VOID DECK COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION: A PERSPECTIVE TOWARDS UNDEFINED COMMUNITY SPACE

Abstract

In Singapore, blocks of HDB (Housing Development Board) flats form the new grain of the city. Once, where community activity took place at the doorstep to every household at the ground level, it is now separated by the vertical density that is public housing in Singapore. Community spirit is expected to be forged at facilities and spaces, such as void decks, green communal spaces on the ground plane, and yet these spaces are also multi-purpose in use, acting also as event spaces, and transition spaces, amongst other things. With changes over time in demographics and preferences, as well as the disappearing void deck in new typologies of HDB, the void deck may have lost some importance as a space for community building. This dissertation seeks to look at void decks in existing HDB estates, to examine the importance of undefined ambiguous community spaces, and if changes in residents’ tastes and preference, and demographics of residents, has reduced the importance of the void deck as a community space.