HealthCity Novena Discovery Trail
Tan Tock Seng Hospital
Tan Tock Seng Hospital sought to create a fun, accessible and engaging discovery trail that could bring HealthCity Novena’s rich healthcare heritage to life, while helping the public better understand how the district continues to evolve as a future-ready healthcare ecosystem.
The experience needed to work across both physical and digital touchpoints, connecting historic institutions, community care spaces, medical innovation hubs, heritage buildings and public-facing stories into a trail that felt informative, approachable and easy to explore.
OuterEdit developed the HealthCity Novena Discovery Trail as a layered storytelling experience that invited audiences to rediscover Novena through the lens of care, resilience, innovation and community. Across the physical route markers, illustrated maps, digital trail pages and interactive content, we helped translate a broad healthcare precinct into a more human, walkable and emotionally relatable journey. The trail connected audiences to key sites such as Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Ren Ci Community Hospital, the National Neuroscience Institute, the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, the Tuberculosis Control Unit, Pavilion Wards, LKCMedicine, the Ng Teng Fong Centre for Healthcare Innovation, Dover Park Hospice and the National Skin Centre, with each stop offering a distinct story, memory, activity or discovery point.
The designed outcome was a cheerful, community-friendly trail system that balanced heritage education with lightness, play and ease of participation. Rather than presenting healthcare history as a static archive, the experience encouraged visitors to walk, look, listen, learn and connect. It introduced helpful tips, photo spots, music playlists, interactive prompts, gallery visits and location-based storytelling, making the trail feel less like a formal institutional tour and more like an open invitation to explore the everyday stories behind Singapore’s healthcare landscape.
Through a warm visual language of illustrated buildings, people, greenery, soft colours, wayfinding cues and accessible copy, OuterEdit helped make complex institutional histories more approachable for patients, caregivers, healthcare workers, students, visitors and the wider community. The trail also extended beyond a single route, offering different walking experiences such as the more sheltered Moulmein Route and the Jalan Tan Tock Seng Route, which was positioned as a longer journey connecting the origins of healthcare to its future.
Ultimately, the project helped HealthCity Novena communicate not just where its institutions are located, but why they matter. It reframed the precinct as a living healthcare neighbourhood shaped by compassion, public service, medical progress, social memory and future care, allowing audiences to appreciate Novena as a place where Singapore’s healthcare past, present and future continue to meet.
Creative Direction, Design and Experience Curation by
OuterEdit
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