HERITAGE ACTIVATION NODE AT PUNGGOL (HAN@Punggol)
In a rapidly changing city, neighbourhoods are often built faster than the stories that give them meaning. HAN@Punggol creates space for residents to shape those stories together.
As an extension of OH! Open House's mission to tell alternative stories through art, HAN@Punggol is a three-year community, art, and heritage initiative that empowers residents to become active storytellers of the place they call home.
Through artist-led research, site-specific artworks, participatory programmes, and co-created neighbourhood encounters, residents and artists uncover the memories and everyday experiences embedded within Punggol's landscape. Together, they create new cultural touchpoints that reveal the neighbourhood's evolving identity.
Over three years, the initiative aims to build a community that is aware of and actively involved in shaping the historical, social, and cultural life of their neighbourhood. Unlike short-term activations, HAN@Punggol invests in long-term relationships with residents, opening space for people to become not just participants in their neighbourhood, but authors of its ongoing story.
HAN@Punggol is a collaborative effort between the National Heritage Board and OH! Open House.
The project runs from June 2026 to March 2028.
WHY PUNGGOL?
Punggol is a landscape of constant negotiation—between land and water, history and development, memory and erasure. Once a site of pig farms, fisheries, and subsistence agriculture, it has been reshaped through reclamation and urban planning. Today, Punggol is home to hypermodern infrastructure: smart BTOs, automated supermarkets, self-driving cars, and a digital district.
Yet, traces of its past persist in the hidden stories of those who once lived by the rhythms of tides, farmland, and barter economies; While Punggol’s physical landscape is advanced, community life is still finding foot.
HAN@Punggol explores this meeting point between past and present by bringing to light the forgotten narratives that have shaped the neighbourhood’s identity while unveiling new narratives emerging from young families and residents in contemporary Punggol. In doing so, we explore how memories are created in recently developed areas, how community bonds are established, and how personal histories intertwine with the land's deeper past–underscoring the ever-changing ways our places are shaped by people and stories.
Image credit: Lim Weixiang - Zeitgeist Photos
PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
Discover the flagship programmes anchoring our work in Punggol.Artist-Led Activations
Portrait Series
Call for Collaboration
Associate Artist Programme
Marking Punggol
GET INVOLVED
Be part of our mission to build connection and belonging in Punggol by joining us as a Volunteer, Partner, or Donor.Volunteer
Current opportunities:
Story-Collector
Meet residents, facilitate conversations, and document the everyday memories that make Punggol home.
House Warming Host
House Warmings are community gatherings hosted in the homes of Punggol residents. They are part of our ongoing story collection to get to know Punggol!
As a host, you’ll open your home to your neighbours at a date and time of your convenience. Co-facilitating the session with you, we will take care of the rest: from arranging refreshments and publicising the gathering within your estate, to helping you welcome and host guests on the day itself.
These gatherings create the opportunity for you to connect with your neighbours, while also helping us continue our work of meeting more residents and documenting the stories that shape Punggol like yours.
Call for Collaboration: Submit your programme proposal
We are looking for creative proposals that explore Punggol through art, storytelling, participation, and community engagement. Projects may take the form of workshops, installations, performances, guided trails, gatherings, or other experimental formats.
Successful applicants will receive up to $8,000 in funding alongside mentorship and development support from the OH! team. Application closes on 30 June 2026.
Partnerships
- Resident Networks
- Youth Networks
- Schools & Community Organisations
- Grassroots Organisations
- Local Businesses & Merchants
- Corporate Sponsors
Donate
- Marking Matters? II: Marking Punggol
- Associate Artist Programme
Your support helps sustain artist-led research, resident participation, public programmes, and opportunities for communities to shape and share their own stories.
