Architects Save The World And Bring Joy To Millions: Singapore 2050

The WOHA Design2050 Studio was commissioned by DesignSingapore and its proposition, "Architects Save The World And Bring Joy To Millions: Singapore 2050" was presented at the Icsid World Design Congress 2009 (proposition included below). The copyright for this video and all related content is lodged with WOHA and relevant parties, as indicated in the credits at the end of the video. WOHA can be contacted at the following address:

WOHA
29 HongKong Street
Singapore 059668
Tel: (65) 6423 4555 Fax: (65) 6423 4666
http://www.wohadesigns.com/

Architects Save The World And Bring Joy To Millions: Singapore 2050

The WOHA Design2050 studio humbly declares that architects and urban planners re-emerge from oblivion and return to their roots of benevolent megalomania.

We attempt to save the world.

In order to do so, we focus on the two things that we know best:

The creative expertise of our profession, which historically has developed concepts for new societies at times translated into stone and mortar (or steel and glass) at times immortalised in international archives and galleries as paper architecture.

Our home planet Singapore , apotheosis of planned renewal and radical make-over. Our small but notoriously efficient city state, invented in less than 40 years, is the perfect petri dish for a makeable future.

Together with National University of Singapore and special guests School Of The Arts: Singapore, Blackdesign and Obilia, WOHA will develop and present architectural and urban concepts for future Singapore while addressing challenges with worldwide significance.

In our future scenario we prepare for the worst and aim for the best:

Singapore in 2050 is faced with a drastic sea level rise.

Singapore in 2050 is confronted with increased population figures.

Singapore in 2050 is also a much better place to live in than ever before.

The Proposal:

DONT PANIC! SLARTIBARTFASTING SINGAPORE

In Douglas Adams 1979 science fiction comedy The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Slartibartfast, from the planet Magrathea, is a designer of planets. His favourite part of the job was creating coastlines, the most notable of which were the fjords found on the coast of Norway on planet Earth, for which he won an award.

In the spirit of seeing a country as simply a large design challenge, we renovate Singapore for the massive changes of the coming century.

We make the island safe from rising waters while testing different new cross-programmed infrastructure, urban and architectural typologies to address our pressing issues of water, food and energy security. Proposals include residential power plants, multilevel factory, agro-villages, and resort dikes.

Rather than seeing change as a calamity, we find opportunities for joy and delight, and say Dont Panic! lets hitchhike a ride to our best possible future.

For more information, please head to:
http://www.icsidcongress09.com/phase2/studios.asp

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• DesignSingapore
• Studios
• Design2050
• 2050
• Icsid
• Congress
• Singapore
• WOHA

[Rexamus]

ALL GAY?

[gadionson1]

good job ....

[Singapom888]

Simply brilliant. Fun but also thought-provoking.

[Hikikomori013]

Very cool, but I hope by 2050 VR has moved beyond Max Headroom quality.

1:15 I do believe that bureaucrats will still sound like bureaucrats.

I'll only be 90 in 2050. It'll be fun to see how Singapore really develops by then. Will we find the tech projections to be amusingly naive and primitive by then?

[Denon333dash888]

I do not think that Singapore would be that weirdly designed. Though nothing is impossible..... :) Heck, we though we only had four elements back then, but now we have more than a hundred. What were a group of nations in Europe, Africa and Asia then became two hundred and a couple nations.

[Tiaktiak]

I like the sci-fi touch.

greetz from Germany