Citymaking Studio at The Foundry
A closed-door, half-day studio for district and place management practitioners, held at The Foundry in Singapore. A record of the morning.
A compressed, closed-door studio for practitioners working on districts and place management, and on how places are experienced, measured and stewarded over time.
The morning moved through the Bras Basah Bugis precinct. A resident set the scene, two small groups walked the Foundry Layered Trail, and precinct partners took the panel, closing on three questions: liveability, loveability and longevity.
A compressed morning.
- 10:00Scene-setting
The morning opened with the neighbourhood as its residents know it, framing the question the Studio carried through the Bras Basah Bugis precinct.
- 10:30Foundry Layered Trail
Two small groups walked the precinct with Foundry guides, reading a single district for the unplanned, the ritualised and the enduring.
- 11:45Precinct Panel
Provocations from precinct partners SkillsSeed, Temasek Shophouse and Heritage SG, moderated by weareMIXD, closing on liveability, loveability and longevity.
- 12:30Close
Studio Practitioners.
The practitioners in the room shape cities in practice. Each brought a live project, from a single district to a wider urban system, into the Studio.
The group convened across the five disciplines of the district canon: a foundational frame, and the four pillars of Nature, Wellbeing, Future Heritage, and Our Model Town.
Tulsi GroverSenior Partner, weareMIXDDesigns participation processes that put residents at the centre of place-shaping.
Dr Samantha HayesFounder, Bioneering AustraliaWorks at the intersection of biodiversity, regeneration and the built environment.
Clare InksterFounder, The Curiosity ExperimentExplores how curiosity, creativity and human-centred enquiry shape healthier places.
Charles LandryOriginator, Creative City conceptFour decades framing the cultural and creative life of cities, from the Creative City to the Civic City.
Erin LeeFounder, The Big Sit & Mindful MomentsFounded a global public mindfulness movement inspired by the Conscious Cities Index research.
Saurabh ManglaFounder, LumateraDesigns adaptive reuse and cultural infrastructure that hold heritage and contemporary practice in the same building.
Helen MarriageFounder, ArtichokeStages large-scale public artworks that turn heritage sites into live cultural events at city scale.
Manas RathFounder, Better PlaceFounder of Better Place, a global city think tank anchored in Mumbai. TEDx speaker on cities that let us live, move and rest well, and convenor of the annual XID Expedition.
Saurav RoyCo-Founder, Switch & RoyCo-founder of Switch & Roy, a Goa-based studio designing brand, motion and experiential work for South Asia's cultural economy, from Serendipity Arts Festival to the Indian Music Experience Museum. Brings the Studio its design and identity craft for place-based work.
Elinor SeathCo-Founder, REMIXDCo-founder of REMIXD and an architect of the Experience Improvement District (XID) framework.
Anupam YogConvenor, Next Cities AcademyDeveloped the XID concept from the Conscious Cities Index through an Oxford dissertation into live practice across the UK and India.
Practical information.
- Date
- 18 June 2026
- Venue
- The Foundry, Singapore
- Format
- Closed-door, by invitation
- Status
- Concluded
The Foundry
The Citymaking Studio was hosted at The Foundry, a heritage building reimagined as a home for collective impact, where the nuts and bolts of social change come together.
The choice was deliberate. The Foundry sits within the Bras Basah Bugis precinct, Singapore's designated arts and heritage district, home to the National Museum, Singapore Art Museum, the National Library, LASALLE College of the Arts, the School of the Arts (SOTA), Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and a dense weave of independent galleries, studios, and creative collectives.
The precinct is itself a working laboratory of the ideas the Studio explored: how culture, education and civic life are designed into the fabric of a city, and how a single precinct can hold heritage, contemporary practice and learning at once.
