COMPARING NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRE TYPOLOGIES AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIAL INTERACTION AND SOCIAL CAPITAL

Abstract

As the needs of society evolve across the years, town planning standards have also transformed accordingly. This has resulted in a new typology of neighbourhood centre, termed as New Generation Neighbourhood Centres, where the design resembles private shopping malls while incorporating plentiful community spaces. Thus, in light of falling social interactions amongst neighbours in Singapore, the role of the neighbourhood centre and its impact on social capital is explored. Moreover, this dissertation also intends to further understand the social function of neighbourhood centres as played by shopkeepers. Hence, this research paper serves to fill the gap in literature regarding neighbourhood centres from a social perspective and in the Singapore context. The study was thereby carried out through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods, by comparing a Traditional Neighbourhood Centre in Ang Mo Kio to a New Generation Neighbourhood Centre in Punggol. Consequently, survey and interview findings support the hypotheses that Traditional Neighbourhood Centres are more conducive for the cultivating of social capital. It was also found that residents valued the relationships formed with shopkeepers in the older neighbourhood centre typology, due to the personalised customer service offered. Therefore, it is concluded that neighbourhood centre typologies are likely to have an effect on social interaction and social capital among residents, aiding in evidence-based design of future HDB towns where co-existence of features from the two types of neighbourhood centres is proposed.