This article originally appeared on Vulcan Post.
You see pop-up shops everywhere, and in every form. There’s the pushcart pop-up, the actual physical store pop-up, and one which is in the form of a…park.
PARK(ing) Day is the international event that invites the public to the streets to turn parking lots into spaces of leisure; so you can do pretty much whatever you please, from creating a mini beach to starting a teh tarik stand. The catch? It’s for one day only.
Singapore’s first PARK(ing) Day happened in 2013, as part of the ArchiFest fringe festival where car park lots at MacPherson Estate were turned into community spaces by students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design. Last year’s event saw 52 ‘parks’ being set up across 88 carparks in various places.
With the return of PARK(ing) Day on September 18 this year, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and Housing Development Board (HDB) are continuing their support of the programme and opening car park lots to participants. This means even you can set up shop in any coupon-paid parking lot across the island, including areas like the CBD, Ann Siang Hill, Kampong Glam, and Little India, as well as selected coupon-paid lots in the nostalgic Tiong Bahru neighbourhood.
To apply for a ‘park’, participants need to register with the URA and once accepted, they will receive a specially-designed parking coupon to chope that lot and waive the parking fees.
May we suggest some ‘park’ ideas we would like to see happen?
- A comic book/graphic novel library
- Gourmet teh tarik stand
- A terrapin pond
- An outdoor LAN shop
- A kitten therapy park
- Mini Singapore Lego Town
- A busking station for some musical accompaniment
Tell us what you’d like to see ‘pop-up’!
And if you’re thinking, But Singapore already not enough parking spaces what, wait cannot park then how?, then there is also the option of ditching your cars for the day. We’re pretty sure that’s one of the goals of this programme.
Registration opens from today to 14 September 2015. To register, log on to ura.sg/parkingday