Reclaiming Backlanes ― Design Vision for Increasing Building Performance and Reprogramming Common Spaces

Take a shortcut! Explore the pop-up market! Breathe the fresh scents of flowers in a secret garden! What if backlanes were far from the state they are in today — lively chatter and laughter replacing the heat and noise of air-conditioning condensers and foul smells from trash bins? Reclaiming Backlanes presents design visions for future development of shophouse neighbourhoods, reprogramming backlanes into viable and high-quality common spaces, while improving energy efficiency of shophouses by up to 50%. These visions mark the convergence of studies in energy efficiency, pedestrian movement, historic building stock analysis and urban diversity by a multidisciplinary team.