A SPACE FOR EVERYONE

AS OUR LIVES GROW MORE DIGITAL AND DISPERSED, THIRD SPACES ARE QUIETLY BRINGING US BACK TOGETHER. NEITHER HOME NOR WORK, THESE IN-BETWEEN PLACES OFFER CONNECTION WITHOUT PRESSURE. THEY PROVIDE ROUTINE, BELONGING, AND MOMENTS OF SHARED HUMANITY. FROM STREET LIBRARIES AND MEDITATION STUDIOS TO CONVERSATIONS WITH STRANGERS, THESE GROWING NETWORKS OF THIRD SPACES IN SINGAPORE ARE HELPING PEOPLE FEEL SEEN, SUPPORTED, AND LIKE PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER.

- Chelsia Tan

KEEPING THE KAMPUNG SPIRIT ALIVE

It is a charming, community-led street library nestled in the heart of Holland Village, lovingly built and maintained by residents. More than just a book exchange, it fosters neighbourliness and connection, offering a quiet antidote to the growing loneliness epidemic.

One dark and stormy night, 70-year-old Wong Kae Chee was jolted out of bed by the sound of rain lashing against her windows. Together with her neighbour, Amrys Wang, she rushed to the void deck of Block 2 Holland Avenue to cover bookshelves and tables with trash bags and blankets, protecting some 10,000 books from the storm. The scene was all too familiar to the pair.

“Whenever we hear the thunder crack, we'll run down with blankets and trash bags, and clip them onto the shelves with clothes pegs. There was one night when the storm was so bad, we literally had a shower inside the space,” says Amrys, also known as Yun, with wry amusement. The 50-year-old is also the community's cat caregiver and an animal advocate.

Eventually, the two women pressed the Town Council to expedite their request for rattan blinds to protect the cosy void deck nook known as HV Little Library, a community library built from the ground up.

HV Little Library began in 2022, when Kae Chee, a music teacher, decided on a whim to share her collection of books with her neighbours - and what better way to do that than by setting up a mini bookshelf at the void deck?

“I started with one shelf and my own books. It was the middle of the night; I came down and put up a shelf. I thought, if [my books] are important to me, I should give them away. If not, they're going to die with me. So I brought them down - all my signed books, tabletop books and recipe books.