We were given the opportunity to participate in this year’s Singapore Design Week, Re-Route: Orchard Festival 2024. The festival’s theme, Be Here Now, calls upon designers to reimagine Orchard Road.

The event was held from September 26 to October 6. We collaborated with Higher Nitec in Production Performance, Gmaximus, and Nowafter Cafe to bring this vision to life.

We took this festival’s opportunity to bring together a cafe in Orchard Road, a sustainability startup that upcycles coffee grounds, and our team’s expertise in design to put together a project that brings awareness on coffee grounds’ second life.

As our founders are also educators and believe in applied learning pedagogy, we reached out to students for an opportunity to take on industry collaborative projects, allowing them to apply theory and hone their practical skills. We were fortunate to have onboard a team from Higher Nitec in Performance Production from the School of Design & Media, ITE, to contribute in technical design.

The installation is a showcase of an immersive digital projection experience, and lifestyle products upcycled from used coffee grounds. For the immersive experience, we designed a state-of-the-art 3D virtual cafe that pulls the audience in and takes the visitor on a journey of how those grounds are transformed into eco-friendly products.

The products on display include keychains, coasters, potted plants, made by our collaborator Gmaximus, with coffee grounds from Nowafter Cafe in Design Orchard.

We hope our installation would spark further discussions on circular economy practices, inspire communities (in Orchard and beyond) and future generations, promote innovative retail concepts, and contribute to a more sustainable and meaningful place we live in.

WOWCARDSTUDIO

Li En
Richie

Higher Nitec in Performance Production

Yeo Ren Kang
Fauzi Johari
Chayada Ng
Muhammad Nazri

Gmaximus

Valerian Loke

Nowafter Cafe

Gena Neo