Intimate or Intimidated: the Hidden Character of Urban Public Spaces

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Intimate or Intimidated the Hidden Character
of Urban Public Spaces

• Zhang Juan

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Why Urban Public Space

• The urban public space is a very important social
  setting in a city. It is permeated with social
  relations it is not only supported but also
  producing and produced by social relations.
• (Stone, 1954 Jacobs, 1961 Goffman,
  1963a, 1971 Whyte, 1990 )
• This research tries to figure out how people
  construct their social identities and conduct
  social activities in this particular setting
  based on a Singapore context. Moreover, I will
  try to prove that public spaces act as important
  agents that help to build a more creative
  Singapore in the path of nation-building.

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Outline

• The definition of urban public space
• Research questions
• MethodologyA case study in Esplanade
• Data collection
• Significance

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What is an Urban Public Space

• Made up of spaces in a city which tend to be
  inhabited by persons who are strangers to one
  another or who know one another only in terms
  of occupational or other non-personal identity
  categories. (1998)

• A location which is designed, however minimally,
  such that everyone has the rights of access.
  Encounters in it between individual users are
  unplanned and unexceptional, and their behavior
  towards each other is subjected to rules none
  other than those of common norms of social
  civility. (1992)

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Questions

• What are the factors that make certain public
  spaces attractive and repellant to different
  kinds of people and what are the elements of
  these public spaces that contribute in building
  complex connections between people and space?
• In this particular small city-state Singapore,
  how does the public space, as an important social
  setting, contribute to establish a more creative
  nation in the path of nation-building?

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The Relationship between People and a Public Space
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A Theater on the Bay
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An Attraction
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A Creative Singapore
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The onslaught of really crap boybands on our
airwaves has recently led me to conclude that any
4 guys can get rich and famous quick, given the
right marketing skills.Its pretty much like how
we designers package really crap things to make
them sell better, only less creative less
original.Inspiration for a band name can come
from your computer keyboard, successful case
studies, Taiwanese bands F4 and 5566 have proven
so.Escape, Control and Shift, anyone? New Kids
On The Block surrenders.
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State
Intimidating

• Space becomes a precious commodity in
  space-scarce Singapore

Market
Communities
Public Space
A Free and Intimate Space for any person
who wishes to express or to appreciate
creativities
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Data Collection

• Observation
• Interview
• Questionnaires

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Significance

• For the research on public realm
• For policy-making in Singapore
• For youth study

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Thank you