Singapore, the design capital of Asia?

I have a long time wanted to do this post on Singapore. Before I ever went there, I had the image of a city with strict rules and order. I had thought the city was full of huge buildings, and the traffic would be overwhelming. However, I was wrong.

Singapore offers a nice, warm (hot!) and clean place to live and even the nightlife is lively with many huge nichtclubs and smaller pubs to spend an evening. Restaurants can be found on any cuisine available, even though my favorites were the local, chinese and indian. Everything (not alcohol) is considerably cheap, compared to Finland. For Shopping, Singapore offers huge amount of different boutiques and shops.

For a young designer like me the city has quite many possibilities. I would think that a student exchange, if possible, would be nice thing to consider. Also the amount of internships available will for sure be growing, since the design boom that is taking place there. Design is very valued and appraised. Things Like the red dot design museum really put Sg to the design map. During my visit the office had numerous interviews for magazines and National TV. Also some v.i.p´s visited the office. Places besides DW , interships can be found in numerous companies, HP and Philips design, to mention a few.

All in all, the reason to really consider Singapore for the exchange/internship, is the climate. My eyes still sometimes dwell to the the beaches of Malaysia, which are actually just a bus ride away. In addition, cheap living expenses, good service and also very international population make Singapore a place worth checking out.