Finding Peace

When does a space become a place? What role does physical space play in the love for community? In an ode to Peace Centre, Men's Folio explores the themes of identity, place and community with the participants of Deep Cuts a grassroots conference celebrating the space and all that the local creative community want to do to continue loving spaces.

- Charmaine Tan

Space is a very sensitive topic for everyone who lives in land-scarce Singapore. We need it so much that we've sought to change the shape of our island to support our activities. Frankly, there is barely enough of this precious resource to go around for living quarters that further fractioning it out for community use seems a secondary priority at best.

Yet, what is the point of a life lived in private without time and a space to share its luxuries? We are social creatures by nature, and no community can exist without a place of interaction and exchange - even if it is a virtual one. A space becomes a place when there is social meaning imbued in its identity, and the refreshing of Singapore's landscape with more efficiently built physical structures to support the country's growing demands has called for the local creative community to stand up and speak out to the changing physical identity's impact on our social and cultural one in the name of conservation and the spirit of camaraderie.

The latest space to befall the creeping wrath of urban renewal is a mall that sits only a stone's throw away from many of Singapore's art institutions and cultural landmarks. Peace Centre was scheduled for tear down earlier last year but had this postponed in light of an opportunity to gather the local community in what is infinitely more than a passionate last hurrah - a gathering of minds and hearts across life stages that share the common desire to preserve what is uniquely ours now, and forever.