18-04-2017

Choi + Shine The Urchins Marina Bay Singapore

Choi + Shine (Jin Choi & Thomas Shine),

Singapore,

Installations,

Choi + Shine’s installation for the I Light Marina Bay Festival added a poetic touch to the Singapore skyline using a traditional manual technique, crocheting, to create macro light objects inspired by the natural shape of the sea urchin.



Choi + Shine The Urchins Marina Bay Singapore

In the month of March the historic centre of Singapore was decorated with light installations for "I light Marina Bay", a light festival held with the involvement of artists and designers from all over the world. One of the installations that attracted our attention is The Urchins by architects Jin Choi e Thomas Shine of Choi + Shine, who used a traditional manual technique, crocheting, to create macro light objects inspired by the natural shape of the sea urchin. 

In their interpretation of the themes of the ilight Marina Bay festival, biomimetics and sustainability, Jin Choi and Thomas Shine drew their inspiration from sea urchin shells, making big lightweight openwork spheres of white lace. The spheres are made up of twenty hand-crocheted panels stretched over an aluminium frame which forms their metal skeleton and then suspended above the ground on steel cables.

Lace is normally a small-scale celebratory object which is part of a private memory. But each urchin was made of about 17000 m of polyester rope, creating a macro-object which surprises and astounds visitors. The architects see this manual technique that is commonly known all over the world as a metaphor for symbolically joining different peoples and cultures. And in technical terms, crocheting permits creation of a harmonious structure through ldquo;rythmic” repetition of geometric modules. Looking at the city skyline through this filter, or at the shadows it casts by day and the lights in it at night, we are invited to see the poetry and marvel in everything around us.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Project: Choi + Shine (Jin Choi & Thomas Shine)
Location: Marina Bay Singapore

Images courtesy by Choi + Shine

www.choishine.com


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