Post A Design Initiative

This design initiative deals with the challenge of heritage and some of the examples are based in Singapore. The targeted audience is younger generations including students and adults and also who are interested in heritage and contemporary design.

 

Heritage, defined as stories and traditions in any form that pass on each generation. It can be histories and objects that have special meanings to us. The histories of a country help to identify the identity of it and also a monument which reminds the younger generations become inculcated in the hearts. As Ang (pg 2. 2001) said, “How and what we value in the past says something about how we see ourselves as a community today and how we project ourselves into the future”. Histories extends our values into contemporary age and is showable in the designs. But there are challenges of heritage when making the efforts of importing heritage into contemporary age. These includes: how do we put the values into contemporary design form? How to change the history into something that will drive the younger generation? Will be an innovation piece and interacts with what needs to be said? How does the younger generation understand the importance of the preserving the heritage? By preserving the heritage into the design, it allows the memories and histories to be remained. Some of the examples of heritage including buildings, art, materials and objects, buildings take a big percentage. If a building is retained without its heritage significance, only the faces will remain ( Macri, 2009). Therefore, the new designs will be preserving the building in their full “richness of authenticity” (Pearson and Sullivan 1995; Plevoets and Cleempoel 2011; Williamson 2010; stated by Miljenka Perovic 2015). This authenticity involving using the design, craftsmanship and materials of the age into a different format by all means using the similar design elements. Some of the great examples of building designs for inspirations including Pó at the Warehouse Hotel and The Summerhouse.

Patricia Chong (2017)

 

With the economic and creative growth, people uses design elements from the old age into new buildings and interior to attract audiences but also to show and arouse the histories from them. Pó at the Warehouse Hotel did a great job and showed us the inspiration of an 1895 style and built in an 1895 warehouse which presents a combination of industry and warm and cozy home feeling. The use of the color themes helps to power up the restaurant’s identity as well as the heritage of an 1895 warehouse history. This is a successful design which inspires us to see the future designs to be more exciting and memorable.

Patricia Chong, (2017)

The Summerhouse presents with a colonial style structure with the 1930 timberwork and fretwork. The restaurant was once a Royal Air Force airbase and the interior design is inspired by the natural and industrial elements. For example, the mirrored ceiling and the geometric windows shows the histories of the airbase structure and reminds audiences perfectly and the floral designs on the chair and the decorations presents a colonial and natural environment once the place was. Again, this is another very inspiring example to show the successful transition of once a heritage context into food industry. The challenges of preserving a heritage into a new content have shown in these two examples and they are indeed solved and helped to see how they are done.

 

The challenges of preserving the heritage are hard, they show the values and identities of a country and also allows the memories to be kept to the younger generations. The food industries in Singapore have done a great job in this and shown some great inspiring works on how to improve it. The designers would be excited to transform a beautiful heritage sites into sparkling new site which inculcates into everyone’s heart.

 

References

 

Ang, I. (2001). Intertwining Histories: Heritage and Diversity. Available at: https://historycouncilnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/2001-AHL-Ang.pdf

Chong, P. (2017). How Singapore’s Food Industry is Helping Save Its Design Heritage | Rogue Media Inc.. Rogue Media Inc. Available at: http://rogue.ph/singapore-food-industry-design/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Macri, J. (2009). Heritage work a challenge and an opportunity to develop. Business News.  Available at: https://www.businessnews.com.au/article/Heritage-work-a-challenge-and-an-opportunity-to-develop [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Perovic, M. (2015). Overcoming the challenges of building heritage projects: improvements to time, scope and cost performance. Available at: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/91544/1/Miljenka_Perovic_Thesis.pdf [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].