Singapore Design Week: 60 years of nation building
In the past decade, Singapore quietly emerged as Asia’s newest, most outward-looking design capital, thanks in part to Singapore Design Week (SDW). Organised by DesignSingapore Council and launched in 2014, SDW has evolved into an innovative global festival that showcases fresh design thinking from new and established talents.
This year’s SDW coincided with the 60th anniversary of Singapore’s independence. The anchor theme was “Nation by Design”, a celebration of how designers and design thinking have transformed a modest trading outpost into one of the world’s most liveable cities – and how urban centres around the world can learn from Singapore’s approach.
Design is a fitting lens through which to learn more about Singapore: few other countries have been so deliberately designed, from the innovative land reclamation campaigns that have allowed communities to thrive, to the complex network of housing blocks and tree-lined parks, all meticulously devised by Asia’s foremost urban planners. These design-led improvements have improved the health, wellbeing and quality of life for Singapore’s residents and led to the nation being named a Blue Zone 2.0 in recognition of its world-leading life expectancy rates.
With the National Design Centre as its base, SDW attracts tens of thousands of annual visitors. The programming spans pop-ups, workshops and exhibits in arts and culture institutions, such as the National Museum of Singapore, Victoria Theatre and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, as well as the shopfronts of independent design brands including Sojao in Joo Chiat. A walking tour provides further encouragement to explore some of the highlights of Singapore’s Unesco Creative City of Design status.
Every edition of SDW has scaled up in ambition and range as participating designers, artists and thought leaders tackle what it means to implement design as a policy, philosophy or way of life. Pressing global issues are at the forefront of the programming, from sustainability to food security. SDW’s three key pillars – Design Futures, Design Marketplace and Design Impact – function as conversation starters for a rich tapestry of topics. Design Futures asks what’s next in technology and healthcare, providing insight into cutting-edge design innovation. Design Marketplace is a platform for Asia’s most promising makers and entrepreneurs in furniture, interiors and more. Design Impact delves into how designers are addressing front-page issues of today’s society. There are few places better designed for such an event.
Q&A
Jody Teo
Festival director, Singapore Design Week 2025
Tell us more about the most recent SDW theme.
Nation by Design is not only a tribute to Singapore’s 60th year of independence, it is also a celebration of the pivotal role design has played in shaping our nation’s history and as we look ahead. The theme is a reference to a quote from senior minister Lee Hsien Loong in 2018: “Singapore is a nation by design. Nothing we have today is natural or happened by itself. Somebody thought about it, made it happen.”
What does Singapore offer as a design hub?
Singapore is unique. We are a prototyping hub that is small enough to test bold ideas quickly but globally connected enough to scale what works. Our open economy, compactness, location and geography are all factors that make Singapore an excellent testbed to design for the issues the world is facing today, from mitigating the effects of climate change to catering for an ageing population. This stems from our history as an improbable nation with no natural resources. We have since pioneered circularity in our water system and we have designed world-class public housing, such as The Pinnacle@Duxton, to accommodate our population comfortably despite our limited land mass. These are design solutions that we can share with the world.
What challenges face the design industry today?
In a world that is becoming increasingly complex, the challenge, and perhaps opportunity, for designers and the design industry is to how to stay relevant – whether that is leveraging the latest technology to innovate, seeking out new interdisciplinary collaborations, and expanding their skill sets and capabilities to thrive in the new economy. Designers should always have a seat at the table – and with that comes the opportunity to drive change together.
Design first
As communities and governments around the world grapple with the various impacts of climate change, Singapore’s design-led approach to governance and planning offers a compelling and instructive case study.
SDW’s programming reflects Singapore’s status as not only a global design hub but also a laboratory for urban futures. Many of the designers featured in SDW approach their work with sustainability top of mind, arriving armed with provocative ideas and sharp questions about how societies can find design solutions in the simplest things.
Studio Carolien Niebling’s recent SDW exhibition, The Sausage of the Future: Singapore Edition, for example, playfully explored food sustainability through the humble sausage. Concepts using local ingredients were developed by Singapore chefs and producers including Huber’s Butchery.
Other designers used different SDW programmes as an opportunity to experiment with reusable and repurposed objects. At the National Museum of Singapore, the Future Impact 3: DESIGN NATION showcase featured Singaporean brand Supermama’s distinctive “Kintsugi 2.0” plates, made by repurposing broken or discarded ceramic with the help of 3D-printed resin, or the chairs of emerging designer Wong Eng Geng, constructed entirely from scavenged materials. Other events such as Womb Studio’s The Artisan’s Zero-Waste Journey gave insight into every stage of the fashion movement’s creative process, from pattern-making to the finished capsule collection on the rack.
SDW has also approached sustainability via a wider lens, with exhibitions on rising sea levels and their impact on coastal resilience, as well as how design can further biodiversity, ecosystem regeneration and urban farming. Architecture, sports infrastructure, digital design, workplaces and even intellectual property are just some of the fields in which the concerns and possibilities of sustainable design are explored with intelligence and curiosity.
Future worlds
By engaging with design’s transformative ability to shape our world for the better, SDW’s Design Futures typifies Singapore’s forward-looking spirit.
Singapore’s astonishing progress has informed the focus on Design Futures in the festival. Academics and institutions from Asia and beyond have joined Singaporean creatives to host talks, exhibitions and workshops as part of SDW’s line-up. Using methods and media that balance the analogue with the cutting edge, a galaxy of possible futures are imagined and traversed on both a regional and global scale.
The topics raised can approach science fiction: how can ecocentric design support non-human life on our shared planet? What food might we eat in the distant future? And what forms of transport might we take? Design Futures Forum invites the most exciting and imaginative practitioners to question what lies ahead.
In Singapore, the future is alive with possibilities, aided by a forward-thinking approach to design. Such developments have transformed daily life in so many ways, from large-scale infrastructure such as the highly efficient Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system to beloved Singaporean quirks like the colourful melamine plates, bowls and utensils of the country’s hawker centres. By establishing this fertile environment, Singapore has emerged as a compelling benchmark for the future of global cities.
sdw.sg, nationbydesign.sg
