Neutropolis
Singapore Design Week
A Collaborative Dining Experience Transforming the Discarded into a 4-course Dégustation Menu
2024
What does it mean to savour the discarded?
Neutropolis was an intimately staged 4-course dégustation for 80 guests, presented as part of Neufolk Encounters at Marina Central during Singapore Design Week 2024. The menu drew from Tapæstry – a graduation project by Spatial and Product Design students from LaSalle College of the Arts – which reimagined discarded peels and forgotten fragments as conceptual materials: plastic, cement, metal, wood. Transformed into fine tapas, each course reframed waste as something worth tasting, worth remembering.
At the centre of the Neufolk Pavilion stood a table designed to gather. Round, modular, and built to be dismantled and rebuilt — it carried the circular spirit of Neutropolis in its very construction. Around it, a curated showcase of sustainable designer works added to the theme and immersive ambience. Nothing here was one-use. The furniture was designed to be in modular parts, easily assembled for this moment and ready to serve the next in future.
Every object on the table was considered. The menu book, the tableware and the handwritten namecards for each guest – each designed to carry the same intention as the food itself. Nothing incidental, nothing wasted.
Tapæstry – neu materials made from discarded food peels and forgotten fragments, inspiring an edible 4-course mimicry.
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![Plastic Pastries]()
01 Plastic Pastries
Styrofoam, polyethylene and silicone transformed into a kudzu powder crisp, a pumpernickel and jam cake, and a water chestnut nougat.
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![Cement Canapes]()
02 Cement Canapés
Plaster and tile grout become chicken glutinous rice, a yam cake, and a fried fish cake garnished with fried onions and soy crumble.
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![An image of the Cultural Center.]()
03 Metal Munchies
Bronze wires, foil, discarded fruit peels and walnut shells translated into dessert bites topped with chicken floss, candied orange and edible silver dust.
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04 Wood Wafers
Sawdust and coffee grounds interpreted into oat, almond, and kopi-o cookie delights.
Our reinterpretation of Tapæstry into a delightful dégustation menu of fine tapas.
“From our inaugural event, we saw how art and food design can reveal the potential in waste materials like nothing else can.”
MICHELLE AU,
CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF NOTTOFU
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![An image of the Cultural Center.]()
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Neutropolis was made possible through the collaboration with:
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Nathan Yong, Nathan Yong Design
DESIGN COLLABORATOR
BA (Hons) School of Spatial and Product Design students of LaSalle College of the Arts
VENUE PARTNER
Millenial Walk, Marina Central
CULINARY PARTNER
Delphine Liau & Kenneath Seah, Studio KDS
CATERING PARTNER
Oh’s Farm Catering