Star Destroyer spaceship from the futuristic movie Star Wars. Without a doubt, the roof of the Singapore Indoor Stadium is one of—if not, the most—distinguishing feature that has made it a familiar icon along the Kallang Basin today.

The design first arose almost forty years ago when Japanese architect Professor Kenzo Tange was appointed by the Singapore government to partner Singapore-based RSP Architects Planners & Engineers to help develop an indoor stadium in 1985. He and his team, including Yasuhiro Ishino and Paul Tange, his son, set about coming with a building that would blend in with its waterfront location then shared with the former National Stadium and other attractions such as the Wonderland Amusement Park and the Oasis Theatre Restaurant Niteclub and Cabaret.

➜ Read the full essay in DOCOMOMO Singapore

Drawing Out Architecture

They define the shape of a city. They contain its people and their multitudes of lives too. Buildings are the ubiquitous fabric of our urban condition, yet they somehow remain in the background of the minds of many city dwellers.

Perhaps it is their towering silhouettes that overshadow questions of how they came about. Or their immutable forms that make them seem like a natural phenomenon. But no building is simply a heap of materials, be it stone, concrete, steel or glass. They are assemblies of intentions, resources and beliefs—expressed in a language known as “architecture”.

Architecture may not be able to speak for itself, but the people who created it can. This is how I learned about the buildings by W Architects. As the editor of this exhibition catalogue and the studio’s first-ever monograph published in 2020, I have been privileged to spend hours listening to managing director Mok Wei Wei as he patiently walked me through four decades of the studio’s projects. These recollections at W Architects were frequently interrupted by an excuse to retrieve a drawing, a document, a magazine or newspaper cut-out and even a book from his office to vividly bring home a point.

➜ Read the full essay in To Draw an Idea: Retracing the Designs of William Lim Associates – W Architects