Category: Cities

PubliCity for the Public’s City

publicityA government-led initiative to encourage ground-up ownership of public spaces is ironic, but very Singapore. Such was the reception of many when the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) launched PubliCity to “involve the community to celebrate good public spaces and to enliven public spaces through good design and programmes.” A year on,  PubliCity has unveiled a variety of projects, including adopting the worldwide movement “PARKing Day,” which was first piloted at Archifest 2013. We speak to the PubliCity team on the work that they have done thus far and what’s coming up next.

 

Tell us about the PubliCity campaign and how it sits within the URA setup.
Launched in November 2013 by URA, the initiative aims to guide the development of new public spaces in Singapore, as well as rejuvenate existing ones. Through this initiative, we hope to engage and work with the community, private sector, stakeholders, as well as other agencies, to activate and make better use of our public spaces.

A PubliCity team was formed within URA to realise this vision. The team is made up of a group of enthusiastic architects and planners across the various departments who share a common vision and passion for place making.

Why this initiative now?
Over the years, URA has safeguarded sites for public spaces island-wide. In 2003, we identified parks, open spaces and water bodies that would provide the public with space for rest and recreation through the “Public Spaces and Urban Waterfront Master Plan” and the “Parks and Waterbodies Plan.” We have recently completed environmental improvement works for a number of the major public spaces identified in these plans including the Southern Ridges, Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade, Woodlands Waterfront, and Punggol Promenade.

We launched PubliCity in November 2013 to continue these efforts with a new focus on smaller spaces and ground-up initiatives to make better use of our public spaces and to activate and programme them with activities.

The website states that the initiative focuses on “the elements that make our public spaces more enjoyable for the community.” What would these elements be?
There are a range of elements that contribute towards making public spaces that are well used and loved by the community. These can be as simple as providing basic amenities like seating and shade, or an element of fun/play to encourage the local community to stop and enjoy a space. And of course, the elements for the public spaces should be designed and provided to respond to the local communities’ needs.

Why is it important for the authorities to undertake these placemaking projects?
We see our role as one of demonstrating the possibilities of what can be done and of fostering community participation and ownership of our public spaces through ground-up projects like PARK(ing) Day. As the initiative evolves, we would like to encourage everyone to explore opportunities to improve, activate and create public spaces in their own communities.

A SUTD student brings a uniquely Singaporean tradition to the road – reserving a space with a tissue packet during PARK(ing) Day 2014. | URA
A SUTD student brings a uniquely Singaporean tradition to the road – reserving a space with a tissue packet during PARK(ing) Day 2014. | URA

Do you think engaging the ‘ground’ as a government agency, makes the project any different if these interventions were initiated by an independent community?As a government agency, it is inevitable that we receive a different kind of response compared to an independent community group. In the long term, we would really like to see our role being taken over entirely by the community. But for now, I think we have an important role to play in lending our ‘official’ support to projects such as PARK(ing) Day to encourage the community to think outside the box and hopefully through our close working relationship with other agencies, help facilitate approvals needed for such projects.

You mentioned that the team engages the community. Can you share examples of how this has been done and what the results were?
PARK(ing) Day is a great example of community engagement and participation. We owe a large part of its success to working with the groups of people from SUTD and COLOURS. While we helped to get the necessary approvals and opened up participation across the island, these groups actively engaged the community in Jalan Besar and created their own Jalan Besar PARK(ing) Day group. They had one of the most visited locations on the day.

We have also been working on a series of other community engagement projects. An example would be our first pop-up project, ‘Picnic In the Park – Under the Gelam Trees’, which was inspired by one of the submissions from the ‘Your Ideas for Public Spaces’ competition launched last year.

A makeshift barber shop at Hamilton Road providing free haircuts for the community. | URA
A makeshift barber shop at Hamilton Road providing free haircuts for the community. | URA

 

Could you share with us some facts and figures? For instance, what was the participation and response to PARK(ing) Day, and what kind of budget were you working with?
We were delighted by the overwhelming interest and participation for PARK(ing) Day. We saw 58 PARKs created, of which 41 PARKs were by members of the public. URA and other agencies, such as NParks, LTA and NHB took the opportunity to also participate by creating a number of PARKs ourselves.

Generally, there was a good turn-out at each PARK, and we are heartened by the positive comments that were received from the public.

We aim to deliver all of our projects based on the ‘Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper’ principle by using low-cost materials, and working with the community and property owners to deliver smaller scale projects. For PARK(ing) Day, the interventions were created by the participants themselves. There was no budget allocated to the participants.

We aim for our projects to be simple and affordable to implement so that property owners and community groups can see the potential and implement their own changes.

What is the role of the larger creative community and the public in general in the activation of our public spaces? And also, how can they contribute?
By their very definition, public spaces are community spaces and “belong” to the public. We hope both the creative community and the community at large will be inspired to contribute to the making and activation of public spaces, and share with us their ideas on using and creating public spaces.

What is the definition of success for PubliCity?
At the end of the day, we hope to create more awareness of the importance of good public spaces and the role these spaces play in the built environment. Success is also achieved when the community demands for more of these spaces, and when we receive more ground-up ideas to either create more public spaces or make use of existing ones.

At the end of the first year after the launch of PubliCity, we are happy with the results and have received great feedback from participants and communities where we have run projects. In some cases, we have received requests for a return of our pop-up projects or for more permanent interventions.

What kind of “support” from the community is needed to keep this programme going?
Given the early stage of this initiative, the most valuable support we can receive right now is feedback from the community on both the projects that we are undertaking and their ideas on what they would like to see in the future. Over time, we hope to see more ground-up projects being put forward. We would like our role to change to one of supporting the community, rather than the community supporting us.

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INTERVIEWED BY ADIB JALAL
EDITED BY JUSTIN ZHUANG

Building a Better Singapore Together

Singapore’s success as a city has largely been the work of its state. This top-down approach to urban planning, however, has faced increasing stress from Singaporeans clamouring for more say and the population’s growing diversity of needs. BetterSG was started in 2012 as an independent initiative to improve the city from the ground-up. The campaign lasted only a year, but was recently relaunched by non-profit organisation, Participate in Design (P!D), to get Singaporeans to work together in designing a better city. P!D co-founder Mizah Rahman tell us more about the updated BetterSG, and the challenges of getting people to work together in building a better Singapore.

betterSG

BetterSG has been some years in the making having first been inspired by #betterKL in Malaysia. Tell us more about why and how it’s come to this latest iteration.
BetterSG was initiated in 2012 with Safe Streets, organized by FIVEFOOTWAY in partnership with Macpherson CC, P!D, and Love Cycling SG, and various other individuals, Mr John Rehm, Ziqq from Design Says Hello and the Make Your Mark team at SUTD, and supported by Singapore Institute of Architects. It went on a standstill after the second iteration of Safe Streets in 2013.

Early this year, P!D came together and decided that we needed to have a structured framework and methodology on the way we design with local communities and the tools that we use to do so. We wanted to document and learn from our past projects and also from successful examples of participatory design projects locally and overseas as well. We decided to embark on a research-in-action project to understand, learn, create, prototype and share P!D’s methods and framework for Singapore. We felt that P!D’s new initiative resonated with the BetterSG/BetterCities vision, and so we decided to lead BetterSG this year.

We are currently in Phase 3: Create — where we are developing a blueprint for designing with communities based on findings in Phase 1 and 2. We are in the midst of reviewing the information gathered in earlier phases so as to develop critical insights into the challenges and opportunities for greater involvement from individuals/organisation/designer in Singapore. We will then formulate better tools and methods for working with people to create spaces and solutions that they can own.

Both of you have been carrying out participatory design work in the MacPherson neighbourhood since 2010. What led to the step up to tackle the entire city?
Our emphasis is on a small scale shared spaces, and to first start with the neighbourhood, then the city.

Starting at the level of the neighbourhood, rather than the city, allows us to experiment with smaller but more concrete forms of improving the urban environment through the involvement of regular citizens. Our vision is to make Singapore better, one neighbourhood at a time.

One of P!D’s Macpherson project collected stories from residents and worked with them to create the Retellings exhibition and workshop to foster a sense of community. | P!D
One of P!D’s Macpherson project collected stories from residents and worked with them to create the Retellings exhibition and workshop to foster a sense of community. | P!D

Singaporeans are stereotyped as an apathetic lot. What has your groundwork taught you about getting Singaporeans to be more involved?
We have gained several insights:

  • Current design and planning practices have resulted in a limited sense of responsibility and ownership towards the public realm. Thus, we need a new approach to the design and planning of the public realm, so that people will feel a greater sense of ownership towards these spaces.
  • People may want to participate more, but do not know exactly how to or desire to be involved in a formal set-up. Thus, we need to provide a clear framework that informs people of the various ways in which they can get involved, both formally and informally.
  • The government is largely seen as a service provider, from which people expect the delivery of solutions. Thus, we need to give people more autonomy over smaller, neighbourhood issues, as a first step towards shifting this expectation.

Both of you recently went on a whirlwind tour through Australia, USA and Denmark to present BetterSG. Tell us more about what you’ve brought back to your project.
We have received a grant for BetterSG, and we are grateful to have traveled to New York and Copenhagen. The aim of the trips was to study and learn from these cities’ successful projects that have aspects of participatory design and community engagement. From these global case studies we draw learning points that can be adapted and applied to our local context. We seek to understand how participatory design and planning works in New York City and Copenhagen, and what that means for Singapore.

P!D attended community meetings (above) and spoke to groups carrying out urban participatory projects in Copenhagen, and also New York. | P!D
P!D attended community meetings (above) and spoke to groups carrying out urban participatory projects in Copenhagen, and also New York. | P!D

The first step of BetterSG is to understand local practices and perceptions via an online survey to find out people’s thoughts on Singapore. What is your plan for the data?
The data will be used to show people’s perception of ownership to shared spaces and their attitudes towards getting involved and participating in their neighbourhood’s issues. It will form part of our documentation and analysis on the existing landscapes in participation in Singapore. Alongside the data from the survey, we will be analysing local interviews that we have conducted.

The aims of BetterSG and the highlighted interviews with experts read as a critique of how close Singapore’s existing urban planning system is. Even before involving the people, what are some steps the state can take to making a BetterSG?
It would depend on how the state defines a BetterSG and the context of the problem/issue. There is not a one-size-fits-all “steps” or “solution” the state can take. When faced with a problem/issue, I think is not even about trying to find the right answer to a problem/issue, but it is sometimes, trying to identify with precision what is the right question to the problem. Nonetheless, it is not so much the steps the state can take. Perhaps, a change in mindset, values, and having an alternative way of looking at problems on hand would be crucial even before involving the people.

There are already various government arms (e.g. People’s Association (PA) and Residents’ Committees (RC)) working to get Singaporeans involved in their neighbourhoods and committees. As a non-governmental movement, how useful and effective do you think BetterSG can be?
The outcome of the initiative is a BetterSG Blueprint, which will be made available to the public on the BetterSG website, and it will lay out our vision and methods of designing with communities.

The target audience for this framework is any organization/designer/individual who is interested to be involved in designing with communities and creating community-owned solutions. The organizations would include grassroots organization such as PA, RC, volunteer welfare organisations (VWO) and government agencies, etc. The content will be open source, and we are planning for workshops and training to complement the use of the methods and tools in the Blueprint. The aim is to garner more awareness of and interest in participatory design, and lead to commissioned projects and workshops with communities.

With regards to the exciting grassroots structure, we acknowledge that there is potential for existing grassroots organisations to do more in enabling people to step up. We can leverage these existing organisations by introducing new roles that they can play to build up the community’s capacity for participation. We identify existing roles in the neighbourhood and maximise their potential to contribute to the project. This is key to designing community-owned solutions. It is not about creating new structures, but working with the existing grassroots structure that people are familiar with.

We see the BetterSG blueprint to be used in various ways:

  1. An organization (VWO, PA, RC,etc) who would like to to be involved in designing with communities will engage P!D to be a facilitator for a community. For example, a VWO is planning to design and build a community kitchen in the void deck space for its residents and would like to engage the residents and the relevant neighbourhood stakeholders in designing the spaces and programmes for the kitchen to create a sense of ownership.
  1. P!D will work in partnership with the designer/individual on projects they self-initiate. For instance, if a heritage site in Singapore is gazetted to be demolished, the BetterSG Blueprint can be used to understand, gather and create community-owned solutions with the relevant stakeholders involved.
  1. P!D initiated project.