CLC LECTURE Reimagining Orchard Road 12 September 2017 How can shopping belts remain relevant with the growing popularity of online shopping and thriving suburban malls? Using Orchard Road as a case study, the lecture will demonstrate current development trends, such as design strategies influenced by physical typologies and public-realm sensitivity. This panel will brainstorm key design principles that can be used as future development tools or help elucidate the success of existing properties. A dive into successful international projects as reference models will further the dialogue on criteria for driving a successful destination that rouses local and tourists’ excitement. Panel and Q&A Segment Mr Michael Koh First and foremost is that relationship back to Orchard Road that I am 00:00:20 keen to ask you about. I think you talked about some of the developments and projects that you have done and how they have actually connected places to each other. For example Horton Plaza, if I recall correctly, starts from the CBD [Central Business District] and ends up in the Gaslamp, or the historic quarter of San Diego—so actually it connects old and new. But if you talk about Orchard Road, what does it 00:00:52 connect? It’s a road. So does it have that same connectivity? That is the first comment I want to get out of you. The second comment that you mentioned and I think in many examples, you showed the complexity of cities and the issue of parallel layered streets, of different activities, and a lot of side streets that connect these parallel streets, forming walking loops; and you mentioned the examples of Barcelona, Causeway Bay, Shanghai, Melbourne and these small in situ spaces that actually create that imagery and longevity in people’s minds. So I’d like you also to comment on that idea and perhaps apply it to Orchard Road which is actually, again, a single road. Third idea that you mentioned was this idea of creating community and urban villages around the core shopping malls or retail districts; and the mix of activities vertically as well. I noticed very interestingly that you had identified three areas of Orchard Road. What if we re-conceptualise these three areas as urban villages? How would that change the landscape of Orchard Road? So just three questions to start you off. Mr Phil Kim The simple thing right now, if we start with a very small idea is that 00:02:15 because of technology the format of the way that stores actually work becomes highly significant. Because in the future or in the near future, I think a lot of landlords are going to have difficulty figuring out a way to charge rent. And that is because it is not going to be traditionally based on turnover for instance. There’s a lot of people who will use physical properties, who will want the best experiences that stores have to offer, but they are going to be making their purchases elsewhere or online. But the two are completely correlated. So what we’ve started to do in looking at the retail portion of mixed use is really to try to design in adaptive spaces, because even today and certainly a year or two from now, we can’t actually predict what kind of formats will actually work. And so the idea that kind of a mixture of traditional rents with something that is programmed to constantly adapt is really part of the idea that we are promoting. I don’t know how 00:03:33 successful they are, but in Hong Kong there is a—well I think they are in New York and Hong Kong—there is an app that is called StoreFront, who are doing permanent popup places. And as some of you landlords, you might actually be taking up a huge amount of space [such as] former department stores, and actually offering it up for them. And what they’ll do is they’ll bring in 200-300 popup operators, unique products that they source from around the world, and make it part of your permanent collection. So that constant change and idea of change, I think, is really what is highly significant. So for us, that, along with the way that the workplace environment is changing so significantly, and the desirability of people to want to live in urban villages—those three combined actually mean that there is a tremendous number of ingredients that we can use to re-programme and redesign spaces. Mr Michael Koh Right I think that answered my question in part—indirectly, maybe 00:04:37 deliberately—but I am going to push you for the justification of your ideas to Orchard Road. Mr Phil Kim There was another comment also that Orchard Road doesn’t connect 00:04:51 anything; I kind of agree, I don’t know that [sic if] frankly Orchard Road or given the way that Singapore infrastructure works will truly connect one part of the city to the next. The way I tend to conceptualise Orchard Road is that it is a district and a precinct, it just simply happens to be linear. I think you can hit it at any of the individual points, but conceptually you should try to squash it so that it is essentially a squarish or circular kind of site, and deal with it as a kind of precinct. I think that the difficulty of thinking of it as a linear street is again, this idea that you walk and you enter a fortress-like project, you experience it and then you get out—and when you look to cross, it’s very difficult to get to, or you already know that the next project has a very similar kind of offer. So without these programmatic kind of changes, I think it is difficult to continue to entice people along, especially when it is difficult to walk. Mr Michael Koh Well I think I would like to draw a parallel to what you also mentioned 00:05:54 about the work you are doing in Bangkok. Sukhumvit Road for all intents and purposes is very similar to Orchard Road—it is a linear shopping street. And you have shopping mall after another, but when you get out at each station along Sukhumvit Road, you feel that each station has depth and breadth because each station is actually part of a local village, which has connectivity from the main street into the side streets. Maybe your comment on that? Mr Phil Kim No, I think that is the porosity that Bangkok has been able to achieve 00:06:26 along Sukhumvit Road, I think that is absolutely accurate. The other part which I always find completely fascinating about Bangkok, is that they have awesome retail. I mean somehow the conditions there have pushed each of the individual owners to push for unique concepts, so along Sukhumvit Road for instance, even though it is a very long road, you could spend all day exploring different kinds of places. Emporium is totally different from Central, the [Terminal] 21 project et cetera; so you could get five, six completely different types of experiences, different kind of offers, where you are encouraged to actually explore. And again, I think the continuing narrowness of the market in Orchard Road is difficult in terms of enticing people to come and continue to explore. Mr Michael Koh And now the big question I am going to pose to you, and if I don’t pose 00:07:26 it now somebody from the audience will do so: There has been a lot of talk in the press recently and a lot of the public have [sic has] been writing in about whether to pedestrianise Orchard Road, or part of it. So what is your view towards that? Mr Phil Kim What is your view? (Laughter in audience) I’m agnostic as to whether it 00:07:46 should be pedestrianised or not pedestrianised? I am more interested in trying to understand the changes to transport and technology. I tend to think that although it would be fantastic to create a pleasure garden out of it—for instance, I think it would work well—there is no need to do that if you are doing things correctly. You don’t need five lanes on Orchard Road. You need one. And the rest could be carved up, and not necessarily in a linear way, but in a series of areas for gathering, 00:08:33 performances, events, even retail, F&B. So I think it really requires a combination, and that really is about the way that all of us are going to behave differently down the road. I know cars are not that prevalent in Singapore, but it’s going to be even less so. They will be around, you have driverless cars already which means that most of the traffic is unnecessary. Is that next year? Or five years? It’s certainly nothing beyond that. So I think that is what you have to start planning for. AUD1 My name is Jack Beckham[?] from [Sestry?], I just have a question. We 00:09:07 talk about reimagining Orchard Road and I just wonder about your view of extending that to actually a broader definition—it’s not just Orchard Road we are talking about, we are talking about something bigger than that. Mr Phil Kim Well, Orchard Road is simply the model that we are using to discuss the 00:09:26 point.