| In Singapore, public spaces within the city take on multiple identities because these spaces do not conform to a coherent identity, nor with commonly accepted (western) notions of public space, but are contingent with everyday practices at global and local scales, the intersection of these being at the scale of the city. The concept of public space adopted in this research is one that is "constructed"---not only as a "product" of political, social, cultural and urban agencies through historical processes, but also as the locus of individual and collective experience.; Many of the theories and discourses on public space originate from the western hemisphere, while sites like Singapore have developed on entirely different trajectories and exist in different phases of urban development. As such, it is necessary to develop a methodology for this research that does not assume an a priori model of public space, but opens up the potential for constructing a model within the Singapore context. Within a framework of "constructing" public space, this study brings together phenomena such as the relationship of the state and its citizens, elements of Singapore society, transient entities and identities in public space, changing spatial practices and related aspects of urban development.; The study would discuss how spatial practices, through historical processes of growth and urban change and within the routines of everyday life, ultimately embody the transformative potentials of public space in Singapore. The research constructs a "Singapore model" of public space, and examines the viability of such an interpretive model.; While not citing such a model as an ideal, its usefulness lies in showing how historical processes and the actions of human bodies in physical space work together to produce viable public space; and why such a model is important for understanding public space in a non-western context. Changes on a global scale have prompted some to look closely at Singapore as a sort of prototypic global city-state, so that while limitations of specificities apply, the construction of such a model of public space will have wide ranging relevance in other globalizing cities. |
