Singapore awarded for social design

Social design is among the most interdisciplinary areas, in response to the major contemporary challenges in continuous transformation. The richness and diversity of the Singaporean society has led an increasing number of designers to seek inclusive solutions aimed at improving the quality of life on different levels. Already in 2013, NCSS’s Pumpkin Lab was born in Singapore to catalize innovation in social services, proposing design thinking as a method for revolutionizing the patient care experience.

More recently, last February 2022, Poh Yun Ru - Singaporean product designer of the Design Incubation Centre - won the Lexus Design Award 2022 with the Rewind project, a platform that guides seniors affected by dementia in the re-enactment of family gestures. Through a device that tracks the user’s movements, the platform reflects audio-visual feedbacks on another device, bringing the user to relive everyday sensations. A design with a high social impact to support rehabilitation therapies, result of collaboration between engineers, medical professionals, programmers and the Department of Industrial Design of the University of Singapore. The project was presented during the Milan Design Week 2022 in the exhibition "Sparks of Tomorrow" at Superstudio Più.