SINGAPORE — The organisers of the annual Archifest, now in its ninth edition, are shaking things up a little this year. Most notably, it has done away with its usual draw of having a festival pavilion. Instead, it is inviting the public to help reimagine what the future of Singapore will be like, keeping in line with the theme of the two-week festival: What Future.

“As we celebrate SG50, we want to have an idea of what kind of opportunities there are for the built environment of Singapore for the next 50 years,” said Richard Ho, chairperson of Design Thrust, the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA), which organises the yearly event.

Kicking off from Sept 26 to Oct 10, Archifest will see most of its activities take place in the new SIA Building on Neil Road to “celebrate the SIA premises with the public”, hence the decision to forego a festival pavilion. Visitors can go there and take part in the workshops, as well as look at the exhibitions and installations. And yes, it’s all free.

Some of the highlights of Archifest include the digital exhibition, The New Good Old Days, which sees some of Singapore’s old iconic buildings, such as the National Theatre and Big Splash, “revived” against a backdrop of contemporary Singapore. Another highlight — and a new addition to the line-up — is Archifilm, which will screen a series of short films and two feature films — Royston Tan’s Old Places and Old Romances — at the SIA Building.

What is also interesting is that Archifest is getting the public involved in the natural aspect of our environment, by having coastal clean-up and farming activities. Nature Society (Singapore) will be organising the annual International Coastal Clean Up Singapore at the Mandai mudflats, while Open Farm Community at Dempsey will be having a gardening session and talk in its premises as part of Archifest.

Even children are not forgotten. There are complimentary children’s craft workshops (held in October to mark Children’s Day) where they can construct miniature models of cities to bring home or contribute to the large-scale city model. Little architects can also learn to design, code and animate their ideas in the programming session, Scratch The Future, using the popular Scratch computer programme.

For those looking forward to the highly popular Architours, you won’t be disappointed: There are eight tours taking visitors to 23 sites this year, including the Indian Heritage Centre, the Hwa Chong Cultural Centre, The Nanyang Technology University’s learning hub, SkyVille@Dawson and — what’s probably the most anticipated one of all — the National Gallery Singapore. The architects and designers themselves will lead these tours and give some insights into the design strategies that were employed in these projects.

“As a platform to celebrate our urban environment, Archifest strives to be an inclusive festival that engages all,” said SIA president Ong Tze Boon. “This city-wide thinking is essential if we are to build a cohesive and sustainable city and it will need the involvement of us all.”