Design studio Forest and Whale has created Reuse, a food container made from an edible material that can be eaten or composted once the food is finished.
SINGAPORE - The coronavirus pandemic has forced designers, architects and business owners to go back to the drawing board and rethink the future of the workplace.
Last year, new normal was a term bandied about to address social distancing at the office, contactless technology and high-tech anti-microbial materials.
But this year, with the more virulent strains of Covid-19 sweeping across Asia, those initial solutions are not enough, say architects and designers.
Property owners across industries from banking to the services sector are coming up with more cost-effective and creative ways to redesign workplaces, factoring in uncertainties such as the community spread of virus mutations which could take longer to control.
“While single-use plastic containers are convenient and quick to get rid of, they leave a startling impact on the environment,” according to
Yanko Design. “Accounting for their low-recyclability rate, plastic takeout containers stick around for ages, running off into waterways and polluting the oceans, spreading toxins to wildlife, releasing harmful chemicals and gases into the air we breathe, and generally disrupting our waste management systems.”
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Before Covid, many tourists who visited our store appreciated the stories we tell as a brand, as well as the cultural elements and references that we put into our designs, and they wanted to have a part of it. So they purchased pieces they wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else in the world and had them shipped home.
What have been some of your favourite collaborations and why?
We love all our collaborations because they allow us to gain perspectives on what designers deem as Asian culture and beauty. One of the highlights, however, was our 2018 collaboration with Forest & Whale on a brass Chinese chess set.
Arts Thread
January 04, 2021
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Above: DesignSingapore exhibiting designers 1 Yingxuan Teo/ 2 Ji Jian Wu/ 3 Kevin Chiam / 4 Sheryl Tang/ 5 Ng Luowei and Mervyn Chen
DesignSingapore is holding an exhibition at the National Design Centre of Singapore from December 10 2020 to January 07 2021, plus an online version, featuring seven designs by eight emerging Singapore designers. The Visions of the Future show features pieces that approach current social, political and environmental issues and provide design-based solutions.
Participating designers were selected through an open call held in 2019 and were then mentored by Wendy Chua and Gustavo Maggio, founders of the Singaporean multi-disciplinary design practice Forest & Whale.
Yingxuan Teo