Asia Design Forum, a nonprofit think tank, will present its first Design Roulette in Singapore on December 14. I'll serve as pit boss to the nine "players" participating in the event and architect Ken Yeang will act as master of ceremonies. What's a design roulette? It's an unorthodox alternative to a panel discussion, using a series of interviews or dialogues to provoke new ways of thinking about architecture, design, art, cities, and the built environment. How does it work? Player #1 introduces Player #2, who shows five images in three minutes and gets interviewed by Player #1 for seven minutes. Then #2 introduces #3, who shows five images and gets interviewed. It continues in sequential fashion until #9 interviews #1.

The event will bring together a cross-disciplinary cast of characters: architects Soo K. Chan (SCDA Architects, Singapore), Kay Ngee Tan (Kay Ngee Tan Architects, Singapore), Richard Hassell (WOHA, Singapore), Lyndon Neri (Neri&Hu, Shanghai), James von Klemperer (KPF, New York), Tim Johnson (NBBJ, New York), and Alex Cho (Jumeirah Development, Singapore), plus graphic designer Edward Leida (Edward Leida Design, New York), and artist Danwen Xing (from Beijing). It will take place at the Singapore Institute of Architects auditorium at 79 Neil Road, from 5 pm to 7 pm.

ADF will host another Design Roulette in Shanghai in the spring of 2011 and hopes to roll out more of these events around Asia and elsewhere in the next year or two. (Disclosure: I sit on ADF's board of directors and helped organize the event.) If you're interested in attending the Singapore Roulette, admission is free but you need to rsvp to: info@asiadesignforum.org. You can get more information on the organization by visiting http://www.asiadesignforum.org