SingaPlural was launched last year in a bid to promote greater public engagement with design.

*SCAPE venue

Held again this year in conjunction with the International Furniture Fair Singapore (IFFS), SingaPlural 2013 – Celebrating Design (8 – 15 March) returns as a bigger and more diverse show with 350 installations by both local and international creatives across different design disciplines.

FDA 2013 Winner (Designer Category): The Hive by Piotr Saladra is a handcrafted pouf made out of more than 1,600 crocheted linen shapes

The Artichoke by FDA winner Piotr Saladra follows the same idea; it’s made of 156 crocheted polyester shapes

The media were invited to a preview last Friday. We began at the *SCAPE Warehouse in Orchard Road, which serves as the epicentre for SingaPlural. Highlights included the Furniture Design Award (FDA) 20th anniversary showcase of past winners, and the works of this year’s finalists as well as winner (Designer Category) Piotr Saladra of Poland.

A collaboration between Supermama and Japanese ceramic company Kihara

Also at *SCAPE, Supermama, in collaboration with Japanese ceramic company Kihara showed a lovely new collection of ceramic ware that explored ’new icons of Singapore’, and design students from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and National University of Singapore both held significant booth space out front.

Presentation by NAFA students at *SCAPE

We then took a short journey down to the Handy Road Open Space to view installations by Singaporean creatives following the theme “Design Larger Than Life”.

This “Design Larger Than Life” installation by Makemei features a phone-charging device

The bench project “30 Lifestories”

While there, we also took the opportunity to rest our feet on benches made out of seating planks that had been salvaged from the former National Stadium – it’s a project called “30 Lifestories” involving designers, artists and members of the public (see our story here).

In “Playspots”, public spaces become pockets of inspiration

’Design Larger Than Life” by Didier Ng

Then it was a very short walk to Dhoby Ghaut Green to see how a busy commuter route had been transformed into a colourful playground of interactive and visual art installations courtesy of the Singapore Institute of Landscape Architects and Singapore Institute of Planners.

“30 Lifestories” bench projects by Nathan Yong (left) and Ministry of Design (right)

More bench installations dotted the path down to Park Mall – our last stop for the day.

“30 Lifestories” bench project by Look Architects

Over at Park Mall, five retailers had collaborated with design students to reinvent their showrooms – all in a span of two days. We were there just in time to hear the results of the “48 Hours Challenge”, which went to Air Division and the students from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

The winner of the “48 Hours Challenge”

Beyond the exhibits, this year’s SingaPlural also involved a long list of design forums and talks (9 – 12 March). Speakers included Dutch designer Ineke Hans, Voon Wong of VW+BS, Studio Juju and more.

Apart from the city locations, several major segments of SingaPlural were held at the IFFS fairground from 9 – 12 March. For that story, catch our IFFS report, out soon.