Singapore 2026 · Concluded
Singapore. The first chapter.
13 to 20 June 2026. One cohort, one week, a city in conversation.
The inaugural week was built as a prototype rather than a launch, the standing question held in public for the first time. What it left unfinished became the starting point for 2027.
The ground · Tiong Bahru, Telok Ayer, Bras Basah Bugis, Robertson Quay, Downtown
The arc of the week
Sat 13 – Sun 14 Jun
Arrival
The cohort arrived, with studio visits and quiet conversations alongside Singaporean artists and arts spaces, closing with an off-the-record welcome supper.
Mon 15 Jun
The cohort convenes
A day of orientation and shared notes in the working studio, among the makers, objects and materials of the host workshop.
Tue 16 Jun
Artistic Freedom & the Public City
A closed-door salon convening twenty-five artists, policymakers and cultural practitioners on what cities owe their creators.
Wed 17 Jun
The public day
The week opened out into the city, four acts from morning to night, with the cohort on stage together.
Thu 18 Jun
The Citymaking Studio
The working culmination: a one-day co-design session building an Experience Improvement District for a creative precinct in Singapore, across foundations, nature, wellbeing, future heritage and model-town design.
Fri 19 – Sat 20 Jun
A quiet close
Final exchanges, departures, and a small closing gathering to mark the chapter's end.
What the week left
Three things carried out of Singapore.
The Citymaking Studio left a first sketch of an Experience Improvement District for a Singapore creative precinct, worked across foundations, nature, wellbeing, future heritage and model-town design, and held now as a working draft rather than a proposal. The closed-door salon found that the constraint on artistic freedom in the public city is rarely permission and usually the absence of anyone holding the ground long enough for work to land. And the week handed one finding forward to 2027: a place can be read this closely once it exists, so the next test is what can be made of one while it is still being built.
Dhun is where that finding is put to work.
Where it landed
Five precincts, read as layers rather than zones.
A distributed set of focal points across the city rather than a single venue.
Tiong Bahru
Mon–Tue · the working studio
Telok Ayer
Wed · the public day
Bras Basah Bugis
Thu · the co-design studio
Robertson Quay
All week · the evening room
Downtown
Thu · the wider city
Who was in the room
Helen Marriage
Producer, public realm · United Kingdom
Charles Landry
The Creative City · United Kingdom
Manvendra Singh Shekhawat
Habitat, hospitality, ecology · Rajasthan, India
Digvijay Singh Kathiwada
Long-horizon stewardship · Madhya Pradesh, India
Carla & Viola Bartoli
Cultural regeneration · Sicily, Italy
Elinor Seath
Experience Improvement District · United Kingdom
Clare Inkster
Curiosity, insight, enquiry · United Kingdom
Saurabh Mangla
Craft, material, making · Singapore
Dr. Samantha Hayes
Bioneering · Australia
Tulsi Grover
Hospitality and lifestyle design · Singapore
Erin Lee
Mindfulness, attention, wellbeing · Singapore
Anupam Yog
Creative strategy, urban innovation · Singapore
By invitation
Come and work on real ground with us.
What the first chapter returns to the Circle: a draft Experience Improvement District for a Singapore precinct, and the finding it handed to 2027. Places are held for Circle members and invited Creators.