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, and co-created programmes, residents and artists collaboratively 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.
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, Punggol today is home to self-driving cars, a digital district, and hypermodern infrastructure.
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.
Image credit: Lim Weixiang - Zeitgeist Photos
OUR THREE YEAR APPROACH
2025-2026
Getting to Know You
Listening, learning, and building relationships through story collection, conversations, and artist-led encounters across Punggol.
Discover how we started ︎︎︎
2026-2027
Shaping Our Stories Together
Co-creating new ways of sharing Punggol's stories through socially engaged programmes and artist-led research.
2027-2028
Championing our Punggol
Residents take the lead in championing and sharing the stories, memories and cultural identities that have emerged through the project.
PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
Discover the flagship programmes anchoring our work in Punggol.Story-Collection & Portrait Series
Long-term story collection initiative gathering everyday experiences and personal histories from 1,000 residents annually.
Marking Matters?: Marking Punggol
Socially engaged art initiative where artworks become agents of change, uniting 99 residents to collectively contribute 10,000 volunteer hours to social causes in Punggol.
Associate Artist Programme
Artist residency supporting artists to develop site-specific practices through place-based research and community engagement.
Learn More
Call for Collaboration
Open call supporting residents and ground-ups with funding, resources, and mentorship to lead initiatives for the neighbourhood.
GET INVOLVED
Volunteer
Current opportunities:
Story-Collector
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: Children’s Edition
Children aged 9-13 are invited to apply to develop their own arts and heritage projects inspired by Punggol. Selected participants will receive mentorship from OH! Open House, funding of up to S$3,000 per team, and the opportunity to present their projects at a HAN@Punggol neighbourhood festival in March 2027.
Application closes on 30 August 2026.
Partnerships
Donate
- Marking Matters?: 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.
