An experimental case study to retrofit local streets for bike lanes in Singapore.
2016 ETH Zürich's Future Cities Lab and Archifest Singapore
Client Sortedam school
Role Research assistant; site analysis, urban design, engagement strategy
Team 5 (1 senior researcher, 2 PhD students, a computer scientist and I)
Timeframe 1 month
Location Singapore
Client Sortedam school
Role Research assistant; site analysis, urban design, engagement strategy
Team 5 (1 senior researcher, 2 PhD students, a computer scientist and I)
Timeframe 1 month
Location Singapore
As Singaporeans battle growing air and noise pollution, snarling traffic and crowding, one wonders - How could streets be designed to encourage active and sustainable mobility instead of clunking their way into polluting car culture? This is the question that I, and the Active Mobility team at ETH Zürich’s Future Cities Laboratory, were set to research. We were a multidisciplinary team of designers, engineers and programmers who worked together with innovative tools and technologies to understand how streets in Singapore can become safer, more comfortable and more appealing to pedestrians and cyclists. In the experimental nature of the Lab, we utilized the global "Park(ing) Day" phenomenon as a testing ground for our design visions. The fruitful neighborhood of Tiong Bahru was selected to showcase this vision in Virtual Reality to support engaging active mobility and create a more sociable street space.
Hidden between the layers of the AUTOCAD street plan, swimming through the dimensions of Esri’s CityEngine, and threading through the 360o interactive rendering was a cyclist. It was this same cyclist that also sniffed his way past the Durian stalls on Seng Poh road, weaved around jay-walkers and paused to greet "aunties". This cyclist was both real and virtual, in the flesh and in the vision.
