Singapore Pavilion

The Venice Biennale is an opportunity for architects and designers to showcase new projects - arranged in different pavilions, each with a different themes. The theme for this project was centered around a country of our choosing and developing a scheme that showcased it's culture, either as a whole or an aspect of it. The Singapore Pavilion focuses on the marriage between traditional Singaporean culture and modern design principles. The program primarily consists of a three gallery spaces at a variety of scales for different purposes and establishing a relationship to the site context. Although similar in exterior appearance, each “Dot” or pavilion had different interior planning, light conditions and scale. The design ideology originated from Singapore's history - a city built from nature and how nature supports the now built environment. This ideology inspired the wooden diagrid structure that encompasses the facade on all three “dots”. The goal of the diagrid was not only to tie each of the three pavilions together but it was also meant to be a play on natural elements. We wanted to come up with a way to combine traditional natural elements and modern design principles. The wooden diagrid was a perfect example of how geometry can be imposed on a natural material, like wood. It was an exploration of construction and expression.