Sustainable Living Kampung – Changing Singapore’s landscape from the Ground Up
In recent years the rising power of community action and engagement in shaping the environment has become increasingly evident in Singapore. Many bottom-up initiatives have sprung up to encourage alternative approaches that seek to restore the connection between city dwellers and the land for the many universal values. Ground-Up Initiative (GUI)’s Sustainable Living Kampung in...
Building from the Ground-Up: Experience the Kampung Culture
The Ground-Up Initiative in Singapore advocates community spirit initiatives, urban farming programmes to change the way of innovating, from the ground-up. GUI is now embarking on a new and exciting journey and experience the Heritage Kampung with them! Exploring Our Heritage Through Kampung Culture Heritage Kampung 2012 is a 5 months long event to celebrate the...
An alternative learning platform: Ruin Academy – Anarchist Gardener
Ruin Academy (Taipei, Taiwan 2010 -) is an independent cross-over architectural research centre in the Urban Core -area of Taipei, Taiwan. The Academy is run in co-operation between the Finland based Casagrande Laboratory and Taiwanese JUT Foundation for Arts & Architecture. Ruin academy is set to re-think the industrial city and the moden man in...
Invisible logic of the city #11
Taipei Community Garden © All rights reserved by Purple_man “Developers are true urban editors. They are linked with the city authorities and necessary political powers and they make the urban editing. Architects are in a secondary role – something like the hyenas after the lions have made the kill. Money is a good consultant and the generating force...
Community gardening – Community ungardening
Clementi Makeshift Farm getting the boot, literally. Copyright © Matthew Allen, WSJ A community garden is a single piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people. ...
Community Greens: A brief comparison between the gardening schemes in Singapore and Hong Kong
Tampines Green Community Gardens in Singapore Sau Pau Ming Community Gardens in Hong Kong Gardening as a social process Collective gardening is a huge trend in the city. There are rooftops, vacant land and underutilized spaces that can be used for gardening. In other words, there are lots of opportunities. But why it is in...
Green Wash
Observation: Hong Kong’s obsession with covering everything with slick coat of green paint and imaginary images of nature and the so called ‘green dream’ of the future. Everybody’s talking about Green these days. Greenwashing has become the state-of-the-art marketing tool. Some politicians and developers misuse ecology and nature to promote their own agendas. Nature is...
The old Banyan Tree
This old Banyan Tree (Latin name: Ficus retusa) was preserved by Swire Properties Ltd. During the construction of Pacific Place, the tree is believed to have been planted in about 1870 as part of the British Military Forces Victoria Barracks which occupied this site until 1979. Preservation of this tree required the construction of a...
Funerary Network
Who does Bukit Brown belongs to – the dead or living? How much of our heritage are we willing to sacrifice in the name of progress?
Bringing a buzz back to the city
Viewed from its tallest towers, Hong Kong is an endless expanse of concrete that stretches for hundreds of kilometers. Paradoxically, it is surrounded by nature, even though we hardly feel it when we are in the city. The density of the city has made many of its inhabitants ignorant of the potential of shared spaces...