Reclaiming the Void
An Urban Canopy for Singapore’s Social Housing Blocks
The urban typology of the void deck has largely characterized the public housing projects of Singapore post-independence. They are large, unchoreographed spaces beneath the housing blocks which serve mostly as transitory, surveilled spaces until required for larger domestic functions - an indispensable extension of the private domain. The spatial motif of the void has long existed within Singapore throughout key phases of her history, playing an indispensable role as a buffer and threshold - a sphere of mediation of conflicts and interests between the state and the people.
However, the recent paradigmatic shift away from the void decks within Singapore’s housing plans has been bemoaned by the populace, displaying the historical significance it has had throughout the general Singaporean consciousness.
The project proposes an urban canopy which situates itself within clusters of public housing blocks in the new towns of Singapore. The open floor plan, constructed upon an infrastructural grid of facilities and services, allows for a return of agency to the residents to freely engage and appropriate these spaces readily, encouraging for collective use and cohesion. In lieu of Singapore’s ceaseless renewal, the canopy would hopefully serve as the vestige toward the collective memory of the declining void decks.
