PHYSICAL SPACES FOR SERENDIPIDITY
In the digital age, convenience and cost-effectiveness have challenged retailers in Somerset and the wider Orchard area to reinvent themselves or risk irrelevance. Incoming tenants seem to understand that the old brick-and-mortar model no longer works, and that they need to offer experiences that cannot be replicated on a screen.
Besides Golden Village X The Projector, new tenants like Taiwan Night Markets and HaveFun Karaoke will inject fresh energy into Cineleisure, and provide opportunities for serendipitous experiences.
*SCAPE is also undergoing rejuvenation to provide spaces for young entrepreneurs and creatives to work in, as well as a refreshed line-up of retail and entertainment offerings.
Trifecta, Asia’s first facility for skating, surfing and snowboarding, will soon be completed near Somerset Skatepark too.
At the heart of the Somerset Belt revamp is the acknowledgement that dreams flourish when spaces are made available. “Youths can find their own space to do many things, nothing, or their own version of in-between,” according to the 50-page masterplan.
At this year’s Committee of Supply Debate, Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth Alvin Tan said youths will “get to decide how (the Somerset Belt) will look like, operate, and also develop future programmes”.
The Realise Your Somerset Project gave youths the channel to propose programmes like art installations and workshops. It supported 24 projects and reached out to 18,000 youths in 2022.