Singelpark Leiden

Storytelling as urban narrative

The historic centre of Leiden is encircled by the 6 km long blue green ribbon of Singel Park; a 19th century concentric beautification of former military fortifications. In 2012 the City of Leiden organised an invited competition to revitalise Singel Park.  We described the Singel as a mixture of opposites, an urban cocktail of post-industrial hardware and Arcadian software. For this project we produced an illustrated story book of (his)-stories which act as narrative for site specific interventions. Strolling along the Singel would provide an unfolding journey through space and time; a circular stroll garden as infinite storyline-loop without beginning and no end. Singel Park as a necklace of charms. Each distinct project act as memoir not unlike a mixture of Marcel Proust’s: “A la recherche du temps perdu” and David Bowie’s “Golden Years”.