THE ILLUSION OF PUBLICNESS : AN ANALYSIS OF SKY PARK @ VIVOCITY

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to re‐examine the notion of publicness in the urban context of Singapore. A public space has been loosely defined as space that is publicly accessible and sees generous public activities. This work challenges the common notion of publicness and argues for the ties between public space and public realm. Public space should warrant individual freedom, right and action. The Sky Park at Vivocity is one of a few places in the urban context of Singapore that sees plenty of outdoor activities and significant public use. This work, however, holds the conviction that it is an illusion of publicness as the making of the park does not pertain to collective interest, but private interest. Public freedom and right could not be secured as there is conflict of interest. The freedom is impermanent, limited and merely an illusion. The Sky Park exemplifies a case of a ‘privatized public space’. While being operated by private agency does not negate it to be a public space, the constraint to the freedom does. Its location on top of the mall complicates the issues due to the high permeability and popularity of a mall. The perceived publicness is heightened, the boundary between privateness and publicness become unseen. By looking at the public and their relationship with the space, consumers, patrons and residents proposed by Lyn H. Lofland are identified among the public in Sky Park. The study 3 challenges a usual study of public space, which public is seen as ‘transient’; individuals merely contribute to the size of crowds that gives rise to the ‘success’ of a public space. The study concerns that the wide public use could be resulted from use by individuals on a habitual basis, relationship between individuals of the public and the space has been developed. As ‘public’ as it may be seen, this work aims to investigate the limit of its publicness by looking at the laws and regulations that govern the use, the people who claim them through use, and the actions of the agency to answer the demands — factors that affects the freedom public enjoy in their public life. Public are often preoccupied by the physical qualities that are given by design and the atmosphere of ‘publicness’. The works postulates the illusion is fostered by setting and use. And the illusion is able to transform the public notion of publicness. Finally, it questions the validity of the ‘privatized public space’ and proposes that the limit of interest could be exemplified through the stages of the relationship of public and space. Furthermore, the changing of notion of publicness occurs in the ‘privatized public space’ could threaten the public life. As the illusion is enabled by the public perception, this work hopes to study the public perception that ties to experiences in the park through observation of behaviors and interviews. Narratives and the speech of interviewees are used to conjoin the fragments of happenings of the Skypark and re‐construct the illusion in the works; they are as well the window to question the perceived publicness.