It was balik kampung and “homecoming” of sorts working on this graphic recording at the recent #TechTarik conversation with Mr Philip Yeo and Mr Tay Lai Hock.
In the Singapore context, the term “kampung” refers to traditional community housing that has largely given way to urbanisation and high-rise development.
Along with modernisation, some say the warmth of community and neighbourliness, which Singaporeans fondly moniker “kampung spirit,” has diminished too even as our pursuits for qualifications and world records grow aggressively.
The Ground-Up Initiative (GUI) Kampung Kampus goes with nature and against the grain by fostering that “link between Man and Nature” that Leo Tolstoy describes. In GUI’s words, this is a space “being consciously architectured on an ambitious 26,000 sqm space at Khatib, in a land-scarce Singapore.”
It was in its living room under the stars that the recent #techtarik conversation happened between “neither civil nor servant” Mr Philip Yeo (described by Straits Times as “one of the country’s most colourful, accomplished and controversial bureaucrats”), GUI Founder cum “kampung chief” Mr Tay Lai Hock, and one of the warmest audiences I’ve ever met.
And what is the key to pioneering Singapore’s future?
TL;DR: Be Hungry. Stay Grounded.
It’s been a while since I volunteered for projects, but I’m so glad I made it home this round.
#picturepeopleplan #graphicrecording
