Suhani's SAS Blog

‘You measure what you care about.’ What did you see in this chapter that you care about? Did you have any ‘aha!’ moments?  While watching this chapter, the idea of more space leading to more public life really struck out to me. With Singapore so compact, I really value the way the city has progressed in fostering public life. Places like North Bridge Road and Raffles have all managed to maintain their architecture, but alter the purpose to match the needs of the community, contrary to the "car culture" many cities were historically built around. I also realized that public spaces have to evolve as the community's needs do; when planning urban infrastructure, it's important to prioritize the needs of the people to make them feel like they're invited and welcome there. What also struck out to me, in this chapter, was how Singapore managed to change so much despite it being so law-based. Change is often met with resistance and opinions since there is such a diverse g...

Does the way we build cities lend itself to human community or human separation? Modern urbanization has contributed to greater human separation rather than bringing people together. In our very nature as humans, we are innately drawn to one another. Historically, humans have tended to value communal, wholistic living; from villages to tribes, we inherently bonded with other humans from the shared experiences of living near one another. But now, looking at the build of housing developments, the block-like fashion they are constructed in has led us to not even know who our neighbors are. With the rise of media as well, it's easy to forget the local environment we are in. Take Beijing for example. Coming from traditional housing in courtyards with  multiple  generations co-living to, in a matter of 20 years, switching to high rise housing developments and skyrise architecture, the very intent of these cities have contributed to human disconnect. Roads and transportation also dir...