THE ROLE OF CAFES IN FACILITATING COMMUNITY BONDING AMONG PUBLIC HOUSING ESTATE RESIDENTS

Abstract

There has been an increasing concern over the lack of interaction among residents, especially the millennials -demographic cohort born between early 1980s to the early 2000s- living in public housing estates in Singapore. According to findings released by Housing Development Board (HDB) and the National University of Singapore (NUS), communication between residents tends to be ‘incidental and minimal’. This phenomenon which is prevalent in urban cities arises due to factors such as globalisation, individualism and detraditionalization. While HDB has various initiatives aimed at increasing community bonding among the residents, it was noted that these measures do not adequately serve the millennials. Although the provision of common spaces and organisation of community events does help to foster interaction, millennials generally do not visit these spaces or attend these events. More importantly, since millennials do not place much emphasis on community bonding, any bonding efforts which are too deliberate may prove to be ineffective. A more subtle approach through the provision of an appropriate space would therefore be needed. This research looks into the domain of boutique cafes located at the ground floors of public housing estates. Identified as a Third Place by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg, cafes provide a conducive setting for interaction. However, based on the survey from 300 respondents, it was found that these cafes appealed more to non-residents and there are also various barriers in place which may have discouraged the residents from visiting. Furthermore, the influx of cafes has also brought along several negative impacts to the housing estates. Nevertheless there is tremendous potential in using cafes to facilitate interaction among the residents and through an in-depth examination of cafes in Everton Park and Toa Payoh Lorong 1, this research explores how cafes can be planned and managed to facilitate community bonding among the residents as well as to minimise the negative impacts that it may bring to the housing estates