robyng

...[T]he Singapore Architectural Lighting and Design conference 2014... held concurrently with iFAME (www.ifame.com.sg) and ArchXpo (www.archxpo.com) events...

I subscribe to an online design publication (I'm very interested in design) - and - as a result - received the following invitation:

We cordially invite you to join us at the only show in Singapore that is entirely dedicated to LED and OLED lighting.

It is basically a "to the [design] trade" event - and I'm not in "the trade". In some more casual cities - say Los Angeles - where "to the trade" isn't such a big deal - I might fudge a little on the RSVP - and just show up. But I suspect that wouldn't be advisable in Singapore (or other cities as well) - just because it's so orderly. I don't want to be embarrassed - or to waste anyone's time - including my own. If anyone here is "in the trade" or has anything to do with "the trade" - I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Also - one of the things I like to do when I visit a big city is visit furniture/housewares/design stores - especially those on the contemporary side. Just to see what's new. Can anyone here recommend any places like that in Singapore? Robyn

SQ319

Park Mall - it's a furniture shopping mall at Dhoby Gaut opposite Plaza Singapura. Plenty of high end furniture shop with brands you can find globally, but there are 2 shops I recommend

- Air Division
- Grafunkt

Both shops are founded by local designers (Grafunkt's owner used to be one of the founding partners of Air Division), so you can see a bit of contemporary local design. I have quite a few pieces of furniture from these 2 places.

If you have more time, the flagship outlet for Air Division is located at Mount Sophia, just 10 minutes walk from Park Mall, much bigger outlet with more pieces on display. Grafunkt's flagship is located in an industrial estate out of town, not worth the distance.

jpatokal

This ought to keep you busy for your entire visit:
http://www.expatliving.sg/homes/shop...d-more-619.ece

The outdoor shops selling teak furniture in Dempsey Rd are a bit different from the usual and worth a visit, the list above mentions a few. There's also a shopping mall called IMM out in Jurong West where the locals buy furniture, but I couldn't really recommend it as a tourist destination with a good conscience.

robyng

Thanks . That Park Mall looks interesting - fairly close to our hotel as well. I'm pretty much more interested in seeing design trends than buying anything - especially from a store 10,000 miles away from home.

Any nearby restaurants anyone can especially recommend? My husband is very content to go shopping with me if he has a good lunch first .

Also - is there any similar place for housewares/kitchen things? I actually do buy various odds and ends for my kitchen when I travel - things I can't find at home. Robyn

SQ319

On the ground floor of Park Mall is kith cafe, which does pretty good brunch, if you are inclined to have breakfast outside. Otherwise the mains are pretty decent.

If you are at the flagship Air Division shop at Wilkie Road at Mount Sophia, then I would recommend Wild Rocket which reopened recently and had many rave reviews, even from the Prime Minister who hosted a lunch for the Thai princess at the restaurant not too long ago. Wild Rocket is located in a cul de sac in Upper Wilkie Road which warrants a 10-minute walk up a hill. There may be a shortcut, but I am not very sure... you may want to ask the staff there if you indeed make the trip to Air Division. Best to make reservations for Wild Rocket...

For kitchenware, then Temple Street at Chinatown would be your best friend... there are 2 kitchenware supplies shop just units from each other - Sia Huat and Lau Choy Seng. These 2 supplies cater to commercial operations and home usage, which means u can find both industrial sized and home use kitchenware in the same shop. The shop can be a bit cluttered so you might want to browse their online catalogue first so that you know what's available.

Sia Huat actually has a retail shop (named ToTT) in the upmarket Bt Timah area which is much more suitable for browsing, but then it is out of town area and doesn't warrant a special trip just for that, unless you are interested in another furniture shop - Originals located within the same building.

Another place good for furniture shopping/browsing is Tan Boon Liat building... this blog post will give you a good preview of what's available there. Within walking distance of TBL building is Tiong Bahru conservation area which is now pretty gentrified with many hip restaurants and cafes... I wouldn't recommend a particular cafe/restaurant here, as there are too many and most have decent reviews (and also I much prefer the hawker centre located in the same area).

Finally for homeware, I'm tempted to recommend Tokyu Hands which just opened its first outlet in Singapore! But the selection is only perhap 10% of what you can find in Japan. :P No shop really stand out for homeware which I will particularly recommend.

robyng

Thank you very much for taking the time to recommend so many places. I have just started to print out maps of Singapore - and figure out where everything is. Although Singapore isn't a huge city like Tokyo - it isn't a small city either. So I want to make sure I don't plan having lunch "here" when I'm planning to go to the other end of town in the afternoon. I'm sure our hotel concierge desk will be able to put really good maps together for us when we arrive in Singapore if I give the people a general idea what I want to do/where I want to go.

Wild Rocket sounds like my kind of restaurant . And it does serve lunch - which is perfect. Only problem is it's 1.7 km "up a hill". And Google says it's a 20+ minute walk for an average person. And we're not average. We're OLD. So a cab might work better for us.

BTW - I love browsing through cluttered kitchen stores (which we don't have where I live). If I wanted to browse on line - I could do that at home. Robyn