Drawing Dialogues: Stories of Decay by Superlative Futures

Decay, decomposition, weathering, rot. Landscapes eroding, architectures disintegrating, bodies breaking down, coming apart, becoming dirt. We hardly have a kinship with decay for, like dirt, decay is—in the words of anthropologist Mary Douglas—matter out-of-place in our perpetually renewing cities. Indeed, the city we are brought to inhabit and desire is built with ever-more weatherproof architectures, with cosmetic treatments that maintain the hardness of the buildings and the smoothness of their surfaces impervious to the traces of Nature’s time. In waterfront cities, which novelist Amitav Ghosh regards as a showcase of architectural mastery over the unruly environment, the cartography of terrestrial edges continues to reinforce the separation of interiorised human-made worlds from exteriorised more-than-human environment. Seen through the lens of the city, the design of the future Earth aspires to be atemporal. And like so many transient and shifting environments stilled in human projections of the Earth (from maps to masterplans), the “unweathered” city must thrive outside of time, devoid of stains and discolouration. But does the city have to be in an anxious race against Nature’s time?

Created and led by Superlative Futures, Drawing Dialogues: Stories of Decay is a workshop for re-attuning our urban selves to Nature’s time. The programme focuses on rethinking the place of decay in the wellbeing of cities and on re-presenting stories of decay as matters of care. The workshop will start off with a walk in the Berlayer Creek­—a rare remnant of Singapore’s mangrove histories once denigrated as a place of dankness and disease—where participants will be led to uncover stories of decay and gather thoughts and materials of decomposition. The second part of the workshop will take place at NTU CCA Singapore where, drawing and dialoguing with decay, participants will be guided to create their own narratives and landscapes of decay culminating in a collaborative artwork. Expanding on Superlative Futures’ speculative design research on new ecological practices for weathering the future city, this workshop marks the beginning of a propositional archive—A Cartography of Decay—that charts different relationships between decay and the city.

This event is a public programme created in response to the exhibition Design Earth: Speculative Fiction for the Climate, on view by appointment at NTU ADM Gallery 2 until 15 August 2025.

Workshop Schedule

9:00 – 10:00am

Meet at Labrador Park MRT, Exit A

Move as a group to Berlayer Creek

10:30am – 12:00pm

Drawing session at The Hall, NTU CCA Singapore

It is recommended to bring water, sunblock, umbrella, mosquito repellent, and notetaking materials (e.g. pencil/pen and paper). This is a rain or shine event.

This workshop is free with registration. A refundable deposit of $10 is requested to reserve a slot. The deposit will be returned upon attendance of the event. To qualify for a refund, the reservation must be cancelled by 24 July, 12pm. Late cancellation will not be refunded.

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Superlative Futures is a transdisciplinary design and research agency in Singapore co-founded by Wong Zi Hao and Liu Dian Cong. Their research practice centres on creative modes of representation to advocate new ways of seeing landscapes, speculative social imaginaries and futuring urban practices to relate differently with more-than-human worlds. They see their design output as a practice of care. They have exhibited at NUS Museum and were supported by Singapore Art Museum’s inaugural Design Research Fellowship (2024-2025). Wong received his PhD in Architecture at the National University of Singapore in 2023, having completed a design-led research on intertidal practices of care. Alongside his research practice, Wong teaches at the Department of Architecture, National University Singapore (NUS) and at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of Arts Singapore. Liu currently practices as an architectural designer. He completed a Master of Architecture at NUS in 2024 working on sedimentation and alternative conceptions of “ground”.

Images: (1) Zi Hao Wong, Letters to Decay, 2022-2023. Courtesy the artist. (2) Superlative Futures, Making a Mangled/Mangrove Drawing (2025), shown at “Still Rendering” as part of the inaugural cycle of the Design Research Fellowship (2024-25), initiated by SAM Design Collection.