Equatorial Utopia: 50 years’ Visionary Architecture in Singapore
26 Apr - 12 Jun | Co-curated with FCL Global's Dense and Green Cities, the Equatorial Utopia exhibition in Geneva will showcase developments in the built and plant environment in Singapore.
The exhibition EQUATORIAL UTOPIA is an immersive and singular dive into the built and plant environment of Singapore. It will be hosted at Pavillon Sicli, Geneva, Switzerland, from April 26th to June 12th, 2022.
Through immersive projections, a dynamic map as well as imposing cutting plans, the exhibition offers a singular channel into the art of Singapore's construction. Visitors are able to discover selected projects from 1970 to the present day, testifying to the utopian dimension of its architecture.
The exhibition was developed in collaboration with G8A Architecture & Urban Planning and the Singapore-ETH Centre, Future Cities Laboratory. A satellite exhibition was presented at the Venice Biennale 2021, at the European Cultural Center – Palazzo Bembo.
Exhibition sypnosis:
Often subject to strong Western influence, the visionary architecture and urban planning of Singapore has been moderated, adapted and transformed according to the socio-cultural, economic, climatic and political conditions of the land. The exhibition chooses to illustrate this significant impact on the architectural discourse in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Singapore has experienced particularly rapid urban development over the past fifty years. A small island state with limited natural resources and territory, Singapore has an estimated current population of around 5.6 million. After becoming an independent republic in 1965, this city-state quickly undertook industrialization and urbanization programs in order to provide jobs and housing for its inhabitants. Since then, Singapore has always placed great importance on the built environment as well as the natural setting and its vision of the built environment has evolved from a “garden city” to that of a “city in a garden”. In this context, Singapore has hosted a number of visionary projects that can be seen as “utopian modernist constructions” underpinning the creation of a new nation.