Adams, the Director of City Design for Melbourne, showed how a one-page planning document is all that’s needed — that, and a clear vision for green, flexible Transit Oriented Development (TOD) — which works in this tram-linked, largely flat city.

He explains exactly how it is possible to increase the density of the city using just over 7% of the land area.

Here’s Adams’ talk at TEDx Sydney:

Adams quotes the dramatic, oft-cited projections — 75% of the world’s population are expected to live in cities in the next 50 years — and explains that requires that we double urban capacity.

Rob’s home of Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, is projected to grow by 1 million (to 5 million) by 2022. He explains that expanding sprawl is a poor social and economic decision: quoting a study that finds that people living on the periphery suffer from financial and social isolation, while adding significantly to infrastructure costs: building on the fringe costs $300 million more, over 50 years, than consolidating on the inner city.

Melbourne’s Federation Square represents an investment in public space and cultural institutions including the NGV and ACMI | Photo by Jess Scully

In searching for solutions, Adams points to the examples offered by those cities around the world which have launched dedicated strategies for revitalizing their urban centres, including Glasgow, Bordeaux, Malmo, Bogota, Seoul, Curitiba. Some of their strategies will be familiar to readers of this site, including:

• • • Focusing on building a high-quality public realm, as in Bordeaux
    • Investing in educational institutions and zero-carbon urbanism, as in Malmo
    • Ending the dominance of the automobile in urban areas, and investing instead in bikeways and bus routes, as in Bogota

Adams also describes the rebirth of inner-city Melbourne over the past 25 years, which sought to re-use buildings by transforming office into residential and encouraging mixed-use and a more active street life.

In order to take this strategy to the next stage, Adams outlines his plan for the “7.5% city”: a plan to double the population of the city, and to improve quality of life, using only a small percentage of the land around Melbourne.

The plan is for transport-centered development, encouraging the creation of well-connected areas of activity around existing rail, bus and tram (light rail) networks.

The figure of 7.5% comes from the process of subtraction following a land capacity analysis: the planners identified places with good access to these transport corridors, subtracted important public space, parks, and heritage buildings, and then focused on those places which offered rear-lane access for development, with the aim of creating good life at street level — as Adams notes, “streets are 80% of public realm” and so, crucial for building a sense of connection to a community.

With these constraints in mind, Adams says it is possible to increase the population by 2.4 million, by lifting building heights to 5 or 6 stories closest to the transport lines, but maintaining low heights and existing suburban building profiles just beyond those corridors.

Remarkably, the city has developed a one-page planning scheme for these corridors:

The plan actually leaves the majority of existing suburbia — 90% of it — as it is, making it the “green lung” of the city, encouraging a new kind of suburban life that is self-sufficient, recycling and collecting water, storing solar power (a hugely under-utilised resource in sunny Australia) and providing these suburban communities “with urbanism at the end of the street”, offering the services and connectedness of the inner city.

The city has become famous for vibrant street art in the laneways of the CBD | Photo by Jess Scully

This is not just a residential strategy: the plan provides for recycling some areas into mixed-use and light industrial, for small businesses to grow and to provide workplaces closer to home. The Victorian state government is implementing strategies to increase public transport use, such as making travel to city free before 7am, allowing Melbourne to save $85million through re-timetabling peak services. The plan also accommodates the fasting growing segment of population, people over 50, who benefit from walkable communities and access to services.

While the plans sound dramatic, perhaps the most heartening element of Adams’ presentation comes at the conclusion, as he points out that the future is, in fact, very familiar: rather than the fantastical “paper architecture” we expect from visions of our urban future (and as presented by Australian architects at the Venice Biennale), these projections are for streets and cities which retain the character of our communities today.

Have you encountered an inspiring vision for our urban future? Share your discoveries below, join the conversation.

“We are affected by these prob­lems in the Metro Manila; why don’t we cure these prob­lems ourselves?” Asks Salvatus | Image courtesy of Mark Salvatus

For his Show Us Your City entry Mark submitted Neo-Urban Planner, a call for discussion into the ways Manila can be reshaped, and an “online suggestion box” and starting point for engaged urbanism. Rather than pondering the possibilities all on his own Mark sent a call out to fellow city dwellers, while in residency at the Green Papaya Art Projects, to get their input and solutions.

The suggested solutions been thoughtful and playful, responding to local challenges — from seasonal flooding to transport issues to the spreading concrete grey of a rapidly growing city — in inventive ways, and have come from sources as diverse as local artists, children and the Mayor of Bogota, Colombia.

“These are suggestions from the citizens and for the benefit of the citizens,” Mark told Varsitarian. “We are affected by these problems in the Metro Manila; why don’t we cure these problems ourselves?”

“I’ve lived in the city most of my life,” Salvatus told the publication. “I have experienced the chaos of Metro Manila, and as an artist, I want to improve city life.”

“Neo-urban planning somewhat became a platform to present the people’s creative ideas for change in their cities, and eventually present these ideas to local officials.”

The project gets us all thinking: how would you re-shape your city?

Mark Salvatus is one of the short­l­is­ted entrants in our Show Us Your City com­pet­i­tion. Explore per­sonal jour­neys through the most cre­at­ive cit­ies in East Asia with a walk in Seoul, a trib­ute to the sub­urbs of Sydney, a peek into the creative spaces of Manila, or, in Sin­g­apore, through a photo diary or a study of con­tested spaces. Stay tuned for more!

People can send a text message with a zip code to the Living Light Hotline and receive a text message reply with the neighborhood’s current air quality. At the same time, the panel of the requested zip code blinks and the facade becomes a register of collective interest. | Photo by Living LIght

Artists David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang (aka “The Living“) have created a new kind of structure as a permanent outdoor pavilion in Peace Park, across from World Cup Stadium in Seoul, Korea.

Sure, Living Light does what a pavillion does best — it shelters you from the rain and gives people a place to meet — but this pavillion goes futher. Living Light is comprised of a smart facade which represents the changing air quality of the city’s neighbourhoods and which tracks public interest in the atmosphere of the city.

Every aspect of the design, construction and daily application of Living Light draws on technology in aid of a connected “smart” city.

The city has several existing interfaces to real-time air quality data, which are used by Living Light to track and present air quality in an innovative way. | Photo by Living LIght

To begin with, the pavilion is an abstracted map of Seoul, with the city’s 27 neighborhood (gu) boundaries re-drawn to be centred around the air quality sensors the Korean Ministry of Environment already have around the city. Most of our cities are already gathering this information, so in creating Living Light Benjamin and Yang draw upon existing technology and readings and use this data as the basis for a new kind of interface.

The shape this interface took was again determined by technology, with the goal being to create an effective, stable and striking structure with the most efficient use of materials.

An automated test produced 25,000 unique designs, many of which fall far from traditional ideas of shelters and pavillions, and the artists followed up this tech-led design with prototypes and testing to ensure the struture performed well under stress. This planning allowed the team to produce the elements to exact dimensions and simplified the assembly, allowing them to erect the pavillion in under a week.

Each night, the neighborhoods light up if their air quality is better today than last year. Every 15 minutes, the map goes dark and then the neighborhoods light up in order of best current air quality to worst. | Photo by Living Light

Once in place in the park, Living Light becomes an information source, lighting up in a sequence which reflects the air quality of each neighbourhood from best to worst, as compared to readings for that sector the same time last year.

The dynamic facade responds to real-time air quality data and to public interest in the environment. | Photo by Living Light

The interactivity of the structure begins when city residents check in on air quality online, or when they send a text message with their postcode to the Living Light Hotline. They receive a text message reply with the neighborhood’s current air quality, while on the strutcture their neighbourhood’s panel glows brighter, registering interest in the environment.

As the artists note on their site:

“This structure in a public park not only provides a canopy and a tactile enclosure, it also suggests that a building facade itself can become a new kind of public space. It can offer important real-time information about our shared resources and our collective concerns.”

The development and construction process has been well documented, and offers inspiration for anyone considering how we represent information about our environments, or interested in creating engaging interfaces for public spaces. View a video of Living Light below, or visit the website for more on this exceptional work which suggests a new way of communicating information in smart cities.

Living Light (Seoul, 2009) from David Benjamin on Vimeo.

The British Council (Korea) teamed up with Seoul Metropolitan Government to co-host the 48-hour Inclusive Design Challenge. It was one of the main events of the second Seoul Design Olympiad that ran from 11–14 November 2009, which was launched in 2008 to celebrate Seoul’s designation as World Design Capital 2010. The Design Challenge was managed by Julia Cassim from RCA. Seven UK mentor designers and 13 overseas designers, recruited through our global BC network, were among the 46 designers who took part.

One of the main aims was to show local policy makers and designers how they can benefit from inclusive thinking. Six disabled people and two senior citizens were invited as design partners to share their views and experience with the designers. The design experts observed the designer partners, while having in-depth discussions about their experience. Many of those involved said they gained a lot from this approach.

Based on findings from study of their design partners, each of eight teams led by British designers developed their design ideas for product, system, service and communication for the given theme, ‘leisure, pleasure and social interaction for all’. “It was a big challenge to draw agreement on our design project among team members who come from different disciplines and backgrounds. At the same time, I’ve learnt a lot while working with them and it was great fun”, according to one participant.

The challenge reached a climax when the two winning teams for Best Idea Prize and Best Presentation Prize were about to be announced. Each team pitched their ideas in an eight-minute presentation in an air-dome filled by more than 200 people. The winning teams were chosen by a combination of a panel consisting of respected professors and the director general of Seoul Design Olympiad, as well as by popular vote.

Best Idea Prize went to ‘Pitch Perfect’ which presented an innovative idea to make Karaoke, a typical place for socialising in Korea, more fun. It was about Karaoke screen which shows graphic of notes and illustration of face expression interactively while singing. Though it was inspired by its hearing-impaired design partner, it was not only for the disabled but for everyone. It captured attention both from audience and the selection panel by successfully combining ‘communication’ and ‘emotion’. One happy winner said: “It was a unique and valuable experience that will stay with me for a long time. It is sure to influence my future work”.

For further enquiries, please contact Yoonjoe Park at Yoonjoe [dot] park [at] britishcouncil [dot] or [dot] kr.

Big city living has its many appeals – anonymity, unlimited choices and endless opportunities among them. However, in such a vast sea of faces the individual habitants often find themselves walking on their own, and ironically, it is the places with the most people that can often be the loneliest.

Recognising that the notion of community is void within many cities,  Dr Jonathon Welch AM of Australia’s Choir of Hard Knocks started Social Inclusion Week to address the issue of social fragmentation and its many catastrophic effects – depression, isolation and suicide among them.

“Through my work with charities and community organisations over the past three decades, I have witnessed a number of the challenges facing Australians, from homelessness to mental illness and drug abuse,” Jonathon said.

“But one of the things that really stood out for me was how prevalent the issue of social exclusion is. I truly believe that isolation and loneliness are the biggest challenges we face in the 21st century.”

The places with the most people can often be the loneliest. Triangle Park, Amerikamura, Osaka | Photo by Jess Scully

The paradox of social exclusion is that it is so widespread, and the people who feel the effects of it are far from alone. From teenagers to young couples to the elderly, loneliness is prevalent within most households. The good news is, such an outcome can be easily avoided – if people start to band together and realise they do not have to be so distant.

“I think people really do underestimate just how important it is to feel connected and cared for,” Jonathon said. “Yes, we need the essentials like food, water and clean air, but to really grow and prosper not just as individuals, but as a society, we also need love, friendship and support.

“That’s why I created Social Inclusion Week – to not only draw awareness to the issues of loneliness and exclusion, but to give people the excuse they need to do something about it.”

Jonathon’s idea to start Social Inclusion Week was conceived many years ago when he first moved to Sydney, recalling what was meant to be one of the best times in his life as one of the loneliest. He knew that anyone who has left their friends behind in similar vain was bound to relate.

“If we are to move forward as an accepting, inclusive society, we need to take a stand against the fragmentation of our community, and we need to take responsibility to connect with one another and support each other,” he says.

“We need to be a community that truly cares not just about ourselves, but those around us who need a helping hand.”

So, Social Inclusion Week. Did somebody say street party? That’s would be correct. National Street Party has been created to encourage the community to get together, share a bbq and finally get to know one another’s name. it is on throughout Australia this weekend, November 28–29.

This story initially appeared as “Throw a party, make a friend” on Side Street, Sydney, a blogazine ded­ic­ated to the city of Sydney and the com­pet­ing pas­sions of its people and its admirers.

Late at night on the steps of Town Hall, they’re swigging whisky from water bottles and bopping around to a beat that simply isn’t playing… on audible speakers, anyway. The city below isn’t merely the destination of their pay cheques or the side of the board game where their favourite bar is situated – it’s their school, their cafeteria and their auditorium, and sometimes, it’s their dance floor. Amongst the lanes of cheap gift shops and Chinese takeaways are hundreds of young people, whose primary address is The Streets, Sydney.

Gary Lockhart, Streetwalk Program Manager with Youth off the Streets | Photo courtesy Side Street, Sydney

Enter Gary Lockhart, Streetwalk Program Manager with Youth off the Streets (YOTS). From 7pm up to 3am from Sunday to Thursday, Gary finds a way to connect with the young inhabitants of the city – and show them that they’re not invisible.

Gary’s been working on the streetwalking project for the past 5 months, but he’s been with the organisation for 13 years. He spent 10 of those working in a YOTS refuge, and then moved on to other areas of the organisation before he headed up the streetwalking project. Although it was briefly introduced a few years ago and repealed because of existing assistance, Father Chris Riley decided to relaunch the program when he discovered that there were still youth on the streets who needed a helping hand. And it was a good call, evidently – in the past month alone, Gary has counted 63 new young people he now knows on the streets by name – and these are just the kids he has seen more than once.

As we make our way to the food van outside of The Domain, street-diners are scattered but the young people seem to have all dissipated by now. Gary says that even if there were young people there, he wouldn’t necessarily approach them. If it was his first time seeing them, he’d make eye contact – and then do the same thing the next night, and the next, until they knew he wasn’t just another curious stranger wondering what went wrong. When they finally feel like he’s approachable, they typically ask him what he’s doing there and he tells them – and their response is usually friendly and appreciative. As he puts it, nobody has ever caused him trouble, and the kids are always polite.

That is evident at our next stop, Town Hall. As we reach a group of teenagers who resemble my friends and I on a night out, their faces light up when they see Gary approach.

“Gary! We’re so glad you’re here!” says Girl A.
“Gary! We need a ride home. Can you give us one?” says Girl B.
As we wait for them to hug their typical teenage I Don’t Know When or if I’ll Ever See You Again Farewells (ahem. tomorrow.), one girl comes up to us and asks Gary if he knows anyone she can talk to. She REALLY needs someone to talk to.
Amidst the yelps and shrieks from the excited goodbyes, Gary pulls out his phone and calls a counsellor who can help. He leaves a message on the counsellor’s voicemail with the girl’s details. She’ll get a phone call tomorrow.

Even among all this clamour, I can almost hear society’s shrill announcement of “Kids Gone Wrong” above it. But the thing about Gary is, there is no judgement. He’s not there to get them into trouble, or force them to go anywhere, or make things difficult – he takes the approach of a friendly big brother type, because he knows that’s how he’ll get the results.

“The purpose of streetwalking is to connect with youth who are homeless or at risk. If they need accommodation, we’ll help them try and secure some. We have food and blankets to give them. It’s a friendly approach, because our main goal is to make them aware that help exists with our organisation and elsewhere. There are places to go,” he says.

The ride home to their housing commission is a cringe-worthy trip down the rather blurred Memory Lane of teenage intoxication, as the conversation shifts from boys to pet rats to, most importantly, school. As rumour has it, people are more honest when they’re drunk.

“Gary, I really want to go that school you were talking about – can you call them and see if there’s a placement for me tomorrow?” says Girl A.
“Yah, me too. Oh, and Girl C – check if there’s a place for her, too,” says Girl B.

You can almost see the pen scribbling its note in Gary’s head. He WILL make that phone call tomorrow. After all, it is education that breaks the cycle of poverty. There are about four schools which kids who don’t fit into the mainstream can go to – and many do incredibly well once they’re given the freedom to do it their way.

As we wave the girls “Goodbye, You’re Welcome, You Take Care, Too,” Gary tells me the purpose of these drives is far from the destination. Getting the kids home is just a bonus.

“It’s an opportunity to chat with them and get them to open up to you,” he says. “By being there consistently, you break through their trust issues a little and give them someone to confide in.”

The girls we took home spend their days on the streets and their nights sleeping – or not – from one house to another. As their parents do not take on an active role in their lives, and because they possibly grapple with the same authority issues most teenagers (and when I say most, I mean I) have had – having someone like Gary around is sometimes their only chance at choosing a life that leads in a more stable direction.

Gary cites the case of a girl who came home one day to find her parents had moved home without her. She stayed in the abandoned house for four months before her neighbours intervened, and then she was relocated to a youth refuge, where she met a boy she so desperately wanted to rely on. And rely on him she did – even when he got her hooked on heroin and started pimping her out to his friends. With people like Gary around, girls like her are able to rely on someone who isn’t going to cause them harm.

We continue to walk around Town Hall and Hyde Park, and eventually stop into the city’s McDonalds, where internet junkies are able to get full-night access for $10 from 8pm to 8am. Gary approaches a couple kids who he knows from the rounds, and promises to bring them food in a few hours. This is the pretty much the equivalent of their youth hostel, except it has World of Warcraft to provide the entertainment, too.

One of the boys we just met comes from a wealthy background, but he felt so alienated from his family that he decided to leave home. He refuses to go back and prefers to exist in the anonymity of the streetlights that so playfully resist darkness than the security of a refuge. For now, his favourite subject seems to be independence.

“Most of the time, these young people feel a certain disconnection from their family. If their friends are also homeless, there is a feeling of belonging, and they end up making a family for themselves,” says Gary.

After a short drive and stop at the YOTS food van, we bring the boy back some of what’s left and take a bag of fruit over to a group of teens who are living on their own in North Sydney. They met on the streets, and ended up scrounging up enough to share a two bedroom apartment together. All eight or so of them.

When we get there, Gary is welcomed by the usual displays of smiles and worship, and as I start talking to the teens, I suddenly realise we have a lot in common. One flip of the dice and one of them could have been me, or my sibling, or my cousin. Their favourite movie is Almost Famous, they’re wearing South Park tee shirts and they have an impeccable selection of 80’s music on their iPod. Looks like the city isn’t the only thing we share.

As our night comes to an end and we make our way home, I ask Gary about his background, and why he chose to do what he does.

“I always knew I wanted to work with people, but I actually studied bio and found the work incredibly boring. So I went travelling for five years, and I spent a lot of that time in India,” he says. “When I got back, I studied welfare at TAFE and went onto youth work, and I still love it. I get to help the most needy, many of whom are in an immediate crisis situation, and sometimes I am there at opportune times when they are the most upset. They are so appreciative and vibrant, which makes it all worth it.

“I learn from them. Young people have the resilience, the ability, to move on.”

To volunteer with Youth off the Streets or to find out more information, please visit their website. This story was originally published as “Growing up under city lamps” on Side Street, Sydney, a blogazine dedicated to the city of Sydney and the competing passions of its people and its admirers.

In this interview with Creative Cities, Landry explains his democratic approach to the ideas of city-making. Landry defines creative cities as “places where you can think, plan and act with imagination”, and suggests that the best way to unleash the creative potential and energy of a city is through a combined bottom-up and top-down approach – coupling artistic, grass-roots challenges to the status quo with flexible responses from authorities who adapt regulations and create incentives to encourage “civic creativity” (ie, imaginative problem solving for the public good) from the people.

Through his writing, Landry encourages us to see our cities in new ways, and to adjust our value systems to a new age.

Landry describes the imagination of people as the greatest resource a city can call on, which prompts the question: how are we investing in this resource when shaping our cities, or building cities for the future?

Through his work, Landry encourages us to expand this potential resource by recognizing the artistic in everyone, and inspiring people from outside the fields traditionally recognized as “creative” to see themselves as capable of being agents of innovation and change in daily life. He encourages us to see the act of city-making as an art, rather than a science or purely technical pursuit, with all the intuition and nuance that requires. Importantly, he notes that the responsibility for this art falls to no-one, or lies only with any one profession or leadership position – and should be shared by everyone.

We’re pleased to announce that Charles Landry will be a regular contributor to the Creative Cities East Asia conversation over the next few months. In his first post, Landry discusses the “geography of blandness” that is appearing as more cities aim for the “global city” ideal.

While cities consist of physical pieces of architecture and infrastructure, Landry highlights that cities are also experiences for those who inhabit them, places experienced through the senses, recorded in memory and coloured by emotion. Do we lose our place in that sensory landscape when we try to follow a formula for building a global city? How do we balance the competing interests of the global and the local, order and chaos, duty and pleasure, in our shared civic spaces? We hope Charles Landry’s contribution to the discussion here will stimulate responses and help us extend this crucial conversation into your city.

Through the Social Entrepreneur of the Year competition, the Schwab Foundation identifies social entrepreneurs who address social and ecological problems in innovative, sustainable ways, and invites up to 30 of them to join its network every year.

On September 10 –12 this month, a number of the Foundation’s social entrepreneurs met at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC) in Dalian to discuss how social innovation and green technologies can act as drivers of economic revival and growth. Representatives from the region are listed below, over the coming months Creative Cities will explore their contributions to their communities.

Disnadda Diskul – Mae Fah Lung Foundation, Doi Tung, Thailand
Sustainable enterprise development and economic inclusion of impoverished communities, with goals to eradicate the opium trade and reforest northern Thailand, a program that is now being trialled in Afghanistan and Indonesia.

Timothy Ma – Senior Citizen Home Safety Association, China
Volunteers make phone calls to engage Preventative social services plus 24-hr ICT-assisted emergency services for ageing population
in Hong Kong; model is currently being replicated in other Chinese cities.

Sebastien Marot – Friends-International, Cambodia
Works to empower street children/youth and their families through social, educational, health, and employment services in Southeast Asia and Central America.

Sarah Mavrinac – aidha, Singapore
Financial education for women migrant workers in Singapore.  Through academic and hands– on business training, Aidha helps women return to their home countries with social, intellectual, and financial capital necessary to spearhead new businesses.

Jimmy Pham – Know One, Teach One (KOTO), Vietnam
Comprehensive social reintegration and hospitality management training program for street
youth in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Silverius Unggul – Telapak, Indonesia
Telapak promotes ecological justice, cultural integrity, and economic empowerment through its cooperatives and community enterprises, while raising public awareness for sustainable
logging and sustainable marine farming.

Pierre Tami – Hagar International, Cambodia
Employs low-income women through commercial enterprises, including food catering and soy production.  In just the first 10 years of its operation, 10,000 people have benefited directly.

D-Fuse worked with 4 local artists (VJ, 1 animator, 1 film-maker, 1 sound artist) over 6 days to create audiovisual impressions of the city – “Endless Cities”, which was then performed live with the local sound artist at Zouk Club KL on 5 April to over 200 audience members.

“Graphic Cities” was screened twice, with the Sunday screening followed by a panel debate at Central Market Annexe with Shane Walter (Director onedotzero), Matthias Kispert (D-Fuse), Pang Khee Teik (artistic director of CM Annexe), Yap Sau Bin (visual artist and curator) and Chu Yuan, visual artist/researcher.  2 members of D-Fuse also gave a workshop on their filming and editing techniques.

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Presented in Malaysia in partnership with a local magazine, KLue.

Helping Malaysian writers tell the stories of their lives in their city, UK writers Jeremy Sheldon and Sarah Butler were in Kuala Lumpur for two weeks, running workshops for over 200 aspiring and advanced writers.

The workshops were part of the creative writing series the British Council organised in partnership with MPH Bookstores and London-based Spread the Word from 11–20 February 2009, aimed at encouraging participants to derive inspiration from their surroundings for the production of written work and refine their skills through innovative activities that creatively and sensitively engage them with their cities and with the people who inhabit these spaces.

The local writers took part in a wide range of exercises that included autobiographical fiction, tapping into the dramatic substance of their own experiences to transform into stories, and creating a sense of place by exploring city identity and experimenting with giving the city a biography.

One of the participants shared their experience: “I loved it, especially the exercise where we had to walk around the city by ourselves. It was inspiring and fun.”

UK writer and tutor Sarah Butler, who also runs a consultancy to explore the area of creative writing and urban regeneration, UrbanWords, found the experience in Malaysia a rewarding one: “It was a delight to work with so many talented and enthusiastic writers in Kuala Lumpur. The visit was exceptionally well organised and supported by the British Council. As someone particularly interested in writing and place, I really enjoyed getting to know Kuala Lumpur through the words of its writers.”

The second phase of City of Stories will commence later in the year, leading to the publication of an anthology of short stories by the workshop participants. At the same time we will continue to work in collaboration to develop a community of writers and readers with the bookshop as the locus, and literature as the medium for bringing people together and for highlighting the vivacity and diversity in the city.

Organised by British Council Malaysia, MPH and Spread the Word

Contact: sunitha [dot] janamohanan [at] britishcouncil [dot] org [dot] my