Running from Sept 25 to Oct 31, the 2020 edition of Archifest, the annual celebration of architecture organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) will include more than 100 programmes.
Archifest 2020 is a hybrid of digital and live events, taking the theme of Architecture Saving Our World, which shines the spotlight on the impact and positive change that architecture can have in our current climate.
The programmes includes pop-up experiences that reimagine the way we live, virtual exhibitions, forums, film screenings, workshops and an immersive virtual Pavilion.
Don’t know where to start? Here are 10 of our picks.
This article first appeared in Home & Decor.
The Projector presents an array of Archi-themed films showing how architecture, design, and planning affects more than just where we live or work, but also our social construct and sense of community. These visually stunning films reminding us to build each other up, not tear each other down.
Four films below will be shown at The Projector while another three is available for digital rental on The Projector Plus.
Columbus
When a renowned architecture scholar falls suddenly ill during a speaking tour, his son Jin (John Cho) finds himself stranded in Columbus, Indiana, a small Midwestern city celebrated for its many significant modernist buildings. Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), a young architecture enthusiast who works at the local library.
The World Before Your Feet
For the past six years, Matt Green has made it his mission to walk all 8,000 miles of roads and paths in New York City–A cultural mosaic rich with stories. From the barbershops of the Bronx to the heart of Times Square, Matt amasses a surprisingly detailed knowledge of New York’s history and learns about his community in a wholly personal way.
Talking About Trees
This documentary focuses on four directors; none who have worked properly since a military coup in 1989 triggered the collapse of Sudan’s film industry. Now, they try to revive an outdoor movie theater, drawing attention to Sudanese film history lost over decades of Islamist censorship and inefficient bureaucracy– but of course, not without resistance.
Rediscovery (Genopdagelsen)
What happens if you let a group of children loose on an empty construction site in Copenhagen? These children have 10 weeks to create what they think is an ideal society from scratch–What changes will children make with their own future in mind?
As part of the festival’s hybrid edition, the Archifest Pavilion has gone virtual. Embracing their roles as “form-makers”, ADDP and OWIU Design will be showcasing their imagination by creating the ideal form and structure of the Pavilion online, in the absence of any economic or environmental restrictions.
Explore the pavilion through a virtual tour where you can examine the structure and material and soak on the contemplative ambience from the comfort of your home here.
Join a digital workshop centred on using Lego bricks to create iconic architectural or cultural symbols that represent the Singapore identity. Participants will be taught on how to use the software to create virtual Lego models, following which they will be given some time to independently work on a model of their choosing.
Studio 2.0 is a free software provided by Bricklink and owned by Lego. It has several built-in functionalities (such as creating submodels, collating part and price list, and rendering 3D images). The e-workshop link that will be sent to your email 10 minutes before the start of the workshop.
Tickets are priced at $38 per person. Sale of tickets will close at midnight on the day of the scheduled workshop or until tickets are sold out.
Join the community gardening session on Tuesdays and Saturdays morning to learn about our intentions for this Biodiverse Edible Garden at Jurong Central Park. During your visit, the gardeners will be happy to share about the plants they’re growing there, and the insights, knowledge, and community that has evolved in the process of building this garden.
This event has a limited capacity with safe distancing in place. Get free tickets here.
The Open Call for Doodle Art was conducted between June 25 and August 25, where art enthusiasts of all walks of life could contribute a black and white doodle of what the theme “Architecture Saving Our World” meant to them. Shortlisted artworks will be showcased virtually through Singapore Archifest 2020 website and physically at Central Public Library.
Human bodies, the Georgia dome and the Singapore flyer all benefit from the flexibility, toughness, and efficiency of tensegrity structures. Made from a combination of the words tension and integrity, the word tensegrity is used to describe structures that are primarily supported by continuous tension systems with discrete or disconnected rigid elements.
In architecture, tensegrity offers sculptural effects like those seen in Kenneth Snelson’s sculptures and even the “floating table” that has recently gone viral online. This hands-on workshop will explore new systems of tensegrity allowing participants to get some experience building architectural model kits and manipulating a four metre diameter tensegrity prototype.
This event has a limited capacity with safe distancing in place. Tickets are priced at $33 per person.
Green Agora is a pavilion for community dialogue on nature, food and farming. Conceived as a living structure by Spatial Anatomy and The Shelter Company, the pavilion allows native plants to grow on its modular aluminium structure and steel meshes. Combining experimentation in construction and growing techniques, Green Agora embodies a new type of nature-oriented public space.
Happening on Sept 27 and Oct 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31, from 9am to 10.30am. Register through Whatsapp here.
In collaboration with international architectural firm Wy-To and School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Singapore Polytechnic, the workshop aims to tackle a little known issue of homelessness and the possibility of creating a sustainable lightweight and transportable shelter. In a recent study by Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, it was found that Chinatown has the highest number of homeless people in Singapore.
This workshop will tap on Wy-To’s vast experience to develop a design prototype to help the less fortunate reintegrate back to their community through spatial assimilation and programmatic empowerment in a public housing community in Chinatown.
Happening on Oct 10, 17, 24, and 31, from 9am to 10.30am. Register through Whatsapp here.
Dynamic Assemblies Lab (DAL) presents three projects made possible by computer numerical control (CNC) knitting. Knit Tensegrity Shell, Knit Patterned Flow Pavilion and Living Forms explore three strategies for employing bespoke knitted membranes for architectural assemblies
Knit Tensegrity Shell uses a continuous elastic membrane that can be tensioned to form a shell-like structure; Knit Patterned Flow has discrete textile panels with different elasticities to interact with elastic rods; Living Forms adopts the knit as a volumetric permeable membrane to bind with cultivated mycelium as a bio-composite.
Knit Tensegrity Shell and Living Forms will be exhibited at Edible Garden City while Knit Patterned Flow Pavilion will be exhibited at Singapore University of Technology and Design ( SUTD) in the open arena between D Star Cafe & DBS.
Origanised by SUTDio, this course aims to teach the basic principles of growing using hydroponics at home. The organizer will go through the fundamentals of hydroponics as a growing method and allow participants to practice what they learnt by having their very own set. This course will be conducted at Tzu Chi Humanistic Youth Centre. You can take your hydroponic kit home.
This event has a limited capacity with safe distancing in place. Ticket is priced at $45 per person; get yours here.