Beyond the Surface: Project X at SingaPlural 2015

Celebrating the best of our local creative community, Singapore Design Week is now in full swing! SingaPlural 2015, SDW's anchor event, kicks things off with Project X, Lamitak's collaborative showcase with four local design talents. While we usually see laminate surfaces as furnishings for the home, the truth is, it's a very versatile material that can be used in creative ways.  

1) The Marriage

Marrying real flower petals with artificial laminate petals, designer Miun used Lamitak laminates to create blooms from her imagination. "I begin with the essence of a flower, which is one of my favourite materials." At her booth, the audience can try their hand at creating their own floral piece. Wielding a glue gun while chatting with the interested audience, Miun is busy as a bee. Intricate and colourful, it is no wonder Miun's display was one of the more popular of the night.

 

2) Pick and Play

The essence of In Merry Motion's installation is celebration bunting. Shedding traditional materials such as cloth and paper, celebration designers Weiyan and Joyce opted for Lamitak laminates for its relative hardiness. "At the root of it, laminates are actually also made of paper. However, they're different from cloth and paper because they're a hard material and can be hung onto string without being flimsy." Joyce and I discussed other ways to use Pick and Play bunting - some of the ideas yielded include wedding-day bunting that can be kept on display in the bedroom for remembrance.

 

3) Hundreds and Thousands

Unlike the others, designer Tiffany Loy's display is clean and simple - a wave of maroon wall, and a round dinner table in the middle. Upon closer inspection, it turns out that Tiffany's creation is a laminate material reminiscent of mosaic inlay, and can be used as wall or table cladding. The key takeaway about Tiffany's work is the play on texture. "I'm material driven, and when looking at the samples in the Lamitak catalogue, I saw them not as wood grains but, more abstractly, as a gradation of colours." "Just like brushstrokes," she adds.

 

4) Pack

As spatial architects, wynk; collaborative visualised laminates as a structural material. Since laminates are waterproof and resistant, these three guys wanted to make full use of these qualities. "Pack is a wordplay on flat pack as well as a pack of animals. We were inspired to create ready-to-assemble pet homes, and to take it up a notch, made it modular." Easily configurable with standard components of different sizes, Pack can be switched up to accommodate a growing pet.

  Project X is an exploration of the laminate as a design material outside of the conventional. While we were drawn to Miun's artistic blooms, Tiffany's practical table cladding gets our vote. Functional and hardy, we can actually see her designs in our kitchen and dining table. If you haven't, go check out what our local designers have to offer at Singaplural 2015. Singapore Design Week is held from 10 to 22 March so you still have plenty of time, but don't drag your heels! Peruse their programme schedule for event highlights.