COVID-19 has disrupted our old routines in public space. New physical barriers to minimize intermingling, crowd-control mechanisms, and constant reminder of distancing have changed the way we do public life. When we started conceiving the term project in the course HA 4032 (“What is a City?”) in August 2020, Singapore was into its 7th month of the “new normal” after  an extensive 3 months lock down, locally referred to as the “circuit breaker.” We were curious to systematically understand how physical safe distancing measures affect public life in public spaces in Singapore. 

The project focuses our study on connective public spaces and lingering spaces  – spaces that are upheld in urban design and planning as elements of good city form. For example, pedestrian malls, underground and overhead connectors between buildings and public seating that are designed for connection and interaction. However, with new spatial distancing measures, these connective spaces have become problematic areas of enforcing distancing measures. The aim of the project is to systematically document public life in two locations in Singapore that have large number of connective spaces due to their roles as town centers to understand how social interaction, user behavior and seating activities are been undertaken during COVID-19.  

In two groups of 4 students each, the project document public life in Bedok Mall and Jurong East Mall-Westgate through participant observations, mapping and photography. The purpose of this project is to contribute to the knowledge creation about how everyday social life is lived in the collective spaces of the city during a global crisis. In doing so, we examine how connection and interaction as basic principles of good urban design and planning weather a crisis of socio-spatial distancing in the public sphere. 

STORYBOARDS

Between September and November 2020, 8 students undertook observations at Jurong East and Bedok to understand how public space and public life adapted and evolved in response to COVID-19.