Practice
Appointed to a place. Answerable for how it feels.
How we work
We are appointed to look after a place over years, not to hand over a plan and leave. One agreement sets the boundary, the yearly funding and what we answer for.
Each year begins with a place plan and ends with an honest account. Each month we walk the place, keep its people at one table, and report on what has changed.
Programmes, public art and design stay part of the work. They serve the place, and are funded on their own terms.
A small permanent core works with a standing circle of makers, ecologists and programmers. The place carries the credit.
Where we work
- Transit
- Working
- Settled
- Retreat
- Devotional
- Learning
Wherever one owner, or a group of owners together, can appoint a keeper.
What we hold ourselves to
- RepairableMaterials and skills stay close at hand, so upkeep is local and ordinary.
- AttributedEvery maker is named, on the work and in the record.
- Legible in twenty yearsSomeone who arrives without the story still reads the intent.
- EndowedA fund for upkeep is in place before the work is made.
Our method
XID, the Experience Improvement District, grew from our published research on business improvement districts in Singapore. It treats a place as an experience, not only as streets to clean and footfall to count.
We study the place, agree what better would look like, look after it, and measure how it feels. Old knowledge and new evidence are read together.
Imagined and designed in Singapore. For the world.
Singapore is where we think, draw and rehearse. It is a city that taught us how nature, culture and community can share the same ground. What we make there travels: places built for wonder, made by hand, carried by the people who gather in them.
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