Fighting social isolation with coffee culture.

How to we design neighbourhoods that encourage sociability? This was the key question that Lekker, and collaborators SUTD, Geriatric Education and Research Institute, asked after a multi-year mixed-methods research enquiry into ageing-friendly neighbourhood planning at MacPherson, Singapore. Social isolation was determined as one of the most important issues to tackle in this super-ageing district.

We designed Kam & Goh, a mobile kopitiam (Singaporean coffee shop) that would drive into void decks, bridging the gap between isolated elderly through the easygoing familiarity of local coffee culture. Where seniors were very anxious about interactions in public space, they were much more comfortable chatting and meeting new friends in the kopitiam. Hence, the simple but counterintuitive idea was to bring the latter into the former. 

Follow-up data from participant surveys showed that 87.5% were more likely to leave their home if a mobile kopitiam like this were to come to the void deck where they lived. 

Images by Lekker