The Urbanist Studio

What makes a city creative? It would seem obvious that ‘creative’ people might beget a creative city. But can a city in search of sustainable creativity rely solely on human capital alone? How significant a role can the physical elements of the environment—buildings, sites, and spaces—play in fostering, if not engendering, creativity? Does the adopted…

Gastronomy and the City. Some might argue that this perfect match is as exquisite a pairing as wine and cheese. Where better to practice the art of good eating than in the city. Alternatively speaking, where other than the city is there a greater opportunity to partake in good eating. Is it the food, then,…

In today’s digital age, the realm of children’s play is expanding rapidly into the fourth spatial dimension—the spatial dimension of virtual realities and cyber networks. From books and games to music and crafts, digital technology has converted traditional (physical and haptic) forms of play into digitized formats with user-friendly qualities: mobile, convenient, responsive. Such technological innovations…

Urbanized, the third and most recent feature-length documentary in Gary Hustwit’s design trilogy film series, has been on my radar for quite some time since its debut in 2011. Last week, I had the opportunity to watch the DVD format of Urbanized. With a running time of 85 minutes, the film managed to explore an array of divergent…

In The Price of Neglect, Lu Guang lifts the heavy veils of human indignity shrouding ostracized communities in China from the public eye. Lu Guang’s cogent photographs expose the raw realities faced by entire villages grappling with HIV/AIDS (where poor peasants have contracted infected blood after selling their own through unregulated procedures), cancer (where industrial-related pollution has devastated agricultural land and water),…

The HDB void deck, a venerable feature of Singapore’s public housing architecture, has enjoyed decades of unhindered building implementation since its first introduction in 1969. Popularly accepted as a rational design solution to high-rise tropical living, the void deck is often viewed as an architectural necessity and public good. Firstly, as an open space constituting…