The design brief, “Reinvent the Shophouse,” called for middle-income housing with a strong sense of community that encourages interaction in a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood. The project required a large number of independent row houses, a school, and a market to ensure commercial viability, while also maintaining pedestrian-friendly green public spaces, which was challenging to address.

These factors led me to study the old streets in Cambodia. These shaded, narrow streets provided avenues for everyday life—kids played, people did their daily chores, and interacted with their neighbors. I aimed to bring the liveliness and memories of those old streets into this development. The pedestrian streets, connected by plazas, became the green communal spaces for this community. The vehicular traffic and parking is restricted to the periphery making it convenient for accessing the houses from the parking spaces.