i+D - May/June 2021 - 19

For the Singapore
Pavilion at the
World Expo in Dubai
(October 1, 2021 to
March 31, 2022), Salad
Dressing collaborated
with WOHA to design
three cone-shaped
structures, one of which
prominently features
Singapore's national
flower: the Vanda Miss
Joaquim hybrid orchid.
(Rendering: Courtesy of
Salad Dressing)
" Singapore has long been at the forefront of a
global movement towards a cleaner and greener
future. Characterized by lush greenery weaved
strategically into a dense metropolitan setting, the
small island combats land scarcity with innovative
ways of integrating horticulture into urban
infrastructure, " says Chang Huai Yan, founder
of Singaporean landscape architecture firm Salad
Dressing. " We foresee a transition away from an
unapologetic anthropocentric today and to a more
biophilic and wilder tomorrow. "
An underlying theme of nature, environmental
consciousness, and overall wellbeing permeates
throughout Singaporean art, architecture, and
interior design. The 277-square-mile island
city-state has made ardent strides in terms of
environmentally sustainable design since becoming
a sovereign nation in 1965. Its latest endeavor,
the Singapore Green Plan 2030 strives to combat
climate change via strategies to achieve net-zero
emissions that align with the UN's 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development and the Paris
Agreement. Through its Green Mark building
certification program-launched by the Building
and Construction Authority (BCA) in 2005 à la
the USGBC's LEED program-Singapore aims to
construct or retrofit its buildings so that 80 percent
of its inventory meets Green Mark minimum
standards by 2030. And the country already
mandates by law that any building 5,000 square
meters or more (53,820 square feet) must achieve
minimum standards of environmental sustainability
per code. The local A&D community seeks to
integrate these green building practices with
designs that promote wellness, lend a sense of
place, and consider man's relationship with nature,
architecture, and the world.
" Nature. Nurture. Future. "
As part of the Venice Biennale's Singapore
Pavilion-which is titled " To Gather: The
Architecture of Relationships " and highlights how
architects and designers globally will collaborate
in this post-COVID world-Salad Dressing created
a speculative landscape project called " Rewilding
the Sky, " which emerges as " a response to the new
trend of landscape on the skyrise rooftops, " Huai
Yan explains. " Instead of rewilding the ground in
the city where the land is scarce, we are bringing
the diverse ecosystem into the sky. "
The installation features two side-by-side models:
one of current Singapore and the other of a
reimagined green city with natural and biophilic
elements set high in the sky as a souped-up rooftop
garden. The installation explores the tension
between the urban and the natural and how
" nature is a force beyond human control. "
Similarly, Salad Dressing's design of the Singapore Pavilion at the World
Expo in Dubai-which is themed " Nature. Nurture. Future. " -examines the
association between humans and nature and " portrays a resilient character of
zero water and zero energy, showcasing a culture of bio-climatic design, based
on Singapore's long experience of integrating nature into design and function of
manmade structures, " according to Huai Yan. " In collaboration with WOHA,
the Singapore Pavilion is designed with three cone-shaped steel structures clad
with greens, fusing abstract geometries among lush foliage. A micro-climate
is designed with the engagement of renewable energy technology, enabling the
pavilion to endeavor a self-sustainable ecosystem. " One of the cones features
Singapore's national flower: the hybrid orchid. " Singapore is the only nation in
the world with a hybridized flower as her national flower, " explains Huai Yan.
" The Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid has long been emblemed as embracing the
spirit of innovation with nature and life science technology. " And it furthers
the discourse about what is natural and what is manmade and the correlation
between the two.
Salad Dressing has created a
speculative landscape project
called " Rewilding the Sky " for
the International Architecture
Exhibition of the Venice Biennale
(May 22 to Nov 21, 2021).
(Rendering: Courtesy of Salad Dressing)
i+D - May/June 2021
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i+D - May/June 2021

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