DESIGN CENTRE, SINGAPORE

Abstract

Singapore has evolved from an entrepot port into an international hub for conference and industry. Her manufacturing is almost entirely export oriented. So are her services which include finance, infrastructural expertise and information technology. The government's strategy is to develop Singapore into a global centre for business. In the manufacturing sector, the focus is on product design to provide that competitive edge as Singapore is no longer a low cost country. Unlike the advance of industrialised countries, which have reached a stage where the production of well designed products is taken for granted, Singapore has still to actively encourage manufacturers to invest time and money to upgrade their product design. Thus Singapore has to have its own design centre to promote design awareness and to coordinate design development activities as well as to provide design consultancy services. All these will have to be undertaken as a national endeavour to have the desired impact. The purpose of this thesis is to study the issues that will contribute to the setting up of the first building designed specifically as a Design Centre. The Design Centre's main aim is to actively promote design in Singapore and to a world audience. The Design Centre will provide a fixed point of focus of reference by which activities in design innovation may circulate. The present state of design activities in Singapore is loosely defined and sporadic, having no organised schedule or venue. The centre will help contain and control these activities into a more unified entity. It will become the container for design activities. The Design Centre is a place for interactions at all levels. It coaxes the public into an exploration of the aesthetic aspect of design objects, and brings this value into greater significance through the dialogue between the popular culture of the centre, its relationship to the Experimental Arts Centro and the Design Institute, and the elitist culture embodied in the formal galleries of the National Museum, the People's Art Gallery and the Fine Arts Gallery This precinct thus provides an exciting and dynamic medium for exploring the new arts of the 20th and the 21st century. It will form the urban node which will attribute its vibrance to the innovative activities that take place. The centre itself will provide a place to promote the lesser celebrated designer and his works. It will become a home which many fledgling designers need to get a foothold. It is a place where designers meet, work and relax. And it provides an avenue for them to display and sell their works. The centre allows one to experience the process of design, from the conceptual stage to the finished products. It will thus serve as an educational and informative tool, reaching out not only to the industrialist but also to the public. The effectiveness of the Design Centre stems from an understanding of it contents 'Design’ is not only about technology and commerce but also incorporates art and a 'human component'. Aesthetics. which encompasses the last two, distinguishes 'design' from engineering. The architecture of 'design’ would then seem appropriate in exploring the issues of this thesis. Issues: 1. Architecture is a reflection of the values of the society that procured its creation. It is also a signature of its time. 2. Responding by design to climatic constraints is the main requirement of an intelligent tropical building.