STREET HAWKING IN CHINATOWN: INVESTIGATING SPATIAL APPROPRIATIONS OF THE PLANNED AND THE QUOTIDIAN IN COMMERCIAL STREETS AND SPACES

Abstract

The urge for a controlled and rationalized urbanism has often left behind public spaces where boundaries of the planned and determinant continually impinge upon that of the quotidian. With the reopening of the newly renovated Chinatown Food Street in Singapore, the open street that was once the carrier for the informal everyday is now represented instead by the theatricality of a gentrified shopping arcade. In this regard, the dissertation seeks to study the spatial appropriations of the Chinatown street hawkers and examine the impacts they have on the organization and function of the urban street.

The research will include a review on the existing literature surrounding the discourse on everyday life in the practice of architecture and urban design. This is followed by an investigation of the historical transformation of street hawking in Singapore that focuses on the spatial implications of the early street hawkers and the role of planning authorities in the inception of the food street and the Chinatown Street Market. Lastly, a fieldwork analysis on the existing street hawkers in Chinatown will be attempted to formulate a clearer understanding of how both the planned and the informal everyday are manifested on the urban streets.

Informed by an interest toward these temporal informalities, the research recognizes that the indeterminate, serving as the activators of street life, should be acknowledged to better response to the planning of these commercial streets and spaces. To conclude, the paper examines how these informalities are incorporated in the Petaling Street market in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and the Liuhe Night Market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan through a comparative study. Accordingly, it explores the possibilities of incorporating the multiplicity of everyday experiences in the design of commercial streets and spaces.