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Architects: DP Architects Pte Ltd.
Client: Pico Pro Pte Ltd, on behalf of Urban Development Authority, Singapore
General Contractor: Iwerkz Pte Ltd.
Photographer: Bai Jiwen

Your Singapore is a scenario: it's a floating island in the tropics, once told as villages and swamps. Its green now astounds the world, once sold as jewels of a crown. Its gardens proliferate across islands. Once cold as cities without a soul.

Green is not a pan-tone. Yet its name surpasses the weight of toil, above the success of its own sake. A city in a garden and a garden in a city, under the notion of everything green.

Perhaps green is a paint, for the urban and human. Perhaps democracy is not freedom, but the development of spirit and hope.

My green is a belief, it's the 1970s when the nation acquired land, once peripheral farmland now potted plants. It's the 1980ss when the city garden sprawled; once blistering pavements now shaded corridors. Ιt's the 1990s when community plots bloomed, once grass patches of state-land.

Green in now vogue, once told as profit. Yet Singapore's green wonder has evolved; it is more than a panacea.

A city that seeks to redefine urbanism through the collaborative partnership of all.

Indeed, green has proliferated in various dimensions and scales. Indeed, future has emancipated, in various architectures and tales.

Lying here pondering over the hue of the city's ambience; the cooling warmth of green, synonymous with the urbanscape. "Why Green?" an art/light installation stimulating the expression of a mundane yet ubiquitous object—a flower - that animates the vigor and ties among Singaporeans through the trajectory of time.

Scouring the landscape of Singapore; while embracing her alternating atmospheres—between the scorching heat and cooling indoors—the polarizing sensation became its own agent for review.

The backdrop of unity was in the shade of Green; where the outdoor canopies became my shield; rustling leaves became my music; its foliage, my picture—the difference not as binary as it seemed.

The team's rendition of respect is to be inclusive, humble, and appreciative:

Ensuring accessibility and participation for all walks of life, including non-ambulatory visitors.

The concaved plinth and choreographed flower placements allow visitors to appreciate the beauty and craft of each flower as they wander through space; without the need to bend or stretch.

Being considerate of the urban and surrounding context, the pavilion is externally viewed as a pristine white box that sits unassumingly in front of the cityscape.

Mediating pedestrian flow, minimizing traffic disruption, and ensuring efficiency in construct and dismantlability.

The duty of sensitivity was carried out by:

Its intricate expression of detailed craft, which required the threading of delicate fiber optic cables through the complex forms and slim, hollow stems of the 600 3D printed flowers. Also, each flower is printed with intricate details, exemplifying the complexity and multi-dimensionality of nature.

The curation of a softly lit introverted organ, where the fiber optic cables were branched and routed from four separate drivers, creating glowing pollen strands that illuminate the flowers from within. Moreover, construction of the overhead suspended mirrors within the 80 sqm installation posed a design challenge, which was overcome through innovative detailing using steel frames and marine plywood.

Regulating user's volume and approach, the installation creates a sense of anticipation of what lies within. Upon entry, the sense of anticipation grows as visitors are led through a dim L-angled corridor before space finally blooms into a meadow of glowing flowers, exaggerated by suspended mirrors above.

"Why Green?" looks deeply into various design domains to craft a memorable experience for all.

The 600 3D-printed flowers symbolize the architects' desire to immortalize these subtle, intangible global connections that the country shares with the world.

These flowers represent a timeless catalog of Singapore's past and present while offering a glimpse into what Singapore's digital future might become.