This year’s edition is curated by Formwerkz Architects. “Craft is inextricably linked to the tradition of city-building. As an intrinsic part of architecture, we observe it in the way architects craft materials, space and form, translating the raw into spatial realities that interpret and manifest the genius loci of a place,” says Alan Tay, Festival Director of Archifest 2019 and Founder of Formwerkz Architects.
“Through the festival, we pay homage to the talented craftsmen and allow visitors a behind-the-scenes peek into the creative process and laborious work that go into designing the formation of our physical urban realities, and the betterment of lives,” Tay adds.
There will not be a festival pavilion this year. The URA Centre will host the festival’s anchor exhibitions and its 40-odd activities will be spread in several locations to engage the public, design fraternity, agencies and academics to explore the understanding of craft.
Don’t know where to start? Here are 10 events you don’t want to miss.
1. Making Architecture
2. Crafting Sound
Organised by SUTD at The Projector, Crafting Sound is a showcase of Computable Atmospheres studio at SUTD that explore the oft-neglected aural dimension of spaces, and the use of VR technology and simulation techniques to aid in crafting soundscapes.
The case study in this assignment is the Golden Mile Tower. The exhibits propose design interventions to transform its future uses. Crafting Sound will be held at The Projector during the Archifest, and open from 5 to 9 pm daily.
3. Journey
“Asian architecture is often deemed irrelevant to the predominant architectural history and narrative of the Western world. This palpable relegation to the sidelines launched a 30-year journey by Asian architects of AA Asia to situate and establish their own Asian narratives,” posits Zarch Collaboratives, the organiser of architectural exhibition Journey.
As half of the new global cities in the twenty-first century will be situated in Asia, it is crucial that the discourse of Asian architecture finds its voice in the narrative of architecture and urbanism today. Journey will attempt to display this Asian narrative.
The exhibition will run from 3 October to 9 October 2019 from 9 am to 5 pm (with a book launch on Saturday, 5 October and talk sessions on Saturday, 12 and 19 October) at Zarch Collaboratives’ exhibition space at #03-00 Golden MileTower. Admission is free.
4. Digital Craft
5. Disruptive Digital Craft
The Disruptive Digital Craft exhibition will present two architecture research projects from SUTD that explore digital craft in the making of our built environment. Aided by state-of-the-art facilities and a multidisciplinary research ethos at SUTD, the two projects: Biological Materials & Digital Manufacturing and Tensegrity Membrane Shells, mix futuristic aspirations and technology with research.
The exhibition will run at the URA Centre from 27 September to 9 October from am to 7 pm daily. Admission is free.
6. Indonesian Architecture At The Crossroad of Making: A Roundtable Discussion
How about the culture of making in architecture outside of Singapore? Take a peek at Indonesia’s. The word ‘making’ in Indonesian architecture lexicon is synonymous with traditional crafts and associated with words like handmade, slow-made and artisanal– terms that are the seeming opposite of what modernity requires: efficiency, digitisation, and mass-scaling.
How do architects respond and wrestle with the tension between the two? Is there a happy middle ground, and if so, what does that look like? Organised by the Institute of Indonesian Architects, Singapore Chapter, this roundtable discussion aims to cast light on the creative tensions involved in craft-making with emerging Indonesian makers and architects. Featuring Indonesian practitioners Eugene Kosgoron of Formwerkz, Rafael Miranti Architects, and Lim Masulin of BYO Living.
The discussion will be held on Saturday, 28 September, 10 am to 1 pm at the URA. Admission is free with registration.
7. Machining Touch: Artisans & Fabricators
Traditional notions of craft imply an intimate connection between the hand of the artisan and the delight we feel when using their handmade objects. Yet technological advances are undeniably reshaping the contemporary design landscape. Is substituting the human touch with robotic tools a loss of craft?
Exhibition curators Razvan Ghilic-Micu, Jia Xin Chum and Ronald Lim invite experts who have honed their skills in making objects that are meant to be touched and spaces that are crafted with machined precision, to discuss challenges and innovations in the realm of design.
The discussion will be held on Saturday, 28 September, from 2:30 to 5:30 pm at the URA. Admission is free with registration.
8. Mindful Spatial Experiencing
9. Film Screenings At The Projector
The Projector will be returning as a partner of this year’s Archifest with three films: Bauhaus Spirit: 100 years of Bauhaus, Mcqueen, and Tadao Ando: From Emptiness to Infinity.
Bauhaus Spirit celebrates a century of the radical artistic utopia that is Bauhaus, and traces the movement’s influence on everyone from Apple designers to architecture’s avant-garde.
Mcqueen is a portrait of British fashion designer Alexander McQueen that combines interviews with his closest friends and family, recovered archives, exquisite visuals and music while Tadao Ando offers behind-the-scene look into the work and processes of Japan’s ‘Master of Minimalism’ Tadao Ando.
Visit theprojector.sg for tickets and schedules.
10. Architours
Archifest’s signature event Architours is slated to come back for the thirteenth time, bringing registered visitors to selected projects that embody craftsmanship in various ways: the artisanal in an age of mechanical replication, digital making as enabled by technology, and the patina that good craftsmanship allows to form over time.
There will be eight timeslots in total, two per day on 28 and 29 September and 5 and 6 October 2019. Tickets are 60 SGD for the general public and 50 SGD for students. Registration to open soon at archifest.sg.
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