Singapore - a Unesco Creative City of Design

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From Straits Times - Lifestyle, 20 February 2016

 

 

Singapore's efforts to develop design here received recognition from Unesco

Think of the term "City of Design" and sexy cities such as Tokyo, Barcelona or Cape Town, all with famous architectural icons and lively act and fashion scenes, may come to mind.

 

But clean and efficient Singapore? Not such an obvious choice.

 

In December last year, however, the country accepted an accolade from Unesco: It was designated a Creative City of Design.

 

This happened quietly and with little fanfare, in stark contrast to the nation-wide buzz five months earlier in July, when the Botanic Gardens earned the coveted status of Unesco World Heritage Site.

 

What is a Creative City? It is a statues granted by Unesco, an arm of the United Nations aimed at fostering international collaboration usually in "softer" fields such as culture and social sciences, to cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for development.

 

Cities have to apply to Unesco for the status and Unesco evaluates their submissions and decides which makes the cut.

 

Being granted City of Design status puts Singapore in a family of cities called the Unesco Creative Cities Network. It was created in 2004 to foster cooperation among these cities, such as encouraging the sharing of best practices.

 

Apart from Design, the other creative fields in the network are Crafts and Folk Arts, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music.

 

There are 22 Cities of Design, including Beijing in China, Montreal in Canada and Graz in Austria. Besides art-rich Bandung in Indonesia, Singapore is the only other South-east Asian city to be in the club.

 

It is a pretty unexpected appointment since Singapore, which has a prim, no-nonsense international image, is not an obvious candidate for being a design-centric city. But industry insiders say the country is deserving of the designation and hope this will go towards changing the perception of Singapore.

 

Ms Carolyn Kan, 43, designer and founder of jewellery label Carrie K, says: "When I show at international fashion weeks such as in Paris, people are very surprised that Carrie K, is a Singapore is not known for a strong focus on design or a rich creative culture."

 

The creative vibrancy of a city is hard to measure, depending in part on intangibles such as perceived buzz, but what has been certain is that in Singapore, there has been a concerted direction of public resources towards the design sector over the past decade or so.

 

In 2003, Singapore set up the Design Singapore Council, whose efforts include grants to help designs launch their projects overseas and helping businesses integrate design thinking into their operations.

 

In the past few years, Singapore has intensified its efforts to promote design. In 2012, a university dedicated to design, the Singapore University of Design and Technology, was set up and the Singapore Furniture Industries Council launched the first SingaPlural, a design festival.

 

The role that design plays in the economy has also grown. In 2004, the sector's contribution to Singapore's gross domestic product was $1.06 billion. In 2013, the amount doubled to $2.13 billion.

 

Design strategy company Foreign Policy Design Group's creative director Yu Yah-Leng, 43, calls it a "creative renaissance", with rapid development and sophistication in the industry over the past eight to 10 years in terms of supply (artists, creators, designers and processes) and demand (creative buyers).

 

To make Singapore's case to Unesco, the design council prepared for the application a year in advance before submitting it in July last year. The final submission included a letter of endorsement from the Singapore National Commission for Unesco (signed by Mr Lawrence Wong, then Minister for Culture, Community and Youth) and other letters of support from design associations.

 

Mr Jeffrey Ho, 49, the council's executive director, says given that Singapore's design scene had been so strongly developed in the past 10 years and gained momentum especially in the last few years, "it was about time for Singapore to be recognised for its efforts".

 

In fact, he adds that "Singapore was designed from day one", referring to everything from urban planning to public housing policies where different races are brought together rather than live separately in ethnic enclaves.

 

With the Creative Cities designation, Singapore is expected not only to continue developing the design industry, but also to strengthen cooperation with other cities in the network through sharing knowledge and talent exchanges.

 

Singapore designer Hunn Wai, 35, who has presented on international platforms such as the Milan Design Week via his design studio Lanzavecchia + Wai, is looking forward to collaboration opportunities.

 

In the pipeline is an urban baby stroller he designed with engineers in Shenzhen, one of the cities in the network, and a Hong Kong pram producer and distributor.

 

"The Unesco designation is an opportunity to step beyond our shores. Designers need to reach out to the region. The whole of Asean is our playground," he says.

 

While the City of Design accolade is a boost for Singapore's design scene, it could take some time for Singaporeans to embrace the implications.

 

The Design Business Chamber of Singapore's president Tai Lee Siang, 52, says there is "still some way to go". "It will be fantastic when all our citizens can understand and embrace design in all things in life," he adds, the way the people in Japan and Italy do.

 

Mr Ho adds that Singaporeans can also expect design to feature even more strongly in their lives, with design awareness possibly being taught in primary and secondary schools in future. More details will be revealed later this year.

 

Ultimately, the hope is to see Singapore move towards becoming "a nation of design thinkers" and for design here continue to affect lives, says Mr Ho.

 

"It's going to be exciting."

 

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There are 22 designated Cities of Design, eight of which are from Asia.

 

New members

1. Singapore (2015)

2. Bandung, Indonesia (2015)

3, Budapest, Hungary (2015)

4. Detroit, the United States (2015)

5. Kaunas, Lithuania (2015)

6. Puebla, Mexico (2015)

 

Current members

1. Beijing, China (2012)

2. Berlin, Germany (2005)

3. Bilbao, Spain (2014)

4. Buenos Aires, Argentina (2005)

5. Curitiba, Brazil (2014)

6. Dundee, Scotland (2014)

7. Graz, Austria (2011)

8. Helsinki, Finland (2014)

9. Kobe, Japan (2008)

10. Montreal, Canada (2006)

11. Nagoya, Japan (2008)

12. Saint-Etienne, France (2010)

13. Seoul, South Korea (2010)

14. Shanghai, China (2010)

15. Shenzhen, China (2008)

16, Turin, Italy (2014)

 

 

 

 

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From Straits Times - Lifestyle, 20 February 2016

 

 

10 things that make Singapore a city of design

Cities have to apply to Unesco for the status and Unesco evaluates their submissions and decides which makes the cut.

Here are 10 things that make Singapore a city of design:

 

1 PUBLIC SERVICES

The Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Yishun showcases how design thinking goes into Singapore's hospitals and other public services.

 

Its C-class wards, which are not air-conditioned, are housed in the 10-storey Lake Tower next to Yishun Park. This block is farthest from the roads and surrounding housing estates, so noise levels are lower.

 

Patients are also treated to landscape views as the block faces the lake and surrounding greenery.

 

Design in public services is an ongoing effort, says the DesignSingapore Council.

 

It is working with the Ministry of Health's Ageing Planning Office, stakeholders and other service providers to provide designing services, programmes and experiences for the elderly.

 

2 EVERYDAY LIFE

The ubiquitous Unica Plastic Stool is a familiar sight in coffee shops here.

 

Stackable, lightweight and durable, it was designed in the 1990s by Mr Chew Moh-Jin and has become an unlikely symbol of Singapore's heartland.

 

A key example of design that has become a part of everyday life here, the stool comes in colours such as red and white.

 

Many think the hole in the centre of the stool was designed to enable the user to carry it easily but, in fact, it is to allow for a chain to be put through to secure the stools when they are stacked up.

 

3 FASHION

Designer Alfie Leong, who received the President's Design Award - Designer of the Year 2013 for his portfolio of works, has gone beyond fashion design to found multi-label collective Workshop Element, which also houses the W.E. cafe

 

Other home-grown designers have found success in Singapore too, especially in recent years.

 

As testament to the popularity of their designs, the 2014 edition of the Audi Fashion Festival - now named Singapore Fashion Week - focused on home-grown designers for the first time in its history. The event's objective was to internationalise Singapore and regional designers.

 

Whereas international names used to dominate the show schedule, the 2014 edition saw five Singapore labels - Ashley Isham, Exhibit, Hansel, One Shunmugam and Saturday - staging their own shows.

 

4 OVERSEAS COLLABORATIONS

Singaporean designer Hunn Wai and Italian Francesca Lanzavecchia's Fool's Gold collection features a set of cupboards made of galvanised steel sheets.

 

Mr Wai represents Singapore designers who have found success here and abroad. His six-year-old outfit, Lanzavecchia + Wai, has done work for brands such as Italian design house Cappellini and German carmaker Mercedes-Benz. In 2014, it won Young Design Talent of the Year at the Elle Decor International Design Awards.

 

5 ATTRACTIVE PUBLIC HOUSING

Singapore's tallest HDB project, the 1,800-unit Pinnacle@Duxton, has sweeping views, with its 50-storey towers, sky bridges, an outdoor gym and jogging track. It is an example of public housing with cutting-edge design features and shows how the home-ownership scheme here has not withstood the test of time, but has also undergone aesthetic transformaion.

 

Other examples of attractive public housing projects include The Peak in Toa Payoh and City View@Boon Keng.

 

6 THE SINGAPORE GIRL

The Singapore Girl is an icon and central branding figure of Singapore Airlines, the flag carrier of Singapore and a leading international travel brand. She represents how an identity can be long-lasting with help of good design.

 

Her distinctive sarong kebaya uniform, designed by French designer Pierre Balmain and first unveiled in 1968 as the stewardess' uniform for Malaysia-Singapore Airline, features a special batik design with multi-coloured flowers.

 

In 1972, advertising agency Batey Ads introduced the "Singapore Girl" campaign, which boosted the airline's profile among air travellers and created an enduring symbol of grace, hospitality and exemplary service standards.

 

7 URBAN PLANNING

Residents living around the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park get to enjoy nature at their doorstep. The park represents innovative design in Singapore's urban planning, in spite of space constraints.

 

Under national water agency PUB's Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters programme, the park's old concrete monsoon drainwas deconcretised and naturalised into a river with lush banks of wildflowers.

 

The Bishan and Ang Mo Kio HDB housing estates also represent how amenities are located a short distance away from the flats.

 

According to the Land Transport Master Plan 2013, eight in 10 homes islandwide will be within a 10-minute walk of a train station by 2030.

 

8 A DEDICATED RESOURCE HUB

Established in 2014, the National Design Cenre is the nexus for all things design. This is where designers and businesses congregate to exchange ideas, conduct business, use its facilities  and obtain assistance from the DesignSingapore Council.

 

9 INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISABLE DESIGN

In 1997, global trade watchdog World Trade Organization adopted a Singapore-designed logo as its official identity. Resembling a spinning globe, the logo was designed by Su Yeang Design, now called LloydNorthover Yeang. It emerged as a winning design from more than 200 entries in an international logo design competition in 1996.

 

10 PRODUCTS

Initiated by lifestyle store Supermama, the Singapore Icons Studio Project brought together five other Singapore designers to create a series of quintessentially Singaporean images for crockery made by Japanese company Kihara. Designers show how even the kitschiest piece of tourist tat can be made covetable, resulting in the growing popularity of designed-in-Singapore products.