In collaboration with:
Illustration Credits: T:>Works
What is the Living Soil Series?
The Living Soil Series is a curation of programmes that holds space for conversations and deeper understanding of how we relate to land collectively, against the backdrop of Singapore’s fast-paced development and changing landscapes. Through films, workshops and gatherings, this series takes us on a journey in exploring how the phenomenon of urban development shapes and impacts our lives, wellbeing, society, environment and planet.
Explore more: PerºForm CoThink Lab | T:>Works
Upcoming events from the Living Soil Series
05/ Deep Time Walk
Nov 8, 2025, Sat, 3:30 to 9:00pm
(incl. dinner break)
Image Credit: Deep Time Walk
Route Co-design and Facilitations: Santosh Kumar, Vivian Lee and invited collaborators.
The Deep Time Walk (DTW) is a time travel journey through 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history, experienced through a 4.6 km guided walk. Starting at the formation of the solar system and the creation of Earth, the walk covers some of the most significant events and key revolutions in Earth's deep history, including the formation of the Moon, the oceans, the atmosphere, the early evolution of single-celled life, plate tectonics, multicellular life, the Cambrian Explosion, mass extinctions, dinosaurs and right at the end, our own species, Homo sapiens - just in the last 30 centimetres! During this interactive walk, participants will be invited to engage in reflective inquiry of our place in the living world, and reconnect with Mother Earth, our home.
Learn more here.
More details soon. Follow us on Instagram for updates, @livingsoil.asia.
06/ Living Earth Festival
4th to 7th December
The Living Earth Festival is Living Soil Asia’s first festival, happening this December at T:>Works / 72-13!
It is a multi-day gathering where, through soil, we explore the big questions that offer us invitations to reconnect with land, home, food, and community. It is a space where soil becomes our mirror, metaphor, and medium for re-membering our relationship with Mother Earth, each other, and our place in the web of being.
From hands-on workshops and dialogues, to soil trails, a soil painting competition, and much more—we gather from the contributions of many, weaving together diverse skills, voices and ideas into a shared space of learning and deep care. Together, we learn not just through knowledge, but also through embodied ways of being, co-dreaming new possibilities, and cultivating agency and active hope in the face of increasing complexities. This festival is our offering to learn not just about soil and the web that surrounds it, but to feel and live its teachings.
More details soon. Follow us on Instagram for updates, @livingsoil.asia.
Events Archive
01/ A Film Doublebill: Sandcastles + Moving Earth
Event Concluded.
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What do we consider as home? The constructed complex we live in? The land where we make our livelihood? In this film double bill, we uncover the narratives of moving homes and earth, land use policy and the construction industry led by urban development.
The film double bill will showcase two films by Singaporean filmmakers, Carin Leong and Ian Mun, where the stories and people of the land are given a voice.
This double bill is the first of a series of programmes on land use by Living Soil Series where we heed the silenced narratives of the land, reconnect with our home-lands and where we reimagine our future ways.
Join us for an interactive pre-film activity in exploring how we relate to land, and a post-screening chat moderated by Vivian, alongside filmmaker Ian Mun, producer Martin Loh and Bingyu from Ground-Up Initiative.
To learn more about Sandcastles by Carin Leong and Moving Earth by Ian Mun, head over here.
02/ Social Presencing Theatre (SPT)
Event Concluded.
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Facilitator: Veronica Yow, Pei Ya, Anna Leong and Michael Ong
Case giver: Ground Up Initiative (Bingyu)Exploring the future of Ground-Up Initiative through Social Presencing Theatre
As the good people of Ground-Up Initiative (GUI), a grassroots urban intervention living and breathing the kampung spirit through active community participation, bid their home goodbye, the community is rebuilding GUI again in its new location, starting from the soil. Dealing with this impermanence, GUI’s core team wish is for GUI’s work to transcend everywhere in Singapore, growing this movement, one built on care, connection, and collective action, beyond the new land - What is the future of GUI? What is next after GUI completes building their new home?
Join us as we explore the future of GUI using Social Presencing Theatre (SPT), an embodied social arts-based change method for making visible current reality and exploring emerging future possibilities. Through this collaborative creative process, participants will embody roles within a system, using movement, positioning, stillness and spoken expression to uncover insights about the present state of GUI and its emerging possibilities of cultivating spaces to nurture connectedness, creativity and risk-taking across Singapore.
No prior experience is needed—just an open mind, open heart and open will to engage in this creative, body-based inquiry. Come move, reflect, and co-create a vision for a 21st century kampung culture everywhere in Singapore.
The specific tool that we'll be using: 4D / Live Stakeholder Mapping
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Ground-Up Initiative (GUI) is a non-profit organisation in Singapore that promotes sustainable living and community spirit through immersive, nature-based programs. Established in 2008, GUI is a grassroots urban intervention in response to the social and environmental challenges brought about by rapid urbanisation and the climate crisis.
At GUI, every activity—from farming to food waste composting, glass and plastic upcycling, to nurturing local flora and fauna—is designed to involve the community directly in the process. Kampung Kampus, GUI’s flagship space, was built hand-in-hand with volunteers over many years, turning it into a living example of what’s possible when people are invited to care for the land together. This co-creation fosters deep ownership and pride. Research shows that when people are actively engaged in shaping and maintaining a space, they are far more likely to respect and protect it. The same holds true for our environment.
In a world increasingly reliant on automation and outsourced maintenance, GUI stands for the power of human engagement in place-keeping. Through simple acts like gardening, building, and upcycling—done together—long-term care and responsibility are nurtured. The most resilient and beloved cities of the future will balance smart systems with community involvement. GUI believes in this vision and has brought this approach to many grassroots spaces beyond Kampung Kampus. As we move into our next chapter, we hope to continue growing this movement—one built on care, connection, and collective action.
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This event is co-organized and facilitated by a group of friends - Pei Ya, Veronica, YY, Michael, Anna and Joanne - passionate about sharing SPT - a body-based “social technology” with individuals, teams, and organizations, so as to help them make current realities visible, explore future possibilities, and address complex societal challenges, revealing the wisdom in every social system and supporting movement towards healthier futures.
03/ Exploring Systems and Futures Part I & Part II
Event Concluded.
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Part I (10am to 1pm):
How Do We Relate To Land? - an inquiry through Causal Layered AnalysisFacilitator: Zhong Han of Host Lab
Singapore's relationship with land is complex, deeply personal, and critical to our future.
Are you curious about the forces shaping our urban landscape, our policies, and even our relationship to the land as Singaporeans?
This workshop offers a unique opportunity to look beyond the surface, explore the causes of our land dilemmas, and collectively envision preferred futures.
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Part II (2pm to 5:30pm):
Learning Through Simulation: Harvest*
Facilitator: Zhong Han of Host LabLearning Through Simulation: Harvest* offers an interactive simulation where participants engage in a resource management game.
Through hands-on play, participants will discover how individual choices impact a shared resource. This is followed by facilitated reflections and discussions to explore the insights gained from their experience.
This isn't just a game; it's a microcosm of the challenges that individuals, groups and organisations face when navigating uncertainty; it's a chance to experience the pressures and possibilities of change in a safe, dynamic environment.
It's about understanding how to respond when existing strategies falter, when crisis looms, and when the need for systemic change becomes paramount.
When everything changes, how will you adapt?
Join us for Harvest, a resource management game that simulates real-time response and adaptation!
*This immersive simulation is inspired by the core principles of systems thinking and sustainability
For a full event break down, head to our Event Brite page by selecting the button below.
04/ Warm Data Lab
Event Concluded.
Image Credit: warmdata.life
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Facilitator: Vivian Lee
Warm Data is the relational information that describes the many parts of a system. For example, to understand a family, one must understand not only the family members but also the relationships between them, the context they reside in, the ecosystem that shapes them and that is, in turn, shaped by them –that is, the warm data.
Complex, systemic challenges are shaped by the interaction of multiple contexts—the economy, nature, politics, culture, technology, etc.—and to effectively address such challenges, we have to understand the transcontextual interdependence. With this awareness, we can shape responses to meet the complexity around us effectively. Without it, we often enact simple responses to complex challenges which in turn create their own problems.
Warm Data is the relational and transcontextual information about and within the interrelationships that integrate elements of a complex system.
A Warm Data Lab familiarises groups of people with the ways in which the contexts of their lives marinate and overlap into each other, and it offers an introduction to the complexity of their own lives so that they may better see the complexity of others. Through this discovery, people begin to see how vital it is to tend to their families, communities, and the land, and they are able to respond to emergencies with warmth.
(Above text from https://www.warmdata.life/ )“There can be no community without first communing.” - Nora Bateson
Follow us on Instagram for updates, @livingsoil.asia.
About Living Soil Asia
Living Soil Asia builds knowledge and awareness towards regenerative practices and processes, making it accessible and attainable in Singapore. Through the three pods of research, education and culture, Living Soil Asia practices soil regeneration for the well-being of people, planet, communities and society.
