Following its successful return last year, mark your calendar for Singapore Design Week 2023 (SDW 2023) which will take place across the city from 21 September to 1 October. Organised by the DesignSingapore Council (Dsg), the 11-day festival will present an extraordinary showcase of Singapore’s distinctive brand of creativity while celebrating Dsg’s 20th anniversary. To commemorate this milestone, SDW 2023 will adopt Dsg’s motto ‘Better by Design’ as the festival theme for this special edition.

“Singapore design embodies a universal attitude – the desire to always seek to make lives better using design. The motto ‘Better by Design’ reflects DesignSingapore Council’s commitment to champion design and creativity that helps us to meet complex challenges and shape a better future. Marking our 20th anniversary, we adopt this resourceful spirit for Singapore Design Week 2023, coalescing design that is born from a strong sense of creative purpose and crafted for positive impact,” says Madeleine Ho, Festival Director of SDW 2023.

To spotlight this bold purposeful spirit of Singapore design, local design curators Jackson Tan, co-founder and creative director of BLACK; Pann Lim, co-founder and creative director of Kinetic Singapore; Ong Ker Shing and Joshua Comaroff, co-founders of Lekker Architects will bring the Bras Basah.Bugis arts, heritage and design district to life with speciallycommissioned installations that will showcase new ideas, and reflect on key issues of today from innovation to sustainability to inclusivity.

This year, SDW will also introduce Design Districts as a key highlight of the festival. Each district will reflect the unique character and charm of its community, and offer a wealth of immersive design experiences within walking distance. To kick off this new festival offering, SDW 2023 Design Districts will span three key precincts – Bras Basah.Bugis, Marina Bay, and Orchard Road.

Building on the festival’s distinctive and enduring vision, SDW 2023 will continue to explore design through the three defining pillars of Design Futures, Design Marketplace, and Design Impact.

Design Futures focuses on the design of the future and the future of design through the lens of forward-looking Singapore – where a more positive future is prototyped for Singapore and the world. SDW’s Design Futures Forum will take centrestage once again as it explores design-enabled versions of the future together with distinguished designers and thinkers from Singapore and around the world.

Held at the Drama Centre Theatre, this year’s forum focuses on how we can optimise our design efforts today to achieve progression toward better futures in the most critical areas. Marking DesignSingapore Council’s 20th anniversary, and 20 years of design’s evolution and potential as a multiplier for impact across contexts, the forum features a diverse line-up of distinguished speakers from Singapore and around the world, and explores the future of sustainability, emerging technology and care. Come find out how design can be mobilised to shape a more inclusive and meaningful future.

Design Marketplace uncovers lifestyle trends from across the globe, with a spotlight on the fast-growing Southeast Asia region. FIND – Design Fair Asia, Asia’s most anticipated design trade fair, will return to Marina Bay Sands for its second edition from 21 to 23 September 2023.

Following its remarkable debut last year, Dsg will once again present a unique showcase dedicated to Southeast Asian contemporary design at EMERGE @ FIND. Curated by Suzy Annetta of Design Anthology, this year’s edition will feature the curatorial theme of “CRAFT + INDUSTRY: MAN + MACHINE”, with works by over 50 emerging and established designers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Design Impact inspires with innovative and impactful design solutions that tackle society’s biggest questions and create a better world by design. Three key themes – Innovation, Sustainability and Inclusivity – will be celebrated through the immersive festival commission at Bras Basah.Bugis, inviting festival-goers into the Playground of Possibilities by Jackson Tan of BLACK at the National Design Centre; School of Tomorrow by Pann Lim of Kinetic at the Selegie Arts Centre, and FI&LD by Ong Ker-Shing and Joshua Comaroff of Lekker Architects at LASALLE College of the Arts.

The Playground of Possibilities is a specially commissioned exhibition curated by Jackson Tan of BLACK. It brings together 12 design projects from Singapore tackling some of the most pressing challenges we face today with innovative solutions and inspiring provocations. Journey into an immersive playscape of four colourful landscapes – Explore, Empathise, Imagine, and Adapt – with an array of experiential installations. Feel how building facades of tomorrow can naturally cool like the skin of an elephant. Visit a “mini” public housing town designed to be dementia friendly. Meet a friendly robot who serves visitors while keeping them safe, and even play in a kitchen with “smart” ceramic tableware that responds to the human touch.

With a motto proclaiming “For Earth, For Humans, For All”, the School of Tomorrow is a specially commissioned exhibition curated by Pann Lim of Kinetic Singapore, which teaches about sustainability in a fun, immersive way. Through classes covering subjects such as geography, chemistry, social studies, and more, critical environmental issues will be introduced. The curriculum also draws on the expertise of sustainability experts in Singapore and around the world, presenting innovative design solutions that offer new perspectives on challenges as diverse as waste, pollution, food, energy, and climate change.

More importantly, ‘students’ will learn how to put the teachings into practice by incorporating sustainability into our daily lives, for a better future. Spanning all three levels of Selegie Arts Centre, different classrooms touch on various aspects of sustainability via the work of local and international designers, from highlighting the harmful chain effects of plastic in our bodies, to introducing eco-friendly sporting equipment, and even innovative foods, tableware, and edible or sustainably sourced packaging at the ‘canteen’.

FI&LD offers a new philosophy in inclusive design, based in play and improvisation, as a specially commissioned interactive exhibition featuring new concepts and initiatives, alongside functioning prototypes of emerging objects and technologies. The installation will include experiential demonstrations of inclusive design in five areas: The Emotions, Fun, The Senses, Care, and Social Life and Interaction. Exhibition curators Ong Ker-Shing and Joshua Comaroff of Lekker Architects will also unveil a new game that encapsulates this concept, where rules will constantly be changing to adapt to a diversity of players, all in the name of fun and promoting inclusive creative practices.

Inspired by the festival theme and pillars, the local Design Community will also be presenting over 80 ground-up events ranging from exhibitions, talks and panel discussions to workshops, tours and retail pop ups. “Singapore Design Week has always been about showcasing the best of design from Singapore and beyond. SDW 2023 is of special significance as we celebrate DesignSingapore Council’s 20th anniversary and collaborate with our trail-blazing design pioneers and thriving design community to activate design districts at the heart of Singapore. We invite everyone to join us and experience how we can make lives ‘Better by Design’ through SDW 2023!” says Dawn Lim, Executive Director, DesignSingapore Council.

Singapore Design Week 2023 runs from 21st September to 1st October 2023. Full programme lineup and more information available here