Mr. Anupam Yog

Metro Yogi (aka Anupam Yog) is a pragmatic urbanist and creative strategist with over 20 years of experience in research, design, and urban innovation. As the Managing Partner of XDG Labs, a research organisation based in Singapore, he works with a community of collaborators to advance healthy habitats. Metro Yogi’s long term mission is to develop a “Conscious Cities Index”, which explores the connection between community well-being and a city’s urban design.  He is passionate about placemaking for healthy habitats and initiated The Big Sit, a social health movement that reimagines the relationship between people and place.

Favourite Quote

“It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.” – Rabindranath Tagore

Book/Author Suggestion

“The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to Be Calm in a Busy World by Haemin Sunim”

Abstract

Conscious Cities Index

This research project seeks to explore the connections between the built environment and citizen well-being; factors being researched: intentional and unintentional public spaces being used for informal / formal meditation & mindfulness practices; the density and frequency of use of such spaces, in neighbourhoods and districts, and corresponding data on health outcomes (with a focus on mental health).

The research further seeks to inform the creation of a ‘conscious places / cities’ index, that can help shape a narrative around how the creation of intentional social meditation spaces, along with intentional communication to nudge behaviour to drive usage of these spaces, is positively correlated, and impacts the overall well-being of urban communities; it explores the need for fundamental changes in our built environment to provide social support and ‘normalisation’ of meditation in public spaces. 

This project advances a vision of healthier cities, by decoding the links between better mental health and conscious urban design. It aims to provide a general model, as well as specific prescriptive guidance, that can unify urban planners, policymakers, commercial real estate developers and investors, educators, healthcare leaders, and media, behind this important cause: a conscious city.

Learn more on www.inclusivecitymaking.com