Insights

Public art is often anything but public, but some initiatives are showing how it can become truly something of the people

The space was envisioned as one of 300 that create places for young people across the city. But is it a model for community spaces or a fading vision?

As urban centres grapple with escalating land scarcity, the intersection of industrial and residential planning emerges as a compelling solution

Car parks take up a large amount of the urban footprint, and often sit empty. Can we move beyond this type of static infrastructure to design spaces that will work for our future cities?

The practice of co-designing with the community has started to take hold in the UK. Three projects demonstrate different approaches, but all have resulted in greater engagement with the resulting spaces, with flow-on societal benefits

Across Southeast Asia, the allure of smart cities has often been accompanied by a top-down implementation strategy. But one-size-fits-all solutions can miss opportunities for genuine urban improvement

Global populations are ageing, led by cities like Hong Kong. How can designers and planners create spaces that truly are for all, including the elderly?

An increasing number of artists are using their work to tell stories about the environment, with many drawing on their Asian roots

An increasing number of cities are being threatened by rising sea levels. If it’s too late to turn back the tide, is it possible to live in harmony with the sea?

The work of groundbreaking architect Christopher Alexander gives us both a lens to critique urban design and a toolkit for creating our own spaces

The trend is only growing, particularly on the Chinese mainland. What drives it, and how can planners and designers interpret it?

Heritage preservation must encompass more than the physical environment. The case of Dakota Crescent in Singapore provides a strong example of how stakeholders can work to preserve tangible and intangible heritage while allowing space for development

Long before skyscrapers rose, kampongs — maritime trade and cultural hubs — formed the original urban networks of Southeast Asia, shaping the region's cities in ways still felt today

Transit-Oriented Development has shown success in some countries. Can it work in cultural centre Yogyakarta?

The 1 Hotel Haitang Bay's design blends sustainability and hospitality for a unique, home-like experience.

The End of an Era: Reliving the Demolition Process and the Legacy Left Behind by Kowloon Walled City

Embracing a traditional technique with enduring strength building from bamboo to skyscrapers.

These temporary, ephemeral retail spaces are more than just a passing trend – they embody creativity, innovation, and the art of surprise.

A travel phenomenon that goes beyond the conventional touristic experience.

Beneath Singapore’s meticulous urban planning and development lies a neighbourhood with a strong community.

Elderly are embracing their golden years in style with youthful enthusiasm. With an ageing population, communities are actively seeking ways to create age-friendly neighbourhoods that promote connected living. 

In the new era of the digital age, AI technology has become a game changer for the architecture and real estate industries when creating and managing sustainable and vibrant communities. With vast real-time data and machine learning algorithms, architects are embracing the revolutionising power of AI technology to map out and create sustainable, vibrant, and responsive cities with better efficiency. 

Developers have begun to reach the epiphany of curating inclusive communities and vibrant open spaces to accommodate the new chic lifestyle of the millennials and their furry companions. The elements of open space, pet-friendliness and community formation were brought to light to forge an engaging and pleasing public space through incorporating the innovative and sustainable strategy of placemaking.

Community Placemaking is a collaborative approach that works with the community to create spaces for people to gather, interact, and consolidate shared identities. Some of the initiatives transform underutilised or neglected areas into dynamic places that meet the needs and aspirations of the residents.

The Oval Partnership’s three generations of engineered bamboo and timber projects have shown the extensive possibilities of sustainable materials. By embracing bamboo and timber, architects pave the way for a greener and brighter future for the coming generations.

Amidst the bustling metropolis lies a hidden treasure, waiting to be discovered—the kampongs of Singapore. The conservation of such unique cultural treasures align with Singapore's goal of becoming a City in Nature.

From its awe-inspiring Terracotta Warriors to its Grand Tang Dynasty Ever-bright City, Xian offers a captivating journey of cultural tourism and showcases a plethora of exceptional elements that define a sustainable cultural hub.

With a blend of old and new, east and west architectural landscape, the eclectic, bohemian and quirky Kreuzberg in Germany captured the essence of its culture and history and transformed it into one captivating neighbourhood.

Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li is one of Chengdu’s busiest shopping areas. We explore the possibilities of the Open-City Concept to nurture lively and inclusive communities.

Blue House, the conserved building serves as a community space and encourages the engagements of public and business sectors, non-profit organisations, and the neighbourhood in the process of cultural and heritage conservation.

Sentul Depot was transformed by making use of place-making to bring together communities and giving it a new social identity by retaining its historic and cultural characteristics.

The new hidden gem in Tokyo, Shimo-kitazawa, is a mixing pot of cultural preservation as well as modern development that bring communities together.

In the post-pandemic world, how can the traditional retail mall stay sustainable?

How can we embrace radical urban greening in the urban metropolis?

Why is biodiversity the key to sustaining our life on earth and why might rewilding provide the best rescue remedy?

How did we end up here? The rising tide that led us to biodiversity loss and the climate emergency.

Working with The Oval Partnership, Wedderburn Transport Planning is using an evidence-based approach to develop context-sensitive forms of Open City Design that are culturally and commercially successful, while providing safe and comfortable access to transit stations.

'In the long history of humankind, those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.' -- Charles Darwin

Patrick Geddes is regarded by many as the father of citizen participation, and is renowned for his theories based on the “autonomous community” and “bottom-up” planning. He pioneered the place-making approach, was founder of the urban conservation movement and originated the phrase, “Think Global, Act Local”.

Digital Placemaking is a term we coined to encompass a set of data-driven processes harnessing place and people data analytics. The endeavor is to craft a toolkit for spotting emerging urban patterns—location intelligence if you will—and to capitalize on them through design and place curation for all to benefit.

Arguably the father of public housing in Hong Kong, Michael Wright was born and grew up in this city with many Chinese friends. He was interned in prison camp during the second world war. His background and personal experience were instrumental to his perseverance of building self-contained flats for the poor.

Infrastructure never exists in isolation; each is part of a larger system we call the city

Community Arts Thrive in Hong Kong to Heal A Wounded Society

Working towards family well-being centred planning and architecture

What is special about Bruegel is that he used techniques and layouts usually utilized in landscape paintings to depict peasant scenes.

The imperial world-system underwent a reconfiguration: empire, no longer the nation-state writ large, became more fluid, capable of flowing across national borders.

Art fairs might have put Hong Kong on the world map, but they should not be the only force that shapes the city’s art development

Conservation has the potential to redefine what we traditionally regard as Architecture, and drive socio-political progress in contemporary society.

The best way to learn is through play. When the community finds its neighbourhood library as necessary for both work and play, its longevity is assured.

What truly makes He Fan respectable as a photographic magician is his foresight about the mentality of the contemporary urban dweller, who desires a black-and-white type of the “local” which could well be a figment of imagination in the eye of the beholder.

How to Make Our Urban Living Environment a Better Place with Creative Interventions

The symbiosis between social infrastructure and social programmes within them is fundamental to building a more equal and united society, according to American sociologist Eric Klinenberg

Third spaces or places might emerge from different contexts, but none of them refers to a physical, concrete place. Rather, they point to a zone of borderlands and convergences where ambiguities reign.

New York University sociology professor Eric Klinenberg uses first hand accounts of disasters binding communities together to support his book’s rationale that trust requires face to face contact in safe and sheltering environments

How community living rooms in open spaces can bring Hong Kong’s old neighbourhoods back to life

Minimalism at its core is beautiful because it reduces everything down to the basics of what life is all about. Nearly a century post Mies, it may be the path towards a more sustainable way of living.

Rather than a particular point on the national territory, a city is more like a space which keeps forces and flows afloat: it neither has or has not a border, but is itself a border through which things get through.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." -- Charles Darwin

The demolition of Queen’s Pier was a pivotal moment that jolted Hong Kongers to the fact that it was giving away its architectural heritage with barely a whimper. Yet not everything old should be saved—and certainly not pickled.

With more and more of us doing our shopping online, e-commerce is forcing massive shifts in the retail landscape - in the approach, the business models, and in retail spaces that are increasingly experiential.

Airbnb's meteoric rise and how hotels are fighting back

The most successfully cohesive urban regeneration projects understand that community development is as much if not more about the people than the real estate.