Singapore based design firm, Design Act designed this entry into the World Expo 2010 Singapore Pavilion competition called ‘My Dream, Our Vision’. Selected as one of the finalists, alongside the likes of Ministry of Design, their submission attempts to take a much more conceptual approach.

Kay Ngee Tan Architects and partners were awarded lead architect for their winning concept.

Titled ‘My Dream, Our Vision’, Design Act’s competition entry uses permutated cubes to generate a spectacular sculpture that is visually stunning and celebrative.

Synonymous with Singapore being efficient, dynamic, cosmopolitan, forward looking, simultaneously futuristic and traditional, the Singapore spirit:  serves as a key metaphor that relates to the entire spectrum of connotations, associating Singapore (xin jia bo, Singapore’s mandarin name) with being progressive, re-inventive and innovative.

The pavilion is made of an illuminated digital cloud hovering over an ever-changing green pasture. It invites you to enter a dark underground space with audio feeds alluding to the background services which serve the city, and catapults you into the bright and white digital cloud, where you are encouraged to post your dreams. Made of 3866 cubes of modular sizes with varying levels of transparency, the pavilion is strategically sloped at the base to allow visitors to experience the ritual of making their dreams becoming a reality.

About the proposed Singapore Pavilion
The Singapore Pavilion at the World Exposition 2010 is driven to present Singapore as the perfect example of a city that holds all the possibilities of transforming the lives of everyone who comes in contact with it. The Pavilion’s key objective is to offer Singapore both as a city of possibilities and a city of dreams and vision. As much as it can transform lives, this city of dreams and vision can embody the idea of possibilities only in as much as lives transform it.

The Pavilion shows the sides of a City that is continually driven by progressive change. This is brought under the umbrella of the powerful trans-lingual word that is also representative of the Singapore spirit: It includes Singapore’s human side, its pulse and excitement, opportunities and achievements.

Visitors to the Pavilion do not merely visit it; they participate in it to make dreams happen. This is very much like the experience of being in Singapore itself. The idea of activity emphasizes the dynamism and vitality of a unique Singaporean experience. Here, the emphasis is on human interactions and connections as the city’s driving force, and that these are already the fabric of a city very much alive to the rubric of sustainability.

The physical structure of the Singapore Pavilion stands out from its surrounding by being designed to look like a cloud, which is closely associated with various dream-like qualities. It has three levels: a sub-level (basement), a ground-level Plaza, and a mezzanine level inside the Pavilions cloud-crown.

It will contain 8 separate chambers of experience, all of which converge to allow the narrative of the Singapore Story to come alive:

The Tunnel – in a journey through the city’s hidden side

The Dream Maker – collective dream-making

Transition through Cloud – and through a sequence of collected dreams

Dream Register – multi-media/sensory interpretation of Singaporean’s dreams

Wishing Tunnel – visitors share their dreams with the world

Dream-harvester – a digital rain experience

Space Warper – disorientates to transit between dream and reality

Green Pasture – the green pasture

A city is organic, made alive by its inhabitants. A living city is the cumulative product of the soul, spirit and experience of its participants. A city of possibilities is an extended identity of the collective aspirations, memories, and dreams of all who live in it, work in it and play in it. Its vitality is a microcosm of the world.

The city is human. The city is SINGAPORE.