Leadership for Cities
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Next Cities

Urban Software

How connection, participation, and lived experience shape cities in practice.

The hardware of a city is easy to photograph. The software — the rules, rituals, networks and habits that decide who takes part — is harder to see and does more of the work.

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 still city park at dawn, mist over water, skyline silhouetted behind a line of trees.
Essay

The Conscious Cities Index, v1

20 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
A small figure walking along the edge of a ploughed field at dusk, faint stars above a wide streaked sky.
Field Note

Field: a commonplace book

Summer 2022

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.