Working internationally, we are often in a position of designing in a place that is not ‘our’ place, where we must quickly develop a deep and respectful understanding of the local landscape, built culture, spirituality and economy.

As our team make their first overseas forays via two weeks of enforced rest in foreign hotels, we speculate on the future of travel.

Our National University of Singapore masters course in resort design wound up on November 20 with a rapid-fire mixed-mode crit session. Reviewing remotely were Darlene Smyth (who wrote the book, literally, on Bedmar and Shi), Susan Tan, Senior Design Director for IHG and David Gowty of Hassell, Brisbane. Matt Shang, founder of interior designers MSDO, joined in person. After fourteen weeks of focused research and design effort, eleven students presented their innovative work in four short hours.

We’ve had fun over the past few weekends playing with Microsoft’s 2020 release of Flight Simulator. With a new world map utilising Bing Maps’ satellite imagery and AI to re-create the terrain of the entire planet and populate it with building models, vegetation and water, we wondered whether the game would be useful as an analysis tool. And indeed it is, allowing us to pay flying visits to sites currently blocked by physical travel restrictions.