POLY-FUNCTIONAL TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURES: A CASE FOR RECLAIMING AND ACTIVATING RESIDUAL SPACES BENEATH MRT VIADUCTS

Abstract

The development of transport infrastructure is integral to the mobility in a city. Cities constantly strive to achieve connectivity, speed and efficiency by expanding and intensifying the infrastructure of their transport systems. While they succeed in connecting people and goods to their destinations, the infrastructures are often designed in isolation from the city’s urbanity. They tend to be mono-functional engineering structures imposed on the urban fabric of a city, resulting in inevitable consequences that can be detrimental. An evident physical manifestation is the formation of vacant land adjacent to and beneath transport infrastructures. Left to degenerate, they become disruptive spaces that negatively affect the neighbouring communities. Moreover, the land scarcity in Singapore necessitates a closer scrutiny of these unused spaces. If we are able to reclaim and activate the residual land resulting from elevated transport infrastructure, they can become invaluable opportunities for public and community engagement that better utilizes the site. There is therefore a need to ascertain the potential of reclaiming these spaces in Singapore as catalysts for public and social activities that benefit the adjacent communities. By using insights gathered from successful spatial adaptations of transport infrastructures, this dissertation seeks to formulate a design guideline for the future adaptation of similar residual spaces in Singapore that are appropriated to the specific local context.