PUBLIC REALM, SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD QUALITY: THE CASE OF THE HIGH-DENSITY PUBLIC RESIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

We develop new metrics for measuring neighbourhood quality which harness residential feedback data recorded by a Town Council customer service unit in a high-rise high- density public housing town in order to study spatial and temporal patterns of social dynamics and vitality of public space using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to retrieve information. Next, we explore the effect of the change in social milieu of residential public space created by the transit-induced gentrification and community displacement mechanism on social interactions and social dynamics. Using the higher-income population “invasion” shock, we demonstrate that positive change in neighbour-generated noise behaviour, occurs in geographically more attractive communities with higher income. Then, we explore the effect of the change in physical dimension of residential public space on social interactions and social dynamics created by neighbourhood fabric renewal program in more mature communities. We show that while the improvement of neighbourhood fabric does not translate into the immediate improvement in social behaviour, it attracts social interactions and positively affects the perception of public space.