As Singapore turns 60, the nation is using design not just to look back at its remarkable journey but also to imagine the road ahead. Singapore Design Week (SDW) 2025 returns this September with the theme “Nation by Design”, a festival that celebrates how design has shaped the country while asking bold questions about its future.

From urgent conversations on climate change and technology, to speculative visions of tomorrow’s cities, to edible explorations of food security, this year’s line-up highlights design’s role in tackling some of the world’s most complex challenges.

At the heart of SDW is the Design Futures Forum (17 September, Victoria Theatre), an annual gathering of leading voices in design, architecture, technology, and social innovation. Now in its third edition, the forum takes on the theme “Braving Complexities”, reflecting the messy, interconnected issues that designers increasingly have to navigate.

Curated by Aric Chen (Director, Zaha Hadid Foundation) and Ong Ker-Shing (Co-founder, Lekker Architects), the programme will dig into topics such as sustainable design, climate resilience, healthcare innovation, and the ethics of emerging technologies.

Speakers include: Liam Young, filmmaker known for speculative works addressing environmental collapse; Theodoric Chew, founder of mental health start-up Intellect; Dr Ayesha Khanna, AI entrepreneur and education advocate; Thomas Thwaites, author of The Toaster Project; Alice Bucknell, artist using video games to imagine post-human futures; and Adi Reza, biotech innovator and Earthshot Prize 2024 finalist.

The forum also promises immersive experiences curated by local agency OuterEdit, where even the food, co-created with agri-tech partners like Singrow and Fogo Fungi, will extend the conversation on sustainability. As Ong notes, “Design thrives in complexity. When we embrace its messiness, designers become vital players in uncovering challenges and shaping innovations for our future.”

On 13 September, ArtScience Museum opens Another World is Possible, a major exhibition co-curated with filmmaker Liam Young. Through seven visually arresting chapters, the show invites visitors to imagine alternative futures that are more equitable, resilient, and sustainable.

The exhibition gathers nearly 100 works from around 40 contributors, spanning architecture, design, cinema, and literature. Highlights include WOHA’s vertical green cities, Finbarr Fallon’s reimagined Singapore Flyer, and new projects from 16 Singapore-based practitioners who are shaping the city’s future landscape. The exhibition runs till February 2026

“As Singapore celebrates SG60, this exhibition offers a timely reminder that other futures are possible,” says Honor Harger, Vice President of ArtScience Museum. “It’s an invitation to look ahead with imagination, resolve, and optimism.”

Food takes centre stage in Sausage of the Future: Singapore Edition, a playful yet thought-provoking showcase by Swiss food designer Carolien Niebling. Making its Asian debut, the exhibition reimagines the humble sausage as a vehicle to explore food security, biodiversity, and sustainability.

Working with local partners such as Huber’s Butchery, The Meatery, and chef-activist Nithiya Laila, Niebling has developed four new sausage concepts inspired by Singaporean ingredients and challenges. Visitors will not only see her sculptural food models but also get the chance to taste the creations at SDW’s Friday Late event on 12 September at NAFA.

“The sausage is one of mankind’s earliest designed foods,” Niebling explains. “By reinventing it with Singapore’s culinary culture in mind, we hope to spark conversations about how food can be both innovative and sustainable.”

How does a nation without natural resources survive, thrive, and even reinvent itself? The Unnatural History Museum of Singapore takes this question as its starting point, transforming the atrium of the National Design Centre into a “museum of the unexpected.” Curated by Kinetic Singapore and commissioned by DesignSingapore Council, the exhibition reframes Singapore’s unconventional story as one uniquely shaped by design. Visitors will encounter hybrid flora and robotic fauna, unusual habitats, and reimagined landscapes, all displayed as though they were historical artefacts.

Highlights include a six-metre “fossil” of the Merlion, animal droids in diorama sets, geological samples made of new materials, specimen dishes presenting alternative foods, and landscape paintings with man-made twists. Beyond quirky curiosities, the showcase is a reminder that creativity and design have always underpinned Singapore’s progress, and it invites reflection on how they will continue to guide the nation’s future.

At Singapore Science Park, the theme of REINVENTION underscores the idea that innovation is not a one-off breakthrough, but an ongoing, adaptive process. For Singapore Design Week 2025, the district comes alive with programmes spanning showcases, industry activations, design interventions, and talks. Together, these activities highlight how science, technology, and design are not isolated domains but interconnected forces shaping the future of cities, industries, and communities.

REINVENTION encourages visitors to think about the convergences that define our world today, where nature meets machine, tradition meets innovation, and technology meets community. In this shared space, reinvention becomes a collective act, reminding us that everyone has a role to play in designing the future.

Orchard Road transforms into the Orchard Design District (ODD), guided by the concept of Open Design Dialogue, with the belief that design begins with conversation. Through exhibitions, installations, workshops, and brand collaborations, ODD invites the public, especially young people, to explore the festival theme Nation by Design and consider how dialogue can shape future narratives.

The district’s Design Pavilion at *SCAPE – Playspace, conceptualised by Studio Grain with collaborators including This Humid House and BYO Living, will serve as the central hub for talks, showcases, and performances on design’s role in everyday life. Elsewhere, the New Orchard exhibition reimagines the Orchard–Somerset area through the lens of five design collectives, while Hoop Bench, an urban furniture installation by Studio Juju, encourages visitors to pause and connect in public space.

Retail spaces also become part of the conversation through Design In Situ, where brands such as Aesop, MUJI, Moleskine, and Beyond The Vines partner with designers for experimental in-store activations. Meanwhile, the OFFSITE Creators Market at *SCAPE brings together independent makers, workshops, food, and live music, with special Creative Dialogue Coins distributed on 19–20 September to spark playful exchanges.

At Marina Central, design takes on a deeply human dimension with the programme Design for Care, curated by Randy Chan of Zarch Collaboratives. Rooted in the idea that care is a shared act between people, communities, and the environment, where the district will host ten showcases that explore care as a spatial, social, and environmental design practice. From material choices to spaces that encourage rest and interaction, the activations ask visitors to consider what a more caring way forward might look like.

Alongside exhibitions, the district will feature talks, wellness workshops, and a lively weekend plant market. Music takes the spotlight too, with DISTRICT M, a two-day festival presenting 16 international and local acts along with fringe activities. In transforming into a living expression of empathy and togetherness, Marina Central shows how design can help us not just occupy spaces, but share them with intention.

Beyond the headline events, the festival’s Design Community programme spreads across the city with open studios, workshops, and special gatherings. Highlights include: Futures Feast by design studio Chemistry, an immersive dining experience where each course tells a story about Singapore’s future; Equitech Collective, a regional convening on how hyperlocal design can create more equitable futures; and Grab’s open house, exploring how design shapes innovation within one of Southeast Asia’s most influential tech companies.

These events reflect the festival’s ethos that design is not just about objects or aesthetics, but about systems, experiences, and collective futures. As Dawn Lim, Executive Director of DesignSingapore Council, puts it: “Singapore has always been forward-looking. In just six decades, we dared to imagine a different future and boldly executed it. At our festival, we carry this same conviction: to explore what’s next, and design futures that are not only visionary, but also deeply human. From the Design Futures Forum to the myriad Design Community events, the programming this year will also offer fresh perspectives on how, through design, we can realise futures that are better, fairer, and more hopeful for everyone.”

Said Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth and Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling at the opening of SDW: “Design has powered Singapore’s progress for six decades, helping us overcome challenges and constraints to build the nation we see today. As we celebrate SG60, Singapore Design Week 2025 reminds us why we are truly a nation by design.”

“As former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong once said, ‘Design is a core element of our nation-building. Somebody thought about it, made it happen.’ That spirit of imagination and ingenuity is what has brought us here, and it is what will take us forward. With the Design Masterplan 2035, we invite all Singaporeans, businesses, and communities to share your aspirations and ideas, so that design can drive our nation’s progress for the next 60 years. Together, let us continue to push the boundaries of creativity, and build a future that is better, fairer, and more hopeful for everyone.”

Singapore Design Week 2025 runs from 11th to 21st September 2025. More information available here