24 Jul – 20 Sep 2026
 |
B2 Circulation |
Free Admission |
PROTOTYPE ISLAND explores Singapore not as a finished product, but as a nation continually in the making. The showcase considers Singapore as a living prototype: an environment where ideas are tested, refined and translated into the systems, rituals and infrastructures that shape everyday life.
First presented at Milan Design Week 2026, PROTOTYPE ISLAND returns to Singapore in a homecoming presentation at ArtScience Museum. In this new context, the showcase invites audiences to look again at the conditions, practices and forms of experimentation that shape design in Singapore.
Bringing together established and emerging transdisciplinary designers based in Singapore, the showcase presents 15 projects responding to contemporary challenges across three interconnected themes.
Care Infrastructures & Cultural Continuities explores how design can sustain social systems, lived experience and cultural knowledge. Technological & Material Ecologies investigates emerging relationships between digital intelligence, material innovation, and hybrid production. Everyday Infrastructures examines the objects, processes and operational systems that quietly organise contemporary life.
The works are presented not as static artefacts, but as propositions shaped through use, feedback and iteration. Together, they form a microcosm of global transformation, revealing design as a method for navigating complexity, extending cultural practices and translating emerging possibilities into forms that can be tested in everyday life.
Curated by Hunn Wai, Co-founder of Lanzavecchia + Wai, with Eian Siew as Assistant Curator and Maria Cristina Didero as Global Perspectives Advisor, PROTOTYPE ISLAND brings together experimentation, craft and emerging technologies to reflect Singapore’s distinctive approach to purpose-driven innovation, where constraint becomes catalyst, experimentation becomes method, and design becomes a tool for shaping more resilient futures.
The showcase asks: how might design help us build systems that remain open, adaptable and responsive in an uncertain world?
For more information, visit: https://designsingapore.org/events/prototype-island-homecoming/
Images courtesy of DesignSingapore Council, photography by Mark Cocksedge
Reconfiguring social bonds and living heritage as active design systems.
Of Curves and Hands
Aditi Neti
Key ideas:
· Kolam as living ritual geometry
· Gesture translated into computational pattern
· Tradition extended through human–machine drawing
About the work:
Kolam drawings are traced daily across South Asia as ritual gestures shaped by repetition, bodily memory, and subtle variations in movement.
Of Curves and Hands extends this practice through a computational drawing apparatus. Visitors’ movements are captured and translated into mechanical plots, preserving variations in speed, curvature and pressure. Each drawing contributes to a growing archive, allowing kolam patterns to evolve within technological environments while retaining their embodied intelligence.
People of the World
weareSuper
Key ideas:
· Inclusive authorship through co-design
· Everyday objects as shared creative platforms
· Design shifting attention towards care and participation
About the work:
People of the World asks what design becomes when authorship is shared. Developed through co-design with creators with disabilities, the project transforms ceramic tableware into a platform through which collective identity emerges in drawings, marks and personal narratives.
Rather than treating inclusion as symbolic representation, the work embeds it within process, production and distribution. Everyday objects become carriers of participation, keeping each creative contribution visible, valued, and materially present.
Threads of Becoming
Melvin Ong, Shervon Ong & Andy Yeo
Key ideas:
· Lacquer threading reworked through hybrid fabrication
· 3D-printed structures supporting hand-applied craft
· Heritage transmitted through adaptive making
About the work:
Threads of Becoming explores how qi xian diao (漆线雕), or lacquer threading, a traditional Southeast Asian craft now sustained by few practitioners in Singapore, can be carried forward through adaptation. Each vessel begins as a digitally modelled, 3D-printed form before artisans apply and layer lacquer threads by hand.
The printed core becomes an armature for accumulated craft labour. By bringing digital fabrication into dialogue with traditional making, the work proposes new modes of transmission across generations, tools and disciplines.
Rememo
Celeste Seah
Key ideas:
· Generative images supporting reminiscence in dementia care
· AI shaped around therapeutic judgement and human presence
· Memory cues designed for multilingual care settings
About the work:
Rememo supports reminiscence therapy for people with dementia through generative AI images. When personal photographs are unavailable or no longer prompt recognition, therapists create visual cues in real time, guided by their own judgement and the responses of participants.
Developed with occupational therapy teams in Singapore nursing homes, the system continues to support reminiscence sessions by reducing preparation time and enabling multilingual conversations. Synthetic images function not as substitutes for memory, but as prompts for sustaining narrative, connection and dignity.
Lustre Series and Earth Deity Altar
Roger Ng Wei Lun
Key ideas:
· Traditional ornament translated through industrial materials
· Peranakan heritage adapted through contemporary fabrication
· Cultural identity sustained through active mutation
About the work:
Lustre Series explores how cultural forms evolve through contemporary materials and fabrication. In Lustre nº 2, a Peranakan side table is reconstructed using wood, metal, and UV-printed aluminium composite, translating mother-of-pearl inlay into pixelated ornament.
Earth Deity Altar draws from Datuk Gong (拿督公), a guardian spirit associated with communal protection. Its role is redirected towards fragile urban ecologies and reclaimed coastlines, proposing tradition as a living practice shaped through active mutation.
Nido
Zoey Chan
Key ideas:
· Medical tools shaped by lived diabetic experience
· Safe needle disposal integrated into daily mobility
· Micro-interactions supporting dignity and independence
About the work:
Nido positions self-care as an infrastructure through a compact system designed around daily movement. Developed from the designer’s lived experience of Type 1 diabetes, it supports the storage, handling and disposal of insulin needles while organising the injection sequence within a single object.
The holder enables one-handed needle ejection, separates used and unused components, and secures sharps alongside paper tabs. Soft curves and muted colours move away from conventional medical aesthetics, supporting safer routines, dignity, and independence across home, work and public settings.
Language System
Serina Lee
Key ideas:
· Calligraphic structures informing garment construction
· Written language translated into textile geometry
· Cross-cultural identity embedded in clothing form
About the work:
Language System uses Chinese calligraphy as a structural method for garment construction. Selected characters written in Clerical Script are analysed through stroke curvature, brush pressure, and directional flow, then translated into drafting geometries that guide seams, pattern cutting and fabric drape.
English letters are paired with corresponding Chinese characters within a shared construction logic. Calligraphy shifts from d ecorative motif to material methodology, allowing written language and cross-cultural identity to shape clothing form.
3D-printed tactile picture book
TUSITALA
Key ideas:
· Tactile picture books for touch-based reading
· Additive manufacturing for accessible learning
· Inclusive storytelling for visually impaired children
About the work:
This project reimagines the picture book as a tactile learning environment for children with visual impairments. Timmy & Tammy: At the Botanic Gardens is reconstructed through raised surfaces, simplified characters and Braille text, refined through classroom observation and user testing.
A modular three-tier plate system introduces complexity progressively as Braille literacy develops, while Braille Neue integrates Braille and Latin characters. Additive manufacturing enables tactile storytelling to become durable, scalable and accessible within mainstream education.
Investigating bio-based processes, digital intelligence, and hybrid production logics.
Formas.AI – Design Studio Platform
Carlos Bañón & Yiping Goh
Key ideas:
· AI calibrated for spatial authorship
· Multiple inputs unified within one design environment
· Machine intelligence guided by architectural judgement
About the work:
FORMAS.AI is a studio platform where artificial intelligence (AI) supports architectural authorship rather than replacing it. It brings sketches, photographs, 3D models, point clouds and videos into a shared design environment.
Through a proprietary prompting system, designers regulate lighting, materials, context and atmosphere. Multiple AI engines operate simultaneously, allowing teams to develop and refine spatial studies collaboratively while preserving design continuity and keeping conceptual direction anchored in architectural judgement.
1 Qubit
Jake Tan, Ezequiel Ignacio Rodríguez Chiacchio & Bao Songyu
Key ideas:
· Quantum computation translated into interactive form
· Probability and superposition made physically visible
· Scientific concepts accessed through embodied interaction
About the work:
1 Qubit translates quantum computing into an interactive physical installation. Visitors manipulate gate-like controls that alter probability distributions governing possible outcomes, visualised through smart polarising film that shifts light patterns in response.
When measurement is triggered, the system collapses into a single visible state, showing how quantum probabilities resolve into certainty. Through embodied interaction, the work gives unfamiliar scientific concepts a tangible, public-facing language beyond specialist contexts.
Iris
Parable
Key ideas:
· Modular ceramics enabling adaptable interiors
· Local clay carrying material memory
· Domestic surfaces shaped through repair and change
About the work:
Iris is a handcrafted modular ceramic system for adaptable interior surfaces. Each unit is moulded from locally sourced Singapore clay that includes material preserved for over forty years by a family-run ceramic studio, glazed, fired in small batches, and assembled in the studio.
Variations in colour, texture and density allow modules to be replaced or recombined as spaces change, embedding geological material and generational continuity within an evolving system of construction, repair and care.
TessaCast
A*STAR Innovation Factory@SIMTech for Castomize
Key ideas:
· Smart materials enabling adaptive orthopaedic support
· 4D printing reshaping fracture-treatment devices
· Medical care aligned with sustainable material practice
About the work:
TessaCast rethinks fracture treatment through a reusable orthopaedic support. Fabricated through 4D printing with smart polymers capable of controlled deformation, the cast gradually moulds to the limb without the weight and bulk of traditional plaster or fibreglass systems.
A high-density anti-chiral hexagonal lattice reinforces load-bearing areas, while lower-density regions provide calibrated flexibility. The result is a more adaptive, easily applied system designed to reduce discomfort and material waste.
Fragility to Permanence
ODD M.
Key ideas:
· Eggshell waste transformed into durable composites
· Discarded matter extended through material experimentation
· Domestic objects retaining traces of their origin
About the work:
Fragility to Permanence transforms discarded eggshells into durable composite objects. Collected shells are cleaned, crushed and blended with binding agents before being cast and compressed into solid forms.
The resulting vessels retain the speckled textures and tonal variations of their source material, allowing traces of their previous life to remain visible. Rather than concealing waste, the work foregrounds its character, showing how everyday residues can gain longer lifespans and new value through careful material reformulation.
Reframing the operational systems that quietly structure contemporary life.
Scan to Play
Interactive Materials Lab
Key ideas:
· Barcodes revealed as interaction interfaces
· Graphic standards shaping movement and exchange
· Invisible infrastructures made physically tangible
About the work:
SCAN TO PLAY reveals barcodes as active interfaces shaping everyday exchange. Enlarged and distorted barcode patterns are applied to sculptural surfaces that visitors move, rotate and align using scanners and cameras.
Successful readings trigger sounds, visuals and playful responses, making the choreography between bodies, machines and databases physically apparent. Removed from their commercial context, barcodes emerge as designed infrastructures that organise movement, attention, and transactions across logistical and economic systems.
Noda
Reynard Seah
Key ideas:
· Temporary joinery replacing rigid fasteners
· Plant mechanics informing reversible connections
· Lightweight structures designed for adjustment and reuse
About the work:
Noda is a reversible joinery system inspired by the turgidity of plant cells. A silicone sphere sits within interlocking 3D-printed loops inserted into paper core tubes. When compressed, the sphere pushes the loops outward to grip the tube’s interior without screws, bolts or tools.
The joint can be released, removed and repositioned, enabling lightweight structures to be assembled quickly and reused. Its adaptability supports temporary shelters, play structures, and modular frameworks across changing contexts.
B2 Circulation | Free Admission
What does it mean to live in a city that is always in prototype?
Across two weekends, the designers behind PROTOTYPE ISLAND will be at the showcase for informal conversations with visitors. Hear firsthand how their projects emerged, the questions they seek to answer, and the experiments, iterations and collaborations that shape their work.
From rethinking everyday infrastructures to exploring new material ecologies and forms of care, these sessions offer an opportunity to engage with design as an ongoing process of testing, adapting and imagining possible futures.
Drop in, ask questions, exchange ideas, and join the conversation.
Developed at Innovation Factory@SIMTech, A*STARˇs integrated design and engineering platform, TessaCast brings together Audrey Ng, Project Lead for Strategy and Business Development, Rachel Ng, Lead Industrial Designer, and Jasper Chua, Lead Mechanical Engineer.
Their combined expertise spans concept development, user-centred design, and manufacturable engineering, supporting translational projects that move from early design framing to application-driven prototyping.
Celeste Seah is a designer whose practice combines design research, interaction design, and prototyping to translate complex sociotechnical conditions into intuitive experiences. A graduate of the National University of Singapore’s Division of Industrial Design, she developed Rememo through the Interactive Materials Lab, exploring how emerging technologies can be shaped into warm, meaningful forms of care.
Parable Studio is a practice exploring material culture through objects, interiors, and spatial systems grounded in craft and contemporary living.
Its work often examines how traditional materials can remain active within present-day design conditions, combining slow fabrication processes with adaptable applications. Through Iris, the studio extends ceramic practice into an open-ended interior system where material ageing, repair, and continuity remain visible.
ODD M. is a material studio founded by Eden Loh, focused on transforming overlooked waste into durable material applications. Trained in illustration before moving into hands-on material practice, Eden develops composite systems that bridge craft, sustainability, and domestic object-making through iterative experimentation.
FORMAS.AI is an AI-native design studio platform for architects, designers, and spatial practitioners. Co-founded by Carlos Bañón and Yiping Goh, it supports conceptual design through a unified environment for sketches, references, spatial studies, and visual outputs.
It is used in academic programmes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, California Polytechnic State University, the Singapore University of Technology and Design, and the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Jake Tan is a new media artist and co-founder of SERIAL CO, working across emerging technologies, physical systems, and experimental installations.
He collaborates here with quantum research scientist Ezequiel Ignacio Rodríguez Chiacchio, whose work focuses on quantum computing and hardware systems, and Bao Songyu, a mechatronics artist and designer whose practice explores animatronics and machine behaviour through interactive objects.
The Interactive Materials Lab, housed within the Division of Industrial Design at the National University of Singapore, researches material systems for interaction and experience design through designerly exploration, technical experimentation, and rigorous making.
Within this research environment, Clement Zheng and Zhen Zhou Yong develop unconventional interactions using everyday materials, custom hardware, and software to examine how digital systems can be translated into tactile experiences and playful interfaces.
Developed under the DesignSingapore Councilˇs Good Design Research initiative, this project was initiated by Tusitala with NAMIC Hub@SIT and iC2 PrepHouse.
Tusitala extends reading through interactive storytelling, with designer Foler Goh contributing experience across UI/UX and editorial design.
At NAMIC Hub@SIT, Research Engineer Yijian Hui applies additive manufacturing to inclusive design.
iC2 PrepHouse contributes expertise in learning for children and youth with visual impairments.
Zoey Chan is a designer whose practice focuses on healthcare, personal routines, and everyday usability. Drawing from lived experience and close observation, her work examines how small design interventions can reduce friction, support dignity, and make long-term care more manageable.
Reynard Seah is a designer whose practice explores structural systems, adaptive mechanisms, and material behaviour through prototyping. His work often draws from biological principles to rethink how objects and lightweight assemblies can achieve flexibility, reversibility, and ease of construction.
This collaboration brings together Melvin Ong of Desinere, designer Shervon Ong, and lacquer threading practitioner Andy Yeo of Gong Yi Xuan Art Studio.
Melvin Ong works across objects and spatial narratives shaped by restraint and material sensitivity, while Shervon Ong explores texture and structure through experimental making.
Andy Yeo is among the few practitioners in Singapore sustaining qi xian diao (漆线雕), extending the craft through contemporary application.
Serina Lee is a fashion designer whose practice examines how language, identity, and garment construction intersect through material systems. Drawing from East Asian visual culture and textile experimentation, she develops clothing that carries both structural logic and cultural meaning.
Roger Ng Wei Lun is a Singapore-based designer whose work reinterprets vernacular objects, ritual forms, and domestic symbols through contemporary materials and fabrication processes. Drawing from regional cultural histories, he examines how ornament and memory can remain active within present-day urban life.
weareSuper is an inclusive design agency that collaborates with creators with disabilities across products, exhibitions, and publications.
Through its main brand, Sayang Singapura, the studio develops everyday objects through codesign, ensuring contributors remain involved from concept to production.
Operating from Enabling Village, weareSuper builds long-term creative pathways where inclusion is structured through authorship, compensation, and shared visibility.
Developed under the DesignSingapore Councilˇs Good Design Research initiative, this project was initiated by Tusitala with NAMIC Hub@SIT and iC2 PrepHouse.
Tusitala extends reading through interactive storytelling, with designer Foler Goh contributing experience across UI/UX and editorial design.
At NAMIC Hub@SIT, Research Engineer Yijian Hui applies additive manufacturing to inclusive design.
iC2 PrepHouse contributes expertise in learning for children and youth with visual impairments.
Celeste Seah is a designer whose practice combines design research, interaction design, and prototyping to translate complex sociotechnical conditions into intuitive experiences. A graduate of the National University of Singapore’s Division of Industrial Design, she developed Rememo through the Interactive Materials Lab, exploring how emerging technologies can be shaped into warm, meaningful forms of care.
Reynard Seah is a designer whose practice explores structural systems, adaptive mechanisms, and material behaviour through prototyping. His work often draws from biological principles to rethink how objects and lightweight assemblies can achieve flexibility, reversibility, and ease of construction.
ODD M. is a material studio founded by Eden Loh, focused on transforming overlooked waste into durable material applications. Trained in illustration before moving into hands-on material practice, Eden develops composite systems that bridge craft, sustainability, and domestic object-making through iterative experimentation.
FORMAS.AI is an AI-native design studio platform for architects, designers, and spatial practitioners. Co-founded by Carlos Bañón and Yiping Goh, it supports conceptual design through a unified environment for sketches, references, spatial studies, and visual outputs.
It is used in academic programmes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, California Polytechnic State University, the Singapore University of Technology and Design, and the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Jake Tan is a new media artist and co-founder of SERIAL CO, working across emerging technologies, physical systems, and experimental installations.
He collaborates here with quantum research scientist Ezequiel Ignacio Rodríguez Chiacchio, whose work focuses on quantum computing and hardware systems, and Bao Songyu, a mechatronics artist and designer whose practice explores animatronics and machine behaviour through interactive objects.
Developed at Innovation Factory@SIMTech, A*STARˇs integrated design and engineering platform, TessaCast brings together Audrey Ng, Project Lead for Strategy and Business Development, Rachel Ng, Lead Industrial Designer, and Jasper Chua, Lead Mechanical Engineer.
Their combined expertise spans concept development, user-centred design, and manufacturable engineering, supporting translational projects that move from early design framing to application-driven prototyping.
Zoey Chan is a designer whose practice focuses on healthcare, personal routines, and everyday usability. Drawing from lived experience and close observation, her work examines how small design interventions can reduce friction, support dignity, and make long-term care more manageable.
Parable Studio is a practice exploring material culture through objects, interiors, and spatial systems grounded in craft and contemporary living.
Its work often examines how traditional materials can remain active within present-day design conditions, combining slow fabrication processes with adaptable applications. Through Iris, the studio extends ceramic practice into an open-ended interior system where material ageing, repair, and continuity remain visible.
This collaboration brings together Melvin Ong of Desinere, designer Shervon Ong, and lacquer threading practitioner Andy Yeo of Gong Yi Xuan Art Studio.
Melvin Ong works across objects and spatial narratives shaped by restraint and material sensitivity, while Shervon Ong explores texture and structure through experimental making.
Andy Yeo is among the few practitioners in Singapore sustaining qi xian diao (漆线雕), extending the craft through contemporary application.
Serina Lee is a fashion designer whose practice examines how language, identity, and garment construction intersect through material systems. Drawing from East Asian visual culture and textile experimentation, she develops clothing that carries both structural logic and cultural meaning.
Roger Ng Wei Lun is a Singapore-based designer whose work reinterprets vernacular objects, ritual forms, and domestic symbols through contemporary materials and fabrication processes. Drawing from regional cultural histories, he examines how ornament and memory can remain active within present-day urban life.
weareSuper is an inclusive design agency that collaborates with creators with disabilities across products, exhibitions, and publications.
Through its main brand, Sayang Singapura, the studio develops everyday objects through codesign, ensuring contributors remain involved from concept to production.
Operating from Enabling Village, weareSuper builds long-term creative pathways where inclusion is structured through authorship, compensation, and shared visibility.
The Interactive Materials Lab, housed within the Division of Industrial Design at the National University of Singapore, researches material systems for interaction and experience design through designerly exploration, technical experimentation, and rigorous making.
Within this research environment, Clement Zheng and Zhen Zhou Yong develop unconventional interactions using everyday materials, custom hardware, and software to examine how digital systems can be translated into tactile experiences and playful interfaces.
Hunn Wai
Lead Curator
Hunn Wai is the Director and Co-founder of Lanzavecchia + Wai, an internationally acclaimed design studio based in Milan and Singapore that has, since 2010, worked at the intersection of industrial design, spatial narrative, and luxury craft, collaborating with brands including Zanotta, Cappellini, Hermès, and Vacheron Constantin. The studio has received prestigious accolades such as the President*s Design Award (Design of the Year, 2023) and the Red Dot Award.
A recognised thought leader in contemporary design, Hunn speaks at global platforms like Milan Design Week and at institutions such as the School of Visual Arts and Rhode Island School of Design, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor and Senior Fellow at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, where he teaches Architecture, Sustainable Design, and Design & AI while leading executive training programmes.
Eian Siew
Assistant Curator
Eian Siew is a PhD Candidate at the National University of Singapore’s Division of Industrial Design. His research sits at the intersection of healthcare innovation, product design, and materials-driven interaction, with a focus on air-based soft actuation and digital fabrication workflows. Through research-led prototyping, he translates complex material behaviour into familiar, everyday artifacts.
Since 2020, his work has received international recognition through the Red Dot Award, the James Dyson Award, and the iF Design Award, and has been featured in DesignWanted, Dezeen, Vogue Singapore, and The Peak. Since 2023, he has presented work at platforms including Singapore Design Week, Ars Electronica and Milan Design Week.
Eian continues to pursue design as a form of translation, turning complex problems and societal perceptions into approachable everyday experiences.
DesignSingapore Council (Dsg)’s vision is for Singapore to be a liveable, loveable, and limitless nation by design. As the national agency for design, our mission is to develop the design sector to be globally competitive, champion the use of design for innovation and growth in Singapore, and make life better in this UNESCO Creative City of Design. The Dsg is a subsidiary of the Singapore Economic Development Board.
For more information, please visit designsingapore.org.
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Fill your world with wonder in a purpose-built screening room dedicated to films that will inspire, challenge and transform.
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Presented in collaboration with artists and creatives, ArtScience Encounters is an invitation to discover curious spaces hidden within ArtScience Museum’s unique architecture.