SingaPlural has always been about the gathering of designers and creative entities across disciplines to engage the public from within and beyond the design industry. This year, the intention comes clear as homegrown multidisciplinary creative agency BLACK – known for projects such as SG50 and CREATIVE©ITIES – takes curatorial reign, spearheading the ‘coming-of-age’ of the annual affair, bringing about new purpose to the festival’s sixth edition.

Centering the theme Stories – A New Perspective, which also aptly highlights the festival’s new venue, BLACK shakes it up with larger, content-driven group exhibitions. A case in point, TOMORROW: Design Stories of Our Future invites visitors to ponder what a day in Singapore would be like in 2065 (SG100), through the eyes of ten designers and ten illustrators. Perspectives on topics such as transportation, food, communication and fashion are presented in a futuristic ‘library’ filled with audio-visual materials, including a letterpress publication for browsing. Visitors are encouraged to express their own ideas by writing a letter to the future using a typewriter – hypothesising that there is still place for slower mediums in the future.

Continuing its respect for traditional methods, which are perceived as tools that widen the designer’s repertoire, the KYO Project bridges three Singapore designers with the work of traditional Japanese craftsmen from the Kanto region in Japan. The year-long initiative saw Wong Mun Summ (WOHA), Chris Lee (Asylum) and Colin Seah (Ministry of Design) step out of their comfort zone to creatively interpret various crafts such as pottery, wood-working and lost-wax casting to conceive contemporary future and lifestyle artefacts that shine a new light on waning Japanese crafts.

Global and local exchanges are also revealed at the recurring Projects showcase. Japanese casualwear retailer and manufacturer UNIQLO worked with Singaporean firms Machineast and Roots to portray its innovative AIRism technology through visually-arresting showcases. SME Ewins group worked with Studio Architetto Egidio Panzera from Italy to turn acrylic, a two-dimensional material, into a voluminous, three-dimensional installation that inspires a sense of discovery, an essential stage in the design process.

At Platform, 12 young (under 35), regional designers were given free reign to showcase their creativity to challenge “existing paradigms”. Design duo DAZINGFEELSGOOD presents their Brutalist-inspired outdoor furniture and multifunctional objects inspired by the wall drawings of Sol Lewitt. There are nine retail pop-ups for visitors to bring home a piece of local design, including Bynd Artisan’s Drawn from Our Own Device, where visitors can collaborate with a robotic arm to personalise a notebook cover. Apart from new content, visitors can also look forward to internationally-acclaimed local showcases such as The Alchemists by Industry+ and d lab by the Design Incubation Centre (NUS).

SingaPlural 2017 paves the way for visitors to journey into creative processes through participation and introspection, enabling a wider audience to discover and appreciate design in unexpected ways.

SingaPlural 2017 is open to the public from 7–12 March 2017, 11am to 10pm at the F1 Pit Building. The admission rate is $10 for unlimited access.