The Robotics Application Centre for Excellence (RACE) is a robotics training facility in Yishun that wants to drive ‘Industry 4.0’ (or smart factories) in Singapore and South East Asia.

It was established by PBA Group (a contract manufacturing, aerospace components distributor, spindle repairs, IT services and robotics company) and university professors to educate corporations and the public in the area of the robotics and automation.

To bring some impact to the message, RACE opened a laboratory-slash-display facility and engaged Ministry of Design (MOD) to create the interior and branding. The logo and the space – which is wrapped in a faceted skin of aluminium tubes – were inspired by the concept of modularity and influenced by aesthetics of precision and dynamism.

The skin of aluminium tubes and LED strip lights deconstructs the ceiling and wall planes into an array of facets. Enclaves for small group work clusters are accompanied by access hatches to the services behind.

MOD’s founder and Design Director Colin Seah says MOD’s aim for the laboratory was to “create an engaging and future-forward spatial experience that denotes the idea of industrial automation and precision.”

We’ll be publishing a more extensive feature on RACE in an upcoming issue of Cubes – look out for it!

Photography by Edward Hendricks, courtesy of MOD