PLACE MANAGEMENT: THE SINGAPORE STORY OF PLACE-MAKING

Abstract

In light of sustainability, cities around the world have adopted the idea of “place-making” to highlight the salience of developing human-centred places – created by the people, for the people, and to add vibrancy and diversity to otherwise dull and under-utilised public spaces. There has been a rise in partnerships between public and private agencies, culminating in collective efforts to enliven their cities and thereby improving the quality of life for the citizens and creating sustainable communities through fostering a stronger sense of place and identity. Singapore has gained international recognition for being a bustling city-state with a robust economy and its meticulously managed urban environment; however, some parts of the city still lack a certain ‘sense of place’. In response to that, the government has espoused the ideas of place management to bring the dualistic relationship between people and spaces one step further through place-based initiatives. Place management is a relatively new concept in urban planning; it is a multi-faceted concept which encompasses a wide variety of practices such as urban regeneration, neighbourhood renewal and socio-economic revitalisation, to deal with the complexities of societies such as cultural, social, economic and demographic issues. Currently, this approach has been integrated with urban planning strategies to revitalise key areas such as the Civic and Cultural District and Marina Bay. This dissertation will study the complexities and feasibility of two major place intervention strategies employed in Singapore’s urban planning – namely place management and placemaking, and determine if these two approaches are fundamentally different in terms of methodology and the desired outcomes, and how they can contribute toward the creation of sustainable communities.