Lover of cities seeks extra oomph in Singapore

To be a global talent magnet, tolerance and 'everyday wonders' are vital, says urban design commentator Tyler Brule
Clarissa Oon, Straits Times 24 Oct 08;

There are cities where people are making a lot of money that aren't necessarily liveable.

CANADIAN media whiz Tyler Brule, a self-described 'huge risk-taker', knows a thing or two about going out on a limb for his career.

In the mid-1990s, as a hungry 25-year-old freelance journalist for a German news magazine, he had plunged right into covering Afghanistan's bloody civil war - until a bullet tore through his left arm during an ambush and put him out of action for months.

Mr Brule found himself recuperating in London in an 'ugly peach house' owned by his artist mother - and with nothing to read. It was a fate almost as painful as the shooting, one might imagine, from the way his matinee-idol looks wrinkle distastefully at the recollection.

'I was interested in travel, architecture, design, entertaining. I went to the news-stands and found that magazine didn't exist,' the 39-year-old said here last week at a talk organised by the DesignSingapore Council.

Despite having no business experience, Mr Brule started that magazine, Wallpaper, in 1996. It did so well it was acquired by media conglomerate Time Warner a year later.

In 2002, editorial director Brule left the lifestyle magazine catering for the well-heeled.

He is now in the more serious business of producing an international affairs magazine, Monocle, and is a strong advocate of the importance of good urban planning and design in helping cities draw global talent.

The 1 1/2-year-old magazine does an annual survey of cities that offer the best quality of life - a subject close to Singapore's heart as it aims to retain and attract the best talent from across the world to fuel economic growth.

The city state was number 17 on the inaugural list of the 20 most liveable cities in Monocle in August last year.

It fell five places to 22 in this year's shortlist of 25 cities, prompting the DesignSingapore Council, the Ministry of National Development and the Urban Redevelopment Authority to invite Mr Brule here to share his ideas on how Singapore can do better.

Other cities, such as Norway's capital Oslo and Tokyo, now bidding to host the 2016 Olympics, have also consulted him on the finer points of branding.

What this shows is that Mr Brule has again re-invented himself, as painstakingly as how he trained himself to write with his right hand after the Afghanistan shooting destroyed the nerves in his left.

The journal-size Monocle cost a hefty ¥7 million (S$13.5 million) to start up, and among other projects, he and 19 Monocle journalists spend three months each spring road-testing the most attractive cities to live in.

He now rubs shoulders with politicians and financiers and not just the superstar designers, models and architects of his Wallpaper days. He also writes a weekly column for London's Financial Times.

It is 'wonderful' to be 'having a political dialogue with governments, being able to make a political statement', the London-based editor-in-chief tells Insight over drinks at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Like a punctuation mark at the end of his sentence, he flashes you a brilliant smile, though his eyes flit about restlessly as he contemplates the next item on his packed, jet-setting schedule.

Rethinking cities as Wall Street bleeds

MONOCLE'S reach is ambitious, while slightly off the beaten track.

Its four bureaus and 38 members of staff in London, Zurich, Tokyo and New York track current affairs, business and design news on five continents, profiling noteworthy if occasionally obscure neighbourhoods, political figures and businesses alongside tautly-cropped, gorgeous visuals.

To keep operations well-oiled, Mr Brule spends 250 days a year in the air and on the road. The magazine is published 10 times a year, and its podcast-heavy website updated every week.

It is still a niche title, but he says its influence is growing. Monocle is the fourth best-selling news magazine on New York news-stands after The Economist, Time and Newsweek.

Liveable cities are a hot topic for the magazine's 160,000 readers in more than 80 countries, who work in fields such as finance, government and design.

'It's definitely someone who is either travelling a lot - and who wants to be introduced to where the opportunities and risks are - or someone who wants to travel in his armchair,' says Mr Brule of the typical Monocle reader.

The timing of the rankings is an important ingredient, he adds, revealing an acute sensitivity to details that could well be the secret of his publishing success.

'Bringing (the list) out in the summer, when people go on holiday and lie on the beach, I think that's when they think about how and where they want to live.

'That's a good time of the year to help people dream a little bit. Relocation porn,' he quips, a glazed, faraway look entering his eyes.

At no time is such soul-searching more relevant than in the current financial crisis, he insists.

'The currents of the marketplace are going to force a major rethink of business people over what they'll do, where they live - and it might be for the better.'

A frequent visitor to Japan, he gives the example of how much of Tokyo's current creative and entrepreneurial class are former salarymen who lost their jobs during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

By sifting out the world's most liveable cities, Monocle aims to challenge existing quality-of-life surveys by human resource consultancies like Mercer, which Mr Brule criticises for being much too business-oriented and putting expatriates rather than residents first.

'I don't think the Mercer list is very fair sometimes. Cities which are sort of big and globally-connected like Bern in Switzerland, they're like cow villages, they're hardly cities.'

Bern was ranked No. 2 for personal safety among European cities by Mercer this year.

His point: 'You can't confuse a business city with liveability. There are cities where people are making a lot of money that aren't necessarily liveable.'

Monocle's ranking of liveable cities uses 'scientific' indicators such as the quality and affordability of public services, as well as subjective analysis about what makes each city tick.

For him, an attractive urban environment can be boiled down to what he calls the 'Three Ds' - density, diversity and good design.

What this translates into is a sense of bustle without being overcrowded, a good mix of enterprises and ease in getting from one point to another.

'There should be independent businesses and not just chain stores. The city should have interesting nooks and crannies and not just be designed on a grid.'

London is one city which he thinks lacks entrepreneurial diversity, something which could hurt it in the current financial climate.

'Its eggs have all been in the financial basket when it should be having a much more diverse base.'

As cost-cutting kicks in, he predicts cities will shift gears from one-off, big-bang projects, like Singapore's hosting of the Formula One (F1) night race, to more sustainable, community-based projects.

'It goes back to creating an everyday sense of wonder. F1s and Ferris wheels, I think, are band-aids.'

What Republic excels in - giving a great first impression

MR BRULE has spent time in many of the liveable cities identified by Monocle, including Fukuoka, Copenhagen, Sydney, Berlin, Madrid, Munich and Helsinki.

As for Singapore, he has been here 30 times, usually on one-night layovers and for work.

What the infrastructure-rich, efficient city state excels in is giving a great first impression, he says, citing the tree-lined expressway from Changi Airport to the city centre as 'one of the most beautiful drives to and from any airport, anywhere in the world'.

Singapore is also moving towards increasing cultural vibrancy and openness, but here, he believes, there is room for improvement.

Speaking to some 200 architects, designers, civil servants and students at the Drama Centre last Monday, he said the lack of tolerance was a key reason why the city state fell in Monocle's rankings this year.

Asked to elaborate by Insight, he says: 'If Singapore wants to push itself from a creativity perspective and wants to build a greater design community, you don't have to read Richard Florida's book on the creative class to know that cities need to be much more tolerant of other lifestyles, be they gay or otherwise.'

Mr Brule is known to be gay. The Guardian reported last year that he has a long-term Swedish partner.

Another tension he alluded to in Singapore's urban development is the fine line between good management and over-planning.

For him, cities that have the right balance of strong government and ground-up creativity include Zurich, Copenhagen, Munich and Tokyo - this year's top four liveable cities according to Monocle.

'It's hard, but I believe some things you can't engineer, and that just means being a bit more loose and open. I mean, how can you plan surprises?'

Five ideas for S'pore planners
MONOCLE'S editor-in-chief offers five suggestions for Singapore's urban planners:

# A shopping street to challenge Orchard Road

A second hub would keep the retail scene 'interesting and dynamic'. Singapore could take its cue from central Tokyo, which is about three times larger and has many shopping districts, including the upmarket Omotesando avenue, the integrated live-work-shop Roppongi Hills development, bustling Shinjuku and youth fashion mecca Shibuya.

# Get life onto the streets round-the-clock

Mr Tyler Brule's vision of a perfect high street is that it has something 'for young and old, early risers and night owls - a metabolism that runs seven days a week'. He thinks Singapore could take a leaf here from Taipei, known for its teeming night markets selling street food, as well as 24-hour bookshops, snack bars, businesses and convenience stores.

# Add a little light industry into the mix

He bemoans the fact that in many of the world's major cities, 'you've got these design industries but they can't make anything' because the carpentry or tailoring has been outsourced elsewhere. A good neighbourhood should also 'make things and not just generate ideas'.

# Develop your own architectural vernacular

Create distinctive indoor and outdoor spaces suited to the weather and lifestyle here. One good design idea for a tropical climate is Bal Harbor in Florida, a shopping mall in a tropical garden setting with coconut palms and ceiling fans.

# Leave some things to chance

Singapore's brand of efficient planning is both its strength and weakness. 'Great cities work because they are full of surprises. You can't plan everything to the nth degree, you have to leave some space at the margins.'

What scores
LIVEABLE CITIES

Monocle's criteria:

# Good flight connections and airport

# Low crime rate

# Strong public services such as education and health care

# Ample sunshine and bearable average annual temperature

# Excellent communications and connectivity

# Tolerance of different races and lifestyles

# Attractive architecture

# Quality, affordable public transport and taxis

# Strong local media and availability of international media

# Access to nature and green areas

# Innovative environmental initiatives

# Cultural vibrancy

# Ease of opening a small business

# Ease of getting a drink after 1am.

Which city scores

2008 rankings

1. Copenhagen

2. Munich

3. Tokyo

4. Zurich

5. Helsinki

6. Vienna

7. Stockholm

8. Vancouver

9. Melbourne

10. Paris

11. Sydney

12. Honolulu

13. Madrid

14. Berlin

15. Barcelona

16. Montreal

17. Fukuoka

18. Amsterdam

19. Minneapolis

20. Kyoto

21. Hamburg

22. Singapore*

23. Geneva

24. Lisbon

25. Portland

Which city scored

2007 rankings

1. Munich

2. Copenhagen

3. Zurich

4. Tokyo

5. Vienna

6. Helsinki

7. Sydney

8. Stockholm

9. Honolulu

10. Madrid

11. Melbourne

12. Montreal

13. Barcelona

14. Kyoto

15. Vancouver

16. Auckland

17. Singapore*

18. Hamburg

19. Paris

20. Geneva