Ep. 17: How do we make Singapore feel more like home? | Some Scuffs

Let’s learn to fall in love with the place we live.

Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

 

The following are complaints I’ve heard about our country, by our countrymen: Singapore is boring. Singapore lacks culture. Singapore doesn’t have a soul.

These comments make me sad, mostly because I really love Singapore, and not in an ironic way. Singapore is home to an incredibly innovative and intelligent population of dreamers (and pragmatists) who want to make their mark on the cultural landscape, and if we can shape the built environment in a way that matches their creative pursuits, they have the opportunity to do that. But some people choose to leave without giving Singapore a chance.

I think that this place has so much potential, if only we believed in it a little more. Lorenzo Petrillo, founder of creative studio LOPELAB and director of the Singapore Urban Design Festival , certainly does.

In this episode, he shares his vision for public space in Singapore, reclaimed for people. How can we transform Singapore in a physical, tangible sense to allow for the vibrant, and at times unpredictable, social and cultural undercurrents to run through its streets and flows into its people? We talk about the power of tactical urbanism, urban design, and community.

 

Catch the 2nd edition of the Singapore Urban Design Festival, happening from March 14 to 17, 2019, at the Jalan Besar Sports Centre Multistorey Carpark, 100 Tyrwhitt Road. Details here.