By Erick Villagomez
-
Defining “Viability”…and Who Decides What Counts?
There’s a word that shows up a lot in housing debates—one that tends to end conversations rather than deepen them: viability. I hear this word constantly...
-
The Singapore Chronicles: Divergent Models
The city, we’re often told, is a model—something to be learned from, exported, improved. But what happens when models conflict? What if the city itself...
-
The Singapore Chronicles: Conclusion
Singapore leaves an impression not just of a place, but of a proposition. A city built with such clarity of purpose and orchestration that it appears less...
-
The Singapore Chronicles: Designing for Urban Health
In the closing days of our field school, we sat around a modest table in a conference room overlooking the city skyline. It was our final debrief, and the...
-
The Singapore Chronicles: Memory in the Margins
Pulau Ubin, a small island northeast of mainland Singapore, serves as both a geographical and symbolic edge to the city-state’s narrative of modernity...
-
The Singapore Chronicles: Housing the Nation
Few cities in the contemporary world have made public housing as central to urban life as Singapore has. With over 80% of the population living in flats...
-
Memo to Carney and Robertson on Fixing Housing
[Editor’s note: This letter, signed by 27 prominent B.C. experts in urban planning and architecture, was sent last week to Prime Minister Mark Carney and...
-
The Singapore Chronicles: The Politics of Preservation
Singapore’s skyline is constantly in motion. Construction cranes and hoardings are as much part of the visual identity of the city as its heritage...
-
The Singapore Chronicles: City of Intentions
To understand contemporary Singapore, we have to understand key aspects of its history—divided here into “Four Acts.” This will be our starting point...
-
The Singapore Chronicles: Introduction
Singapore often appears as a paradox—both widely admired and deeply critiqued. It is a city-state that epitomizes precision and planning, where efficiency...
-
On Taxes, Exemptions, Loopholes, and Reversals: A System Built for Speculation
In British Columbia, ordinary homeowners pay annual property taxes—and when they buy a home, they pay Property Transfer Tax. In recent years, the Province...
-
The Slow Emergency
The crisis in Vancouver’s housing system isn’t explosive—it’s quiet, procedural, and often disguised as progress. Recently made public, the Broadway...