Unknown 0:00
Study. So I just wanted to ask you, how is this one different from the later in

Unknown 0:07
yoga? Oh, it's very different. The premise is the same, like the idea of exploring plays we usually go by, like the studies that we do. So that covers, like people movement built from history and sounds and voices, which is about perspective. So the framework is the same, but the outcome is very different. Because in Little India, when we researched using the same framework, what was uncovered was the idea of connectivity, because there were clusters of hotspots, and between the hotspots, there really wasn't anything very much for people to move around, for Tuaregs, especially, but there was actually a lot of culture that was inside. So that was the insight that led to how we designed the different installations and the different tools that were going on. But in orchard, the research was quite different. So when we used the same framework to research, what came out of it was the idea wasn't really so much the idea of productivity, because orchard was very linear and it was quite straightforward, but it was the idea that, because of its linearity, we kind of miss out all the little things along the way. And that's why we wanted to highlight the small businesses like kurasu with our hidden gemstone. We wanted all these little things and the nuances of how the character has been built up over time, with places like Clancy or the chicken rice store, all of these little things kind of get a bit lost because the connectivity was so great, so it was actually kind of like the opposite, and like the people and and all these little establishments, was something that from the crux of how we wanted to talk about and of course, the idea of adaptability, like how the big mouths have adapted over time, and how we saw orchard differently, the angle hotspots shifted over time, was something that was a key reading to how we now approach and so that's why, in this particular rewrote it was quite topical about the idea of, like, how we adapted, how designers can use the idea of adaptability and talk about different perspectives, different behaviors, even, and how we look at different things to see how We can, as a commercial belt, keep on moving forward, but yet not lose the essence of the soul of what it is

Unknown 2:07
when you do, say research, what exactly the research you do talk to people? How do you, how do you sort of come to the conclusion

Unknown 2:16
how it should be done as a design studio? Actually, it's, it is part of our core business that we do this research process. So there's a lot of mappings that were done, like, for me and myself, our background is in architecture, so we usually start with site mappings. So we look at how people moved into the site. Look at how the building users are being disbursed. We look at like, over different several points of history, like how it has possibly changed over the time. So then from there, like the circulation hotspots and all that, is something that we mapped out and for this particular orchard version, because we are also working with STD at the same time for separate projects on creative way finding. So we also did do focus group surveys, interviews, three intercept interviews that we stopped people along the way, and we interviewed, like the malls as well. So then they gave us different interesting insights, actually, that they talked about wanting the streetscape to be a bit more visible, yeah, to have more visibility on the idea of, how can we talk about this orchard sense of place? And that's where, like, our research

Unknown 3:21
started from. So it's a combination of, like, hard research data, which I think a lot of people can understand. But then there's also the softer, intangible side. We're talking about people and communities. How people react is not necessarily the same as say, Oh, how does the traffic move? Right? So when you do certain metrics like this, and you add on and kind of like a creative lens, wanting to find opportunities, almost like creating the possibility of strats to, kind of like enter into a desired opportunity. We use that lens coupled with whatever we have created as a framework. You know, with all these data to be embedded in, we are able to then say, okay, there are maybe six core or several core values here that we want to talk about. And then we will kind of like ideate from a more simplistic basis, and it will choose one that we really, really want to do. But first, this is in line with the people. So user studies is a core component as well.

Unknown 4:17
There's like something like an orchid voice or something which you work on. Sorry, is there a Why is it like, I mean, the people who do you focus on? Is it like the local

Unknown 4:36
we do actually, thankfully, we do both, but it's not so much of the target that we want, but one that overlaps the best. It's like you can never, ever say, I can never, ever cater something for 100% but begin which is the highest and which is so against there's a little bit of science behind in essence. So we want to target one that's wide enough where Singaporeans are able to relate and feel for which is maybe a little bit of my time, but then, yeah, at the same time, when tourist comes in, it's not, oh, I didn't follow the story, so I cannot go and visit the spaces, right? So that's not what, but one way they can come and go, Okay, this is a little different. There's a service part of Jose Orchard Road. Oh, they can have this, this chicken rice sauce, the place that everybody goes to eat when they are working around here, you know, and stuff like that. So then they get that flip, that turnover buying from Gucci and your brothers, and then you can sachet your way into the chicken rice store with your, you know, the big white bags and stuff like that. So I think it's the way we are presenting it. Rather than say, I have to go to every single one, but you can actually, you know, go singularly at this particular time. So there was no real target, in a sense, but we are trying to find the best that we could pertain to everybody.

Unknown 5:52
I just have, I think, about three quick questions. One is that in the press brief, you mentioned the concept of investigative design, what do you mean by that? Do

Unknown 6:02
you mean, like, creative investigation? Yeah, okay, yeah. So it's the idea that we explore a topic. So why investigation is because I think we wanted to put up a topic that creatives can interpret in different ways, and so that's how we wanted to see how they can take it, using their own mediums, or taking their own perspectives, and that's why we call it an investigation. So how we started and we facilitated that process is really through this idea of, like, pulling out that common thread of what we wanted to talk about in the orchard, and from there, speak to all the different designers and gave them this premise, never the discussion with them, and get their take on, like, what they think about the same topic, and eventually into their own mediums, how they can explore this topic together with us.

Unknown 6:44
So I'm going to take a flip side with the way she said it. So concepts can be anything, right? The truth is, I want to my concept can be apple, and then I can design something apple, and everybody can enjoy all my Apple products, right? Sorry, nothing to do with the meaning that way. But what we are trying to do here is to create something kind of like we shift away from the concept. First, we deal with the people. First we deal with the heart. We do. We deal with the softer approach of design, and then from that point we derive something that people could want to be relatable to people who want to participate, right? So I can always easily come to Orchard Road and say, oh, let's make this into little Japan, Little Tokyo or little Shibuya. And everybody's gonna come. Everybody's gonna go, oh yeah. You know that they had some skewers. You know they had some nice drinks. They had some maybe they plant some cherry cherry blossoms around the street and, oh yeah, we're happy. But no, what say empires, or whoever, if they want to do a good job, will be that they want to bring the real, proper tropical plants that will try colors that that locals will resonate with, not plants that are foreign to Singapore. We want brands or we want programs that okay, we can understand. And if you realize the one that was sold out is Nicole's one where it is very proper going out to auto road and viewing the brewing sites. So I think that's where our shift happens a little bit. We deal with what the people at heart is first, or the heart of the places, and then we derive a concept, and that's where the investigation comes into play. That is okay, this can into this. So if I may use vice Plaza, for example, we kind of landed on this very funny point where, when I was enjoying the youth subculture in vice, we realized that after this period of time has gone, these bunch of guys actually have kids, right? So in order for us to talk about something that was so prevalent, then why don't we create an opportunity where we can really, I brought my daughter there, right? And she's been running like crazy there over the weekend, so she can and I can show okay, you know what there is. She might not understand the lightning bolts, your checkered colors, no certain way we embed our images and so and so forth. But that's a starting point. Instead of saying, oh, you know what, parties is not so popular, now, let's tear it down and let's start over again. So there is a purpose, and there's a positioning, and there's a lack of better agenda that we're trying to achieve, right? So, so that's where the investigation part comes into play,

Unknown 9:17
right? So if I have you correct, it's not that investigation isn't necessarily very clinical, like road process, but it's something that involves, like the

Unknown 9:25
human element. But there's, of course, that aspect as well. It's just that, I know it's not sexy, but it's necessary for us to then know that what we are going to do plays a part to make it right. I cannot say I plant that item in and the roads have been diverted and everything has gone. And then I planted playground day. It doesn't work anymore, right? Because there's no way you can have access to it, right? I

Unknown 9:47
think we use the word investigation because we wanted a lot of the context to inform what we do. So yeah, so that was a crucial portion to us. So even when we work with like the designers, or even ourselves internally, right, we will try to pick out, like, certain key things from side, like, say, even, like, when we do the photo shoot, we want to make sure we talk to the TNC aunties. Like, there's a pair of sisters. They're really cute. They really started their business all the way from here. That's probably, like, I think their only careers in their whole 30 years of their business. And they say, just try not then I try. I just try to try 30 years, really. So it's very nice. So it's very nice, and it's very real. I think when it becomes something that we find more to respond to from side. And I think that's why we use the word investigation,

Unknown 10:31
yeah. And if you see, if you get a chance to talk to them, they will tell you what happened then, when they were sewing the goods for people who just want to alter. They have people who are punk rockers, and they have people who are glamorous with fairness or their, you know, so they work there before they start their own so they have been there for more

Unknown 10:50
than 30 years. Maybe you want to explain to them, or give them context, what we mean by subculture advice was because

Unknown 10:58
her demographic might,

Unknown 11:01
you know, venture in other parts of Singapore.

Unknown 11:08
So the first my entry, torture road is Far East. I used to say it's Rangoon 105, comes straight to fais. I'm like primary five. I don't know what's going on. And if you knew faiz, then there's this brand called surrender. Surrender brings in all your Japanese brands that you will never, ever get the chance to go, you know. I'm not sure if you guys are familiar. There's brands like 7773 people of Asia is flashy, you know. So what? These are all local brands project. They are now PS cafe, yeah. So if you know the history, they sell bags and but there's a bit more with smart atria, right? So you have all these brands that bring in and you want a little different. You obviously cannot afford your Gucci, you cannot afford your products, but you could afford something else that has a following as a there's a underground culture involved. If you go to Shibuya in Japan right now, they retain their atmosphere of appreciating brands. So some of these brands, which I know, your future, artists, your neighborhood, your mastermind now, they are like big brands in Japan. Their teacher goes like, what, six to $800 a piece? Yeah, right. But then it's still expensive. This 100 over dollars for us, it is just things that you kind of like, find your way to the fashion world. You find your way to the creative world. I mean that there's a little bit of why I became what I became, you know, and these were kind of like the boiling culture that Orchard Road allows us to have California tech, right? So I think we are trying to, I won't say recreate. I don't think we can ever recreate something that way, but, but we're going to shine that spoiler. Oh, you know, dada, mama used to hang out here, you know, we do that, and maybe we show a whole picture. Oh, you know, my Mohawk hair and my whatsoever, you know? And this was a lot of memories in different time frames of any by me, if you get a chance, you Google on Anthony Bourdain, entry into Singapore. There was a restaurant that you go to kind of, it takes a takes a temperature, very Chinese way. So what they prescribe you is food that cooks with the Chinese 27 pieces, and then they usually eat more, less, heating food, you know, whatsoever. And, yeah, schools, we have everything that's going on here. There is a disco upset. Come at night, at Fridays, these places I've been there, I was shocked.

Unknown 13:37
I was taken there by a friend. That's

Unknown 13:40
how it always started. Then you started going by reception.

Unknown 13:45
So yeah, I think there are a lot of the general the companies like rasu, actually, and even counter shop, and they are still trying to find their way back into our hearts, in a sense, find out their way into making this as exciting I know, I know architecture Singapore have decentralized. I understand that, but don't you still sometimes find it by the oh, let's go for a big family meal. Then maybe we'll make our way back to auchindo. Yeah. And I think we are merely agents of that trying to put you into that focus and do that change, hopefully, lifestyle wise, we could, you know, engage the stakeholders, and the stakeholders, I mean, the more owners, the big bosses, right, where, hey, I don't really need to tear everything down. I can. Yeah? So different times. I'm quite certain we all come to Orchard Road for different, yeah,

Unknown 14:37
different generation, you know. Okay, I'm not gonna add on, because the focus is on them, but Mervin and Cheryl mentioned about the different generations. Right back in the day, a lot of kids will come to get bus like he said, Come stop over here. The youth always hang out at KFC. That's when you have a crush on that boy that's sitting at police table and all that, right? And after that, right? You cross the street there is he run or HMB or no Tower Records, yeah. So I think if you ask your older, older peers or older friends or families, and right, I think orchid itself brings so much memory to different generations of people. And the team did a playground because, you know, they would have already aged and have families and that we want to bring them back and say, This is how it used to be, have fun with a modern twist, so that that was how the thinking. I'm

Unknown 15:30
definitely not a CVP with no money.

Unknown 15:38
I think you guys too long. Just one sort of final, I guess, two parter question, one out of all the various districts in Singapore, right? So your second edition. How do you arrive at Orchard Road? And are there any other districts you have your eye on for, like,

Unknown 15:54
future edition? Yeah. So I think Austria was something that really just came up because, I think Recently, there has been quite a bit of attention on orchard this fashion of whether, like, we can bring back that soul, that familiarity, or that memory that is so closely linked with, like, how we naturally hang out, like who we have that orchard hood back. So That conversation has been coming up, I think, in various forms, in like media outlets or even on the agency level, because we do work with quite a few government agencies, and this, this is something that they are looking at. So based on, like, some of the studies that we have done, and I think based on, like, all these conversations, like, I think it's really like right now, or chatbot, lah, and after, after, we have done something so cultural, like Little India now, if we were to look at something close to closer history, or like to closer to like how we used to hang out. So then that's what, that's where we ended on doing orchard. I

Unknown 16:50
mean, people always ask us. People always ask us, like, where we want to do but in the government sectors, I guess they also have certain agendas that they want to push, not necessarily bad genders could be just, oh, maybe we should try it. And then they will go to, hey, we all want to try again. You know, it always starts like that, because I think that's where it's more organic. There's a need, I think, to a certain way. The difference between design and art is that design likes to solve a problem, right? And we tend to try and see that way, so that if there was a need for us, I think that would be a more opportune time to do something there. So I don't think we see it around going where stakes, because this is not an easy thing. Every time I do this, I lose five years of my life

Unknown 17:40
full of gray hair. So

Unknown 17:44
enjoy yourselves today, interacting with the things. Because, you know, exhibition like what Singaporean is. We stand there, we look at it, we take a picture, and then we Off we go. But I think what the team did is to make sure of existing businesses, other than your big brands, and then try and make something out of it that piques everyone's curiosity, no matter which age group you're at, or which demographic or which generation. I think that is what makes watcher road interesting, because everybody would visit reroute and come back with a different takeaway, and this is what the festival directors are yearning for

Unknown 18:22
follow up. Question is, why did you first?

Unknown 18:27
What are the reactions and how much of that has been used for this? My

Unknown 18:34
take, when the first question was asked two years ago was that I said, Go big or go home, so I ain't going to do Kampong club. I definitely wasn't going to start Chinatown, you know, but again, we did end off with two. And the truth is, we did end off with Kampong Glam and Little India. But we felt like we want to test something, and we wanted to, at that point in time, it was we knew, we knew what we could do, but if I did it in a smaller precinct, one that was already very well done with all the arts groups there, Ali, wao, I don't think we are going to do too much of a difference in terms of showing what real evidence could be, real interaction with people. And I think literally, they had a bigger, bigger conversation that we could try and work with. And it was, we don't know anybody there. And I think she said a line here at the time was that we are like foreigners in our own country, where we go in there, everybody knew exactly what to do. I don't. So now I want to know what everybody does. I want to know that best chai tea that the people who stay there go to the 77 one that is in the middle of, yeah, but not the one that become more, you know, not the one that the market right and, and I think that was a challenge that we threw ourselves so that was there. And again, everything, everything came into was really someone asking, Oh, do you want to try something like this? There, so and so forth. So then we did it. So your second part of the question was, what was the response, I think, when we started doing something that what we wanted to give to the community there the business owners was that we want them to know that they could do something else on top that we get CPO, not necessarily just through us. Design is a strategy. Design is a medium that we were going to add on into Little India. So for I think I went for about three sessions. They are new kind of like little Association, business owners association, they invited me down. Invited the whole studio down, actually with SCP. So I think I was there for about three sessions so, but ultimately, we wanted them to do it without us. If they do it with us, of course, I'm happy. I'm glad. But I think the real power plants that they can do without us, and then that's what we want to do when we work with community. So design, again, is a strat. In my eyes, the Strat that could, you know, induce a space to be our place to be better, right? So that was the response. I think there are tops of us going back, but I think I do not want to go back so soon, you know, sometimes you need things to grow, and then it needs to build upon, you know, and it's not, it doesn't take a deal. No,

Unknown 21:24
the thing with India is that they do this, you know, the light up and all that every year, everything they do every year is the same. So that's why, you know, it's always good to see somebody doing something different. So I've been trying to tell them, like, see, we can do something, because I get bored every year, does the same thing. Every year, the Indian heritage center, everything is same, but I see not showing anything new in the last three, four years.

Unknown 21:54
So I think you're working with ICS Raj Kumar. I think he's what he's really tall. I'm sorry he's so tall. Number two, I think they are really doing. They're really trying. I think they do a great job there. So maybe over two time will come for us to maybe reroute again. Reroute

Unknown 22:18
two. I was supposed to be there that day, but something happened. Couldn't make it go to

Unknown 22:23
that website. We have video highlights, because you asked about what was the feedback? And he gave the response was more from the stakeholders that worked with, right? But when a lot of feedback we got on social media, because I managed the social media, they were saying that. Some were saying that, you know, obviously they thank for the program. They said that, you know, if you don't belong to a certain race in Little India, you find it intimidating to eat there or to go there. Doesn't matter which time of the day, even if you want to go there and just capture the lights during the lights up right then, that's it. They were scoot off. But what they did is that the responses was that we had workshop, we had photo trails, we have market sessions. So we want to abolish those stereotypical stuff that we think people know. But actually there's a whole lot of other really nice FME. So they curate a chef from Chef, he's from Australia, Australian, and he did a curation of all the food mixed with different ingredients from Little India, and then put together. And people loved it, right? They are. They have those garland flour making, okay? That one is like a lot of tourists sign up for it. They were here, right? And there were eating sessions, there were photography sessions, there were a lot of other stuff. So we want to just dispel this whole, like, I feel intimidated to go there, unless someone recommend and say, there's good food, right? Or else, you know, it's not my top choice. So hence the word reroute. So that was, I think you might be able to identify with, with, you know, with this whole like, it's not a top place for certain people, when they do not know of a certain good restaurant, then that's it. But Miro festival tries to bring that across.

Unknown 24:09
So that's why it's connectivity, because two ends are relatively popular, the market and the mall, but then in between, not so. So while strategically placing them again based on architecture, strategically placing them and rooting them at the right way, you realize that the route is actually not that. In fact, I mean, ended them even longer, but yet nobody complains. I mean, there was, there were, there were a couple of days that rain, I remember because I was drenched, you know, but, but the route was smooth. They get to see things. They get to understand things. There's a lot of nice buildings around, you know, so yeah, motives and things that were hidden based on all the other buildups around the area, very architectural. But yes, you know, there are a lot of things that you could do.

Unknown 24:56
So that last flex a little bit, we won awards for reroute Little India. So I think, I mean, I think the government recognizes the stuff that we do that is quite successful, quite unconventional. So we make a private joke, right? Say that, hey, maybe you want to do reroute issue. Since issue has always been condemned all the time, I live in issue. So

Unknown 25:16
highlight all the gangsters

Unknown 25:21
this building, five people could be the suicide that one.

Unknown 25:27
So I think, I mean, if you could, you know, just, just look into it, you know, and see the beauty of the stuff that, you know, the talented designers are putting together. I think they did a great job. We're putting this nine months. is insane. So it's gonna be worse because the next seven days, we're going to be surviving on three hours of sleep every day, just to make sure that you know the message gets sent across. Okay.

Unknown 25:55
Thank you for coming. Thank you so much.

This transcript was generated by https://otter.ai