Marking the nation’s 60th anniversary of independence, Singapore Design Week 2025—organised by the DesignSingapore Council (DSG) from September 11-21, 2025—revolves around the theme Nation by Design, reaffirming the role of design in shaping Singapore’s urban identity. The design event will bring forth several large-scale installations, design exhibitions and collaborations across its four design districts—Bras Basah.Bugis, Marina, Orchard and the newly inaugurated Singapore Science Park. Among its offerings, the distinguished FIND Design Fair Asia is anticipated to take centre stage at the Marina design district. From elaborate exhibitions and installations to curious talks and seminars, the fourth edition of the design fair—scheduled from September 11-13, 2025—looks forward to transforming the district into an immersive setting through its layered, multidisciplinary programme to celebrate the nation's design legacy.

The design fair is organised by dmg events and Fiera Milano, showcasing a culmination of eastern and western realms of design. As a media partner, STIR explores various works from the fair that collectively act as active interlocutors shaping the conversations on the future of design.

Spotlighting over 300 global brands alongside a series of country pavilions, the showcase includes returning installations from the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Italy, Singapore and Thailand and debut pavilions from France and Hong Kong. The EMERGE @ FIND showcase is a standout feature of the design fair, comprising over 100 works by 70 designers. Through diverse global and local showcases, it invites multicultural exploration to give rise to a hybrid language of design where different cultures and their creative reimaginations together create a complex collective identity while asserting their presence in the design landscape.

While the previous edition featured showcases limited to Southeast Asia, this edition in particular expands beyond these boundaries, bringing in designers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. With the theme Dialogue Through Design, the showcase explores design as a language and a tool for storytelling and navigation rather than an aesthetic pursuit. It is structured around two sections, Design Object—focusing on material innovation and craftsmanship—and Design Social, which delves into the role of design in shaping the socio-cultural and environmental landscape. Describing the ethos of the platform, lifestyle brand Supermama’s founder and the design fair’s co-curator Edwin Low says in an official press statement, “As the first Singaporean curator for EMERGE, I am proud to present a showcase reflecting where design in Asia is headed, it’s one rooted in material culture, open to new voices, methods and ways of connecting. What excites me most is seeing a shift from solitary authorship to collaborative making, from static outcomes to dynamic engagement.”

Singaporean designers Shervon and Melvin Ong’s Threads of Becoming, created in collaboration with lacquer threading expert Andy Yeo, will reveal hand-threaded lacquer technique from religious effigies through 3D printing, while transdisciplinary designer Eian Siew’s lighting design (Air)just will explore how air might hold or diffuse light, studying its illumination upon a surface.

Other key presentations include a spotlight on the endangered practice of ramie fibre cultivation through Sound of Ramie by Indonesian textile designer Lana Daya, Ho Chi Minh City-based LAITA Design’s industrial acrylic bending techniques for a series of console tables and shelves (WV collection), Bangkok-based THINKK Studio’s Loopline furniture merging concrete, recycled plastic and rice husk through a 3D printing technology and Margarita Viray’s cross-hatching inspired Hatch Occasional Chair which has been crafted from machine-cut veneer strips.

Several East Asian designers are also debuting at the EMERGE @ FIND 2025, including Seoul-based designer Ok Kim, who presents Merge_Wishing Pagoda, inspired by the South Korean tradition of stacking stones to express wishes and hopes. In contrast, Hong Kong’s Ultramar Studio looks to celestial mythology and imperial architecture to craft its Citadel light sculptures. Japan-born textile designer Amy Lewis pays homage to the traditional practice of crafting Samurai armours with repurposed metals, reinterpreting the forms of the armour in Samurai Spirit using industrial waste while Taiwan’s Jochieh Huang of Tshioh Rushcraft takes rush grass and turns it into the Rush Tableware collection, integrating tableware designs inspired by traditional Taiwanese culture and history into a modern dining experience.

The fair’s pedagogic entity, the FIND Global Summit this year, is pulling over 60 cross-disciplinary professionals from the disciplines of architecture, design and hospitality, where the dialogue intends to explore the evolving design landscape and opportunities in Southeast Asia. The three-day programme of diverse keynote addresses, masterclasses and seminars, includes a dedicated lighting design segment by the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), along with discussion panels converging distinguished professionals from architecture, design and allied disciplines. The key sessions include Urban Transformation: Architecture as a Catalyst for Change by Zaha Hadid Architects’ director Simon Yu, Ramboll Group’s Bernd Michael Schernau on Tropical Canopies: Building Everyday Sanctuaries in the City, Italian architect Mario Cucinella’s Creative Empathy, and Japanese architect Keiji Ashizawa’s Layering Volumes: A holistic approach to Space and Object.

The FIND Design Fair also prioritises fostering a rich professional network amidst the evolving market dynamics, inviting collaboration and discourse on regional design. Along with partnering with international brands and media, the fair’s VIP Buyer Programme arranges meetings between the exhibitors and potential buyers to assist in design trades. Supported by DSG, Society of Interior Designers Singapore (SIDS), Asia Pacific Space Designers Association (APSDA) and Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC), among others, the fair reinstates its role as Asia’s leading design marketplace.

Fusing craftsmanship with technology and heritage with innovation, FIND extends its multicultural exploration into a transnational dialogue as it introduces an extended Pan-Asian presence beyond Southeast Asia into the global design discourse. As the theme Nation by Design gestures towards next chapters of the discipline, the fair underscores the value of resourceful, experimental and collaborative designs that traverse cultures, technologies and communities.