The design community’s response to COVID-19, much like our reaction to issues of sustainability, tends to gravitate toward silver bullet solutions rather than necessary incremental change. Similarly, at the onset of the pandemic, our hubris and desire to manage Mother Nature guided us to focus on human-centric solutions to our predicament: advancing sensor technology [1] […]
Read More… from Landscape Architecture Is Our First Line of Defence
We are inspired by Donna Haraway’s subversive understanding of ‘fiction’, as an active principle in a world of possibilities, about looking forward, as a stimulus to act—as opposed to ‘fact’, as something that belongs to the past, a reference to that which has already happened. It symbolises our tilt towards action and interactions in the […]
One of the most interesting outcomes of COVID-19 has been how fully it has pulled back the curtain on the world around us, exposing the inner workings and fault lines of everything, from the global economic system to social norms. Alongside this, the disruption of our day-to-day routines and conventions has not only created a […]
Diseases and plagues, their spread and the stories thereof are as old as mankind and are extensively documented in well-known ancient texts. As long as people gather, mingle and travel to different places, they spread diseases. Medieval European cities were death traps partly due to a lack of hygiene and sanitation. More people died during […]
Read More… from Density versus COVID-19: An Indonesian Case Study
REGENERATIVE, ACCESSIBLE AND ABUNDANT BY DESIGN Film mogul Sam Goldwyn once said, “I never make predictions, especially about the future,” and in the current multifaceted, multilevel disruption, this is extremely wise advice. Yet, it becomes almost unforgivable or a dereliction of a very human duty not to tease around some of the evidence in search […]
Read More… from Cities and a Circular Economy After the Virus
THE ROLE OF TRANSIENT STRUCTURES AND SPACES IN RESPONSE TO A PANDEMIC AND OTHER EMERGENCIES COVID-19 has upended urban life as we know it. It has been many things; amongst which the crisis for healthcare space has been severely exacting. In the past, we have mostly encountered ‘bang’ events like natural calamities or terror attacks. […]
How often do we say in the workplace that we could use a little vacation? And more often than not, what are the places we think of when we envision that place? Perhaps we think of a beach, a trail through the forest, the mountains or a quiet place in our very own backyards. When […]
Read More… from The biophilic office: Reconnecting nature to the workforce
Urban farming is the cultivation of plants and fish, and the raising of livestock within and around cities. It commands a significant level of commerce, which makes it much more than just homesteading or subsistence farming. Urban farming is embedded into various parts of an urban ecosystem with which it is constantly interacting. It consumes […]
Shanghai Houtan Park (HP) was developed as part of the 2010 World Expo. The Expo was built on 5.3 kilometre squares of post-industrial land along the banks of the Huangpu River. It lasted 184 days and attracted some 73 million visitors. Post-Expo, the park continues to be used today as an amenity by the people […]
Read More… from Shanghai Houtan Park & New Jindai Elementary School
Ecopuncture is acupuncture for the built environment. Each act of design, akin to a needle inserted into a living system-of-systems, seeks restorative goodness for the whole. It enhances the connectedness of the social and ecological, seeking positive reciprocity and strengthening the resilience of the whole. The approach adopted by designers on the frontlines of ecological […]
With several landmarks of towering heights, Singapore has no lack of sleek futuristic skyscrapers. The bustling metropolis is packed with residential estates, retail megamalls and offices. Even so, this high-density urban dot has earned itself the number one spot in the list of cities with the most trees in the world—a Green View Index of […]
How can we design healthcare facilities to enable the shift in thinking that healthcare is more than preventive care and pathogenesis? Can a hospital be designed to support health rather than just treating illnesses? The healthcare industry is constantly evolving, as patient needs shift, and new medication and technology change methods of treatment. The challenge […]
