Good evening everyone.
Thank you for attending today’s launch of the “My Ideas for Public Spaces” exhibition.
Your presence here today speaks volumes about the importance of public spaces and how we can shape them into treasured community places for all of us.
The theme of this year’s competition is “Forgotten Spaces.” We received entries from architects, designers, and even a group of pre-schoolers. We also received an entry from a family team. I am personally very encouraged and inspired by the diversity of entries in this competition. It shows that people value spaces around them, even the “forgotten spaces” and are eager to share their ideas on enhancing these forgotten spaces.
This time, to give recognition to a wider range of ideas, we decided to give out eight additional merit awards and one special mention. We hope that this will attract more people to participate and get involved in the near future. After all, public spaces belong to everyone.
We will study the winning ideas in greater detail to see if some of them can be implemented. Last year, we developed one of the ideas in the first edition of this competition into a fun and temporary pop-up project. Called “Picnic in the Park – Under the Gelam Trees”, the open space at Sultan Gate in Kampong Glam was spruced up with benches and garden swings for the public to enjoy during the Ramadan period. Originally conceived as a one-off installation, this project received a very good response from the community and was re-launched this year as a roving project to activate public spaces at other locations.
I would like to thank members of the jury panel who have given their time and expertise in assessing the competition. Last but not least, congratulations to all the awardees.
Thank you and enjoy the exhibition.