It’s been a while living in Singapore, there are some little moments that remind me the beauty of life in Singapore. The sunset in Singapore, the falling leaves (a little bit rare in this country), the crowds seen from the ceiling of the MRT station. They all live deep in my mind and reminds me that what a beautiful country Singapore is.

During my stay in Singapore, I’ve had many chances to admire the works of Singaporean designers and architects, be it giant skyscrapers standing tall in downtown or hawker centers hidden among HDB flats. As are suggested in the title, there were two things in particular that I appreciate: the application of asymmetry and randomness.

 

Since the world-renowned Changi Airport is very close to the SUTD campus, I visited the spot as many times as I possibly could. Across the massive 4-terminal complex, I was able to find many art installations and signs of elaborate interior designs. In terminal 4, the check-in counters

 

Likewise, the SUTD library, another favorite spot of mine, also harbors asymmetric design. Shelves were seemingly randomly arranged across the place,  Back in China, libraries are often designed to be as compacted with paralleled lines of desks and shelves as possible so that they can hold a considerable number of books as well as people within the limited space. I’m not saying that this pragmatic approach is wrong, but it is definitely not fun. I believe that if one gets too pragmatic about design, the design itself would lose its charm.

We had a workshop on the 7th week designing a 5-floor building for our core studio 1 class.And last week, a review for the workshop is held to look back on what we have down.

During this workshop, I have the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with local student.We changed our view towards design and make great efforts together to make our design come true.

It is really an valuable and unforgettable experience for me!

I heard that this is the place where Singapore Chinese gather the most, and it is also one of the must-see cultural attractions for tourists coming to Singapore. From immigrant settlements to traditional cultural areas, famous buildings and temples can be found everywhere.

The downtown area is on the north and south sides of the Singapore River mouth. Urban renewal began in the 1960s. The South Bank is a bustling commercial area surrounded by tall trees. The red light pier is a night away. The famous Chinese street, Chinatown, is also in this area. The North Shore is an administrative district with flowers, trees and buildings interlaced. The environment is quiet and quiet. There are parliament, government buildings, the High Court, the Victoria Memorial Hall and the Queen’s Square Building.

It’s quite nice to teamwork with Singapore friends here. Although we may think differently, we still get through the culture gap between us and we work together as a team. We do brainstorming together and we sell out our entre product to other students in SUTD. It’s quite nice to work with them, as they are very hardworking and responsible!

As we all know, you will miss your home country badly only when you leave. So the second week in Singapore, I went to Chinatown in Singapore to try to know what Chinese culture is like in Singapore. To my delight, there are some traditional Chinese activities in Chinatown and it’s quite amazing! It felt like I was back to China again! It’s good to have diverse culture like this in Singapore!

Thanks to recess week, we were finally able to take a break from all the schoolwork and take some time to ourselves. Three of us embarked on a trip to Thailand, which later on became one of the most unforgettable experiences of our lives.

The first city we visited was Bangkok, the biggest political and financial hub of the country.  After settling down at our guesthouse, we immediately left for Siam, which is probably the most bustling and busy area throughout Thailand. At Siam, we strolled among the fancy malls, enjoyed some authentic Tom Yum Goong, and visited the world-renowned Erawan Shrine. Later we took the cab to the older part of the town and got off at Khao San Road. It turned out that the crazy traffic jams I’ve read about are not an exaggeration at all. It literally took us forever to reach the older part of the town by cab, and as a result, all of us fell asleep in the taxi.

 

The second day we set our itinerary mostly around Mae Nam Chao Phraya, a river flowing across the city. We skipped the Grand Palace because it was crowded with tourists, so we enjoyed ourselves in local parks and markets instead. We went to Wat Arun though, which is a really magnificent temple located right next to the river.

Later that day, we packed up our stuff and left for our second destination…