Leadership for Cities
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The Potential of Places

Adaptive Neighbourhoods

How cities adapt to the people who live in them — across a lifetime.

Neighbourhoods are the unit of change most people actually experience. This strand looked at how places absorb new demands — ageing, density, care, climate — without losing what made them worth living in.

In this collection

Marina Bay at golden hour with people gathering on the waterfront promenade, heritage shophouses in the foreground and the Singapore skyline behind
Guide

A placemaker's guide to Singapore: seven districts to walk before The Art of Citymaking

12 June 2026
An Asian pedestrian street at dusk — an independent bookshop, a muralist's ladder mid-work, mature trees and warm shopfront light
Essay

Creative placemaking: a working definition for the next decade

5 June 2026
A regenerated street in the Asia-Pacific — independent shopfronts, pavement life, mid-rise fabric
Essay

Adaptive Neighbourhoods: notes on regeneration

28 May 2026
The Drawing Room at Yap Ah Shak House, Kuala Lumpur
Field Note

From the Drawing Room: notes from the KL salon

9 May 2026
A small group sitting together on the grass in a tropical urban park at dusk, the Singapore skyline framed by rain-tree canopy.
Essay

Being versus doing: unlocking new dimensions of liveability

Fall 2025
A Rajasthani shepherd in a white turban walking through dust-lit grasslands at dusk with his flock, the edge of Jaipur faint behind.
Field Note

districtBE: before the doing, being

Spring 2023

Photography

Photography for this theme is still being edited.

Field Notes

Correspondence from the people building better cities.

Occasional notes on the festival, the field, and the Circle. Unsubscribe any time.