COMPLETED

LOCATION: SINGAPORE, 6 Raffles Boulevard, Singapore 039594

MATERIAL: Plywood, Brick‍ ‍

The domestic interior is often conceived as a place of permanence, a stable environment set against the uncertainties of the world outside. Yet the materials and objects that make up our homes are increasingly dependent on global systems of production, distribution and consumption. What appears settled is, in reality, contingent on a complex network of resources, labour and logistics.

Held in Suspension explores this condition through an installation for Xtra 5designdays, using familiar building materials such as timber studs, bricks and timber planks, assembled with straps, clamps and customised joints.

These are ordinary materials, commonly used in construction, but their assembly departs from conventional building methods. Some of the connections are specially designed to hold the components together without permanently bonding them with cement, grout or adhesives, allowing the assembly to be dismantled and the materials reused.

Process

The installation considers construction as an act of assembly rather than consumption. Building materials are often treated as expendable once they have been incorporated into a structure. Their value is locked into a finished form, and recovering that value frequently requires demolition. Here, the materials remain intact, retaining the possibility of another configuration, another use. The customized joints are integral to this approach, turning the act of fastening into a design exercise in its own right.

01/ Digital Experimentation and 1:10 Model Making

02/ 1:1 Factory Mockups for Testing

03/ Workshop Assembly of Parts

Set against the refined furniture on display, the installation also questions the meaning of luxury in the contemporary domestic interior. At a time when furniture and interior finishes can be mass-produced, replicated and rapidly circulated, the appearance of value does not necessarily guarantee its substance. Luxury need not be defined by accumulation or the simulation of permanence. It may instead lie in having what is essential, made with care and intended to endure.

Held in Suspension proposes a different relationship between materials, construction and value. Rather than seeking permanence through irreversible fixing, it explores how value might be retained through the capacity to assemble, disassemble and begin again.