A netizen, 柚子yuzu, on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu recently posted a video of Farrer Park MRT station taken from its concourse level.
She zoomed-in on a chair-like fixture, which was affixed to a parapet on the external side of the railings on a commuter walkway.
She then posed this question: “Who’s going to sit there?”
She also wrote: “Can someone tell me the purpose of this chair? I was at the station and I looked up only to see two rows of really bright-looking chairs. Who is it made for?”
A couple of netizens were as confused as her about the ‘optical illusion’, with one joking: “Jackie Chan can rest there after he’s tired out from doing martial arts.” Some also said it looked like an “illuminated toilet seat”.
Many others, however, explained that the chair-like structures are light fixtures, with some adding that it was made that way for “aesthetic purposes”.
They’re not wrong, but if you look closely at these light fixtures, you’d notice the genius in its design.
If you were to stand at the basement levels of Farrer Park MRT and look up, you’d observe that there are barely any lights installed on the ceilings. Instead, there is a row of curved, glossy white panels.
The lights, which are made in an L-shape — just like a chair — have a panel which faces the ceiling. The light emanating from the fixtures then reflect off those panels, illuminating the space.
The netizen might have been able to come to the realisation if she spent a few extra minutes looking around the station.
And now you know.