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Kite Studio Architecture emerged winner of open call to design Archifest 2018 Pavilion

The 12th edition of Singapore’s annual festival celebrating architecture and the built environment, Archifest 2018, has announced that Kite Studio Architecture will be presenting the winning design for the festival’s highly anticipated Pavilion taking place from 28 September to 10 October. An anchor event space for the festival, the Pavilion will feature programmes such as exhibitions, talks, Architours and other fringe events over the two weeks.

Following an open call for local architecture firms to submit design schemes for the Pavilion according to this year’s festival theme of “Design for Life”, the team from Kite Studio Architecture won over the five-member jury panel with its scheme centred on the concept of familiar void decks within Singapore’s typical HDB public housing.

The Pavilion will consist of the following key design elements:
● A physical parameter based on the typical HDB void deck design, with slanted walls and columns for display of exhibition works
● Multi-entrances without physical demarcations to allow flexibility for visitors to enter the space from any direction
● Prominent columns of the Pavilion’s façade created by skewering three-hole bricks through rebar cages that will be anchored by mild steel plates
● Pastel hues of bricks to reflect Nguan’s photography works and to induce a sense of familiarity and nostalgia
● Sustainable materials and construction methods with the use of dry construction techniques for the brick ‘walls’ that will be fastened with rebar cages. This allows easy dismantling so the bricks can be used for future construction, while the TAG welded rebar cages can be reused for structural steel works. A new sustainable material made of bamboo charcoal, ‘Bamco’ flooring, will also be used.

The jury panel collectively concurred that the winning scheme is definitely the one that has responded the best to this year Archifest theme “Design for Life”. Taking its reference from Singapore modern history, it successfully translates one of the distinctive typologies into an innovative and festive temporary structure. The narrative and porosity of the famous void deck are reinterpreted through a refreshing expression of fundamental construction elements: brick, steel, dry partition and paint.

The first and second runners-up of the open call were awarded to Super Assembly and DP Architects Pte Ltd / DP Design Pte Ltd respectively.  — Construction+ Online