Giant Crocheted Urchins Float above Singapore’s Marina Bay
Massachusetts-based Choi+Shine Architects have designed urchin-shaped crocheted installations to float above Maria Bay in Singapore during the 2017 iLight Marina Bay Festival. “The Urchins” were designed to respond to the festival’s biomimicry and sustainability theme. They were crocheted, in Boston, by more than 50 people in a two and half month duration. White double braided polyester was used for the crochet fabric shell, which was illuminated by white spotlights to give a self-radiating effect.
Each of the three massive urchins is 17-meter-high and weighs 100 kilograms, and they can be entered by visitors. Their light-weight floating forms present a harmonious transition between the surrounding built and natural environment. They sway with the wind and react to daylight by casting the soft shadow of their patterns on the ground, whereas at night they glow with the aid of the spotlight.
The designers meant for “The Urchins” to give viewers inspiration and momentarily release them from their daily mundane life. “Seeing hovering and glowing lacy objects against majestic skyscrapers and dark water would make them pause and gaze,” said the designers. “This momentary pause of the mundane routine of our life would hopefully give us an opportunity to find the poetry around us.”
