Ascott Unveils 32,000-square-feet ‘Living Lab’

The Ascott Ltd, CapitaLand’s wholly owned serviced residence business unit, has launched its first living lab to field test its newest brand, lyf, in partnership with the Singapore Management University (SMU).

lyf@SMU (lyf stands for Live Your Freedom), located within SMU Labs, offers SMU students a co-study, co-work and co-living environment, while applied research takes place simultaneously.

With more than 32,000 square feet spread over three storeys, there are co-working lounges with modular furniture, large communal tables at the social pantry with interactive voting boards, multimedia rooms to encourage collaboration and free flow of ideas, days beds and napping pods.

Ascott and SMU will work with other industry partners, as well as SMU’s own research centres and labs, to test-bed new innovations, technology and products on-premise, starting with Vanguard Interior, Harman International, Samsung, Eon Reality and the SMU LiveLabs Urban Lifestyle Innovation Platform.

Recreational areas, which include a soundproof music jamming studio, bikes that power up mobile phones, and an exercise zone with foosball and ping pong tables. Feedback from students will influence how Ascott continues to evolve the design of lyf’s social spaces.

Concurrently, experiential SMU-X courses and projects are also being developed with some of these companies, whereby SMU students will work with them to tackle their current business challenges.

Ascott will organise various social activities to identify those that best resonate with the millennials, bringing together local artisans, entrepreneurs and technopreneurs. Students will be invited to co-create community programmes and co-organise or take part in TED talks, workshops and hackathons. SMU students can also sign up to be lyf guards at lyf@SMU to gain hands-on hospitality management skills.

“The cosmopolitan city of Singapore is an ideal ground for Ascott to innovate, test-bed cutting edge hospitality concepts, and gather insights from well-travelled millennials with increasing spending power,” said Lee Chee Koon, Ascott’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are of course also actively seeking and evaluating opportunities for lyf in several other cities and will be reaching out to millennials through Ascott’s global network to further adapt lyf as we roll it out.”

Professor Arnoud De Meyer, SMU President, said, “As we further strengthen SMU’s curriculum and offering, I am delighted that we found a like-minded partner in Ascott. In our multi-dimensional partnership – which includes incubating new spaces for millennial students, developing new SMU courses and projects, creating internship opportunities – our students will stand to gain the most. Ascott will also be partnering with SMU on a ‘Design Thinking’ course in August 2017, where students will work on two projects related to the branding and development of lyf.”

lyf@SMU is opened 24/7 for all SMU students starting from 27 February 2017. — Construction+ Online