As I sit here in Singapore I’ve come to understand something drastically different about this culture to that of where I grew up.

I really think it comes from the lack of space. Here in Singapore, 80% of the population grows up in government housing - towers of 20+ floors akin to container stacks of apartments that come in a variety of sizes and layouts one could count on one hand. The fixtures and colours may vary but really everyone has a very common experience. The other 20% of Singaporeans live in either condo’s that are often gimmicky themed upgrades of HDB life, 2 storey terrace style attached houses or uber-expensive houses that are the thing of international design magazines. The latter may offer the most independent way of living but even then it’s unlikely that any of these forms of residence contain something that’s become so essential to suburban culture that it’s almost unpatriotic in such cultures to not have one.

What I’m talking about is a shed. For the uninitiated it’s a space apart from the dwelling that’s not just a place to store one’s car and other miscellaneous junk. It’s the womb of many ideas to grow from just a light above one’s head into a project that may just become a household name (Google?).

There’s something important about the rudimentary nature of it’s environment. The fact that it appears to be a dirty corner means it’s not any less loved by it’s owner. It’s a space which is safe to splatter, squirt, smash, hack and slave over many an object to craft it either back to life or into a new state that only one had ever conceived of. The shed is really the common man’s atelier.

Woe to any person who may attempt to alter another’s shed. It’s a crime against the essence of innovation and creativity.

Yet sheds are not without their cultural misdemeanours as in their function as a retreat from the organised homely world beyond their creaking, badly sealed doors they end up becoming a manner for a man to retreat from his role as husband and father, wasting hours tinkering over something he’ll unlikely ever understand or be able to repair to a state of use once more. Yet those without a shed often flee in a similar manner into their offices or bars after the sun has set on the real work of the day.

Thus I see that the lack of a wet-area or place where one can experiment in freedom with the objects to be found around us in Asia cripples a whole capability and restricts it to those of a certain financial standing to meddle with their parent’s business assets. It’s not to say that the young in Asia fail to find ways of playing with what is around them but their boredom doesn’t result in creativity, rather it’s toiled away jumping through hoops of either an education system or the latest computer game.

If there’s only ever one right answer to every problem then you’ll look at the world through a toilet roll. On the flipside the ridiculous answer of relativity - that every answer is right - fails under reality. Whilst those that are prepared to look for a new way upon timeless truths will soon find their niche to show us a new way.