Wouldn’t it be exciting if we could build the world’s smallest hotel? Or enable people with disabilities to dance or those with artificial limbs to experience touch? Or simply to enjoy freshly harvested and safely grown greens? Meet four personalities who tapped into their imagination to share the new norm for themselves and others.
01 | Seah Liang Chiang, founder & CEO, Shipping Container Hotel
“Tony ‘Ironman’ Stark, who owned a futuristic Malibu mansion, spent time in his lakeside cabin in Atlanta. I remember wanting to own a house just like that!”
Since Seah Liang Chiang didn’t have enough money to build a 10-bedroom home on his half-acre land, he built a weekend retreat with a shipping container instead.
02 | Danielle Chan, co-founder, Citiponics
“Carpark rooftops are underused, but being wide, open and located near locals living in the heartlands, they are suitable for urban farming!”
Now Danielle Chan’s 1,800-sqm farm in Ang Mo Kio Ave 6 grows up to 25 different types of fresh produce – including Georgina lettuce, its own cross-breed of celtuce and romaine.
“If you’re unable to sense the world, how do you know you exist?”
Benjamin Tee tells us more about building his Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin system that uses electrical signals to allow receivers to detect touch.
04 | Jeffrey Tan, co-director and producer of SAME-SAME
“Socialising might be the last thing on anyone’s mind these days. Yet, ironically, it was also through the pandemic that we discover how easily we can make friends online with people who are different from us.”
For this dance-and-drama collaboration between performers with disabilities in Singapore and Australia, Jeffrey Tan took his auditions and rehearsals online and had to find different ways to keep his cast artistically and emotionally connected.
The story first appeared in the November 2020 issue of A Magazine.