Design News: Orchid Show’s free marketplace, new alfresco space at Raffles Hotel
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The Gomesa Millennium Gold (left) and the Aranda Lee Kuan Yew will be shown at A Spotlight On Singapore’s Unique Orchid Heritage.
PHOTOS: NPARKS
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Orchid Show includes free MarketPlace
An orchid and gardening MarketPlace at the Orchid Show will showcase blooms from more than 50 vendors from famed orchid-growing areas such as Ecuador, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand.
The Orchid Show will be held from Aug 16 to 20 at the Singapore Expo as part of the 14th Asia Pacific Orchid Conference, which is organised by the National Parks Board and the Orchid Society of South East Asia.
The 2023 event – with the theme Diversity, Conservation, Culture – comprises the showcase and a four-day conference programme. It is the first time the conference will be held here since the event’s inaugural edition in 1984.
The Orchid Show will also feature exhibits by the Floral Designers Society (Singapore) and Ikebana International Singapore Chapter 135, a floral fashion showcase by ITE College Central students, and an Orchid Plant Competition.
Info: Entry to the MarketPlace is free. Tickets to the main Orchid Show start at $15 for single-day adult admission, from Sistic ( go.gov.sg/apoc14-orchidshow go.gov.sg/apoc14
Palm Terrace by Writers Bar opens at Raffles Hotel
Raffles Hotel Singapore’s Writers Bar has expanded to include the alfresco Palm Terrace by Writers Bar.
PHOTO: RAFFLES HOTEL SINGAPORE
Raffles Hotel Singapore’s Writers Bar has expanded to include Palm Terrace by Writers Bar, a breezy alfresco space at the eastern portico of the 136-year-old hotel.
The launch of the new space – located next to the Writers Bar and near swaying palm trees at the Palm Court – is part of celebrations to introduce the hotel’s third Writer’s Residency.
The programme was launched in 2019 to reinvigorate the hotel’s rich literary heritage, which includes guests such as English writer William Somerset Maugham and Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad.
The 2023 Writer’s Residency will feature the programme’s first Singaporean writer and poet, Madeleine Lee, an award-winning investment manager and poet. She was the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ Writer-in-Residence from 2014 to 2015 and has performed at literary festivals around the world.
Her new collection of poems is called How To Build A Lux Hotel, and captures her observations of the hotel’s sounds and spaces during her past stays.
The Writers Bar has also refreshed its menu to include a selection of highballs with Perrier.
Info: Go to rafflessingapore.com
Kids’ fashion celebrates Singapore’s flora and fauna
Mouses & Birds’ Tropical Forest line of kids’ fashion features plants and animals found in Singapore’s parks and nature reserves.
PHOTOS: AMANDA MOK
Home-grown baby and childrenswear label Mouses & Birds has collaborated with architect, artist and former executive director of Design Singapore Council Mark Wee on two special-edition designs called Wild About Singapore! to celebrate National Day on Aug 9.
The Marine Otter print shines a spotlight on the animal that has become one of Singapore’s unofficial mascots.
Meanwhile, the Tropical Forest line features plants and animals found in Singapore’s parks and nature reserves, such as long-tailed macaques, hornbills, banana trees and bird’s nest ferns. The rare Raffles’ banded langur, a native monkey species which is critically endangered in Singapore, also appears.
Artist-illustrator Amanda Mok, who founded Mouses & Birds in August 2022, says that when she met Mr Wee to explore a collaboration, “things just clicked”.
“Mark would create illustrations of what we felt were good representations of local plants and animals, and I’d respond to his artwork by imagining how they would interact with and play off one another, weaving them together,” she says. She is married with two young sons.
She and Mr Wee met earlier in 2023 at retail and incubation space Design Orchard, at a networking event to enable collaborations among artists and Singaporean labels.
Mr Wee says: “I felt that Amanda’s philosophy for Mouses & Birds about encouraging play and imagination in children resonated with my own work and its basis of inspiration.
“Inspired by some of my earlier artworks of Singapore’s tropical forests, we created the Wild About Singapore! collaborative collection to celebrate natural habitats that we are so blessed to have in Singapore.”
Info: Go to the online shop at mousesandbirds.com @mousesandbirds markwee.sg
