If you love Singapore heritage, you would have heard of The Urbanist Singapore. Yong, founder of The Urbanist, enthusiastically flashes his pearly whites as he shares an interesting nugget on Singapore’s heritage and history on Tik Tok and Instagram. His enthusiasm is contagious as he takes a refreshing spin on boring history lessons we used to have.
Who is The Urbanist Singapore
Who is The Urbanist? Ho Yong Min, better known as Yong, loves heritage and urban design; his passion is evident in his content focusing on Singapore’s cultural and historical nuggets.
He has been leading heritage walks since 2010 and continues to share his knowledge with the community. His millennial perspective makes history and heritage come alive for generations who may not be familiar nor interested in our storied past.
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Via TikTok and Instagram Reels, history comes alive in short-form videos and bite-sized content easy to remember. Perhaps history teachers should take a leaf from Yong’s book?
If you are yearning for more, go on an immersive heritage walk with The Urbanist himself!
What to expect at The Urbanist Singapore Walks
The Urbanist Singapore runs different walks such as Civic District Sunset Walk, Tracing Stamford Canal, Queenstown Heritage Walk and more. It also collaborates with organisations and government agencies on themed walks.
We were invited to the Civic District Sunset Walk which was a very refreshing experience that also showed how much I lacked in remembering all the history I learnt in school.
The walk took us on a route around the Padang and stops by colonial buildings of monumental significance in our nation-building years.
The two and a half hours was power packed with historical facts, stories, nuggets about people and places – rattled off eloquently by Yong.
Looking at the places in person while shown pictures of artefacts and articles was the perfect way to learn more about our country.
What used to be mere beautiful places to take pictures at became places with meaning, and where our leaders stood during historical moments in time.
Asian Civilisations Museum was where the pioneer generations registered their citizenship and was known as the Empress Place building, the empress referring to Queen Victoria then known as Empress of India.
Another iconic building we learnt more about is National Gallery Singapore. During the walk, we learnt that National Gallery Singapore was the Municipal Building, then renamed as City Hall building where Lord Mountbatten accepted the surrender of the Japanese in 1945. This was also where the very first cabinet of Singapore took their Oaths of Office.
Mix of Old and New
Apart from historical buildings and our leaders, I also learnt about view corridors – and when realising how intentionally modern-day buildings complemented the structures of olden days was quite mind-blowing.
While the structures of different eras juxtaposed one another, it was beautiful to see urban planners painstakingly consider the surrounding elements in order in designing our city’s composition.
Without giving away too many spoilers, we also learnt about the face-to-face version of Reddit in colonial times and why the Padang was the choice for annual National Day Parades.
My favourite part of the walk was definitely when we scrutinised the facade of the former Supreme Court building, now part of National Gallery Singapore.
The Urbanist Singapore’s Civic District walk made me notice details I would never have paid attention to, with stories behind those little marks and symbols.
Take a Walk with The Urbanist Singapore
I highly recommend a walk with The Urbanist Singapore – whether you’re a tourist or a Singaporean, it is guaranteed to be enriching. It will take your pride in your country up a a notch and definitely give you more context in the historical knowledge you already possess.
Follow The Urbanist Singapore, @urbanist.singapore on Instagram for more details on future walks and content.
