Box Story: The Cambridge Community

Site plan of the Cambridge Road neighbourhood (Centre for Liveable Cities)

The Community Resilience by Design @ Cambridge Road project saw a close collaboration between local community groups and various government agencies. The CLC conducted surveys, held focus group discussions and organised several workshops to build confidence among the stakeholders. These engagement sessions enabled local residents and other stakeholders to have a better understanding of the existing conditions in the neighbourhood, and the insights gained would come to guide the approach for the project.

The CLC's engagement with the community spanned various modes including pop-up booths. These sessions offered information on climate change and showcased ongoing government efforts to mitigate and address its potential impacts. Through these interactions, the residents were able to learn more about the issue, appreciate the variety of ways in which they could participate in addressing it, and provide feedback on possible interventions that could be introduced into their neighbourhood.

Information panels displayed at the pop-up booths highlighted ongoing community efforts, and aimed to inspire residents to contribute their ideas on how to address climate challenges in their neighbourhood (Centre for Liveable Cities)

To ensure that the proposed interventions were led by the community, the CLC worked closely with the residents and volunteers throughout the course of the project. Thirty residents from the public and private housing estates in the Cambridge Road neighbourhood and the wider Moulmein-Cairnhill constituency formed a volunteer-based group called Our Green MoCa. The group represents the larger community, works to raise awareness about climate change and aims to inspire action among their neighbours. The collaborative process showed the residents that their views mattered, and this in turn strengthened their sense of ownership of their neighbourhood. The process was its own reward, as it led the residents to become stewards of how their neighbourhood would eventually evolve.

While a pilot site had been identified for a green corridor that would help cool the neighbourhood and alleviate flooding, the volunteers were doubtful that they had the technical skills to design and implement the project. To address this, the CLC reached out to experts like NParks and CLC Visiting Fellow and landscape architect, Herbert Dreiseitl, to share their knowledge with the volunteers. To build their skills and confidence, the experts held workshops on greenery, equipped them with a design toolkit, and conducted an online train-the-trainers masterclass on community engagement and design thinking.

As a result of this multi-stakeholder initiative, the Cambridge Road community conceptualised and brought to reality an 80 m-long green corridor that now connects the neighbourhood’s housing estates. With support from NParks and the People’s Association, the community co-designed and planted the corridor, and will continue to maintain it. The corridor was designed with a multitiered structure to mimic a natural forest, which will attract biodiversity while at the same time improve thermal comfort and promote walkability for pedestrians.

The community rallied to identify possible areas in their neighbourhood for climate-response interventions, such as a green corridor(Centre for Liveable Cities)

The volunteers and other stakeholders also worked to activate underused social spaces. For instance, they partnered with a local art gallery and students to design community murals that incorporated residents’ artwork and views on environmental consciousness, sustainability and local heritage.

The continuous community engagement and participation helped to cultivate a greater sense of ownership and resilience among the residents, empowering them to take collective action to improve their neighbourhood, and realise that their ground-up efforts contributed to national efforts on climate action.

Planting the green corridor was a community affair that provided opportunities for community bonding (Centre for Liveable Cities)