The PARK(ing) day initiative started in 2005 by Rebar, a San Francisco based art and design studio, and supported by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URA) this year to involve our community to celebrate and enliven public spaces through innovative designs.

Flex – “Community Parklet Series” is originally conceptualised by design consultancy COLOURS and fabricated by Innoverde with it’s newly launched green building panel – MultiPanel. The idea of Flex is to allow residents to form seats and tables of their desired choice and to be reconfigured to suit their diverse needs and adapt to different environments easily by themselves.

The fabrication of the Flex prototype is of utmost importance and note worthy as the choice of material required should be strong enough to take the weight of people seated and yet lightweight for easy mobility. Being placed outdoors, it needed to be waterproof and weatherproof to ensure its durability as well.

“When Dr Chong Keng Hua and Fong Ing from COLOURS approached us with the design and requirements of Flex, we found that MultiPanel fit all the criteria to build it. MultiPanel is 100% waterproof, weatherproof, lightweight yet strong. It is an energy efficient, environmentally friendly material that is an alternative to timber based products; a very easy material to work with.” said Ken Pereira, CEO of Innoverde.

The inclusion of the planter in the design also empowers residents to grow their own “container garden” in public spaces, promoting a sense of ownership of the place without privatising the area. With this movement, apart from creating additional outdoor spaces for residents to hang out at, the “container garden” enables people to “green’’ the area as well. Due to it’s lightweight nature, Flex can also be placed on green roofs without the need to strengthen building structures.

Moving forward, Innoverde aims to explore more community based concepts with COLOURS and to implement game-changing, green solutions to the construction industry that would help increase productivity and alleviate the manpower crunch.

Flex is now sitting in Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD) campus.

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