Cities in the Sky: Elevating Singapore's Urban Spaces

Singapore has seen a phenomenal and an unprecedented transformation from a swampland to a high density urban environment since its independence in 1965, made possible largely and single-handedly by the sustained efforts of its government. Indeed, urban space is a key vehicle for achieving urban social, environmental, economic, and cultural sustainability. The dense urban context in Singapore has seen an emergence and increase in elevated spaces in the form of sky-gardens, sky-bridges and sky-courts in a range of building types, seemingly seeking to tie together the different horizontal and vertical components of the city. This paper, therefore, examines the effectiveness of elevated urban spaces and pedestrian networks in Singapore and their ability to contribute to the horizontal to vertical transitions, and consequently to the urban vitality and accessibility. It does this through the analysis of two key developments: Marina Bay Sands and the Jurong Gateway. In particular, it considers the implications of certain constraints placed on urban spaces by their inherent location at height, in addition to the familiar privatization of public spaces, over-management of spaces, and their somewhat utilitarian characteristics. The paper argues that some of these issues may pose detrimental effects on the publicness of these spaces that in turn may lead to such spaces being underused and therefore adding redundancies and further stress to Singapore's urban land. Finally, the paper outlines key strategies that may help overcome the aforementioned issues, including the disjuncture associated with elevated spaces such that they may become a seamless extension of the urban spaces on ground.