Singapore – Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) has announced the launch of the Archi-Skin Design Competition in partnership with Asia’s premier solid surfaces provider, Luxx Newhouse Group. The inaugural competition is calling for architects and students alike to submit their architectural skin designs from 1-28 December 2017. 

The Archi-Skin Design Competition invites professional submissions to two categories: Completed Projects and Conceptual Design. In addition, a special segment of the Conceptual Design is created for students to “Skin Again” a building at a specific site – Blk 93, Jalan Dua, Singapore – a typical Housing Development Board (HDB) block of flats.

One professional winner in the Completed Projects category and the Conceptual Design category will be selected and awarded with the top prize money of SGD 6,500, trophy and certificate, with a possibility of realisation of the winning Conceptual Design. A student winner of the Conceptual Design sub-category will also stand to win prize money of SGD 3,000, trophy and certificate.

The Skin is a complex organ that extends as the key interface between the inside and the outside. It also extends inwards and transform into key tissue that in many ways define what the organism is. In Architecture, its ‘Skin” has a similar role. It protects, it extends, it negotiates with the environment to affect the spatial quality within as well as the urban context without. It can also be an armature and stratum for a multitude of systems. From living systems to system to convey people and services. It also can also swell out to accommodate an in between zone that in itself is another space.

In the increasingly complex role in which the urban metropolis plays in natural ecology the design of the Architectural Skin in the urban context becomes crucial. It cannot just be the boundary of an object. It needs to transcend and trans mutate to be relevant.
“SIA is delighted to partner with Luxx Newhouse Group for this competition. It is a good investigative avenue that forays into new material technologies as well as potential enhanced environmental performances,” said Mr Seah Chee Huang, First Vice President, Design Thrust Chair of SIA.

“For architects to be involved in the creative process from the onset is key as an acknowledgement that designer and product are increasingly equally vested in the process of making architecture meaningful and sustainable for its users,” added Mr Seah.

The jury panel includes Mr Ashvinkumar, Past President and Chairperson for Design Competition Committee of Singapore Institute of Architects; Associate Professor Eric L’Heureux, Lecturer of the NUS Department of Architecture and Mr Jimmy Tong, President of Luxx Newhouse Group.

“It piqued us with great interest at Luxx Newhouse Group to witness the creative minds in their pursuit in well thought out applications of materials and technology in their design to achieve architectural excellence. Personally, I would like to live in a city with a new landscape of buildings which are multi-sensory, alive, artistic and energy-saving efficient. The Archi-Skin Design competition is a new experimentation in making our city more livable and enjoyable.” _said Mr. Jimmy Tong, President of Luxx Newhouse Group.

This design competition which will run for three years aims to be a platform for the consolidation of the best examples of Architectural skin as well as the place for the ideation of what Skin can be for Architecture. 

Submissions to the competition will be opened from 1 to 28 December 2017 via the competition website: http://siaarchiawards.sg/archi-skin2017