Belonging Essay | portfolio

Belonging

Theory Essay, 2017

An experience that engages senses evokes memories that give people the sense of identity and belonging in a place.

A space is a location on earth, an area; space is territory, it gives the place a name but is only one-dimensional with no character. Whereas a place, is a space with meaning.

“Place incarnates the experiences and aspirations of a people. Place is not only a fact to be explained in the broader frame of space, but it is also a reality to be clarified and understood from the perspectives of the people who give it meaning” (Tuan, 1977)

A place is defined by all that is within it. It has features that distinguish them from others and are defined by the experiences and cultures of people who come and go.

Place-making is a space sculpted by the community that frequents the place. The people give it its purpose by how they use and experience the space.

Figure 1: image shows a staircase that links the ground floor to the platform level at Redhill MRT station . Ghezlane-Lala, D. (2017)

With no special relationship and attachment to a space, we encounter place-less-ness in venues that we go to and exist in temporarily. Such places are usually transient venues such as bus stops, Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) stations, hotels and airports.

Taking hotels as an example. Hotels are often categorised under “non-places”, which are spaces of transience where people have no special relationship to. (Auge, 1995) People are unlikely to develop relationships and identity in transient venues due to its temporal nature. However, to those with more mobile lifestyles, the hotel becomes their own private place.

“A deep human need exists for associations with significant places. If we choose to ignore that need, and to allow the forces of place-less-ness to continue unchallenged, then the future can only hold an environment in which places simply do not matter. If, on the other hand, we choose to respond to that need and to transcend place-less-ness, then the potential exists for the development of an environment in which places are for man, reflecting and enhancing the variety of human experience.” (Relph, 2016) To counter place-less-ness in transient venues, design of the spaces plays an important role here. To experience a space is multi-sensory;

As Pallasmaa mentioned, “Every touching experience of architecture is multi-sensory; qualities of space, matter and scale are measured equally by the eye, ear, nose, skin, tongue, skeleton and muscle. Architecture strengthens the existential experience, one’s sense of being in the world and this is essentially a strengthened experience of self. Instead of mere vision, or the five-classical sense, architecture involves several realms of sensory experience which interact and fuse into each other.” (Pallasmaa, 2005)

How a space is designed in relation to the purpose of it for people to engage their senses in is an important concept for a user to find identity and belonging to a place. With design in a space, it gives the space an atmosphere, it gains character and presence in the minds of people. The atmosphere of a space gives it its uniqueness and qualities that exude attraction to its guests. “The geometry of thought echoes the geometry of the room.” (Pallasmaa, 2005). Atmosphere can trigger senses and change a person’s feelings when they are in a space.

For example, when you visit a cafe on a hot afternoon after a busy morning of running errands, the cooling air mixed with the smell of coffee and baked goods welcomes you. You see modern artworks hung against the white wall and a few potted plants around the corners of the shop as you walk in towards the blush pink sofa in the corner. Just enough light comes through the windows to set a comfortable mood. While sipping on your iced Americano and listening to the acoustic tunes coming from the speakers, you close your eyes and enjoy your relaxing afternoon.

“We have an innate capacity for remembering and imagining places. Perception, memory and imagination are in constant interaction; the domain of presence fuses into images of memory and fantasy. We keep constructing an immense city of evocation and remembrance, and all the cities we have visited are precincts in this metropolis of the mind.” (Pallasmaa, 2005)

In reference to Pallasmaa, our senses capture our experience in a space and we remember them. These memories give familiarity to a space when we visit them again and they unconsciously become recognised by us as a “personal-identity” in space.

Figure 2: image shows a typical train station in Singapore. (TripAdvisor, 2017)

Bringing “personal-identity” to a Singaporean context, having a sense of belonging is similar to how a person experiences a space and having a place; familiarity in transient venues like MRT stations where we frequent daily and having personal and communal identities. Another example of a sense of belong in Singapore is public housing known as HDB flats. Most Singaporeans live in HDB flats and there is no shame in living in public housing, unlike it other countries where living in public housing might mean that you are poor.

Figure 3: image shows a HDB (public housing) estate in Singapore. (The Business Times, 2017)

In Singapore, the community built in areas you live in become part of your Singaporean identity. In HDB estates, there is a limit on number of people of a certain race that can live in one block; this gives us the identity of a multi-racial society. Every few years, the HDB estate gets a fresh coat of paint on them and by getting to vote for which colour we want our blocks to be painted in, residents have the sense of ownership and pride; sense of belonging in your neighbourhood.

“Almost all of Singapore is less than 30 years old; the city represents the ideological production of the past three decades in its pure form, uncontaminated by surviving contextual remnants, it is managed by a regime that has excluded accident and random-ness: even its nature is entirely remade. It is pure intention: if there is chaos, it is authored chaos, if it is ugly, it is designed ugliness; if it is absurd, it is willed absurdity.” (Koolhaas and Mau, 1995)

For instance, the incorporation of greenery in Singapore to make it a Garden City. The meticulous human approach and micromanagement in the application of nature in Singapore; safeguarding forests as nature reserves; incorporating vertical greenery in the city like on the "Park Royal on Pickering." However, a large amount of this “garden” was artificially made for the commercial growth of Singapore – for example, at Changi Airport’s arrival hall where tourists get their first glimpse of Singapore, trees are planted and placed in non-natural conditions for tourists to experience. There is no denial that the whole cityscape of Singapore has been carefully designed and engineered.

With reference to Koolhaas, everything in Singapore is done with intention. All these friendly acts may just be the government white washing and the people renewing our oaths to the government in exchange for a fresh coat of paint.

“Singapore is incredibly ‘Western’ for an Asian city” (Koolhaas and Mau, 1995), due to the rapid growth of modern Singapore, globalisation has led to a wide exposure of foreign culture and styles as many foreign brands flood into Singapore. The influx of foreign owned businesses and fresh new ideologies has diluted the distinctness in Singapore’s culture and reduced it to a city where many styles in design are being copied or referenced from others. Originality and creativity is minimal here in modern Singapore; however, we still have a Singaporean way of life that is innate in us. Singaporeans live their lives conforming to the many rules. All public spaces would have a set of rules of control the use of the space.

Figure 4: image shows a HDB (public housing) void deck with a signage of rules to abide. (Ghetto Singapore, 2014)

For example, hung onto the walls of the void decks under HDB flats, you can find a signage that tells you “no littering” or “no soccer”. These are rules we abide by and not question. The day-to-day life of Singaporeans are governed by an almost authoritarian regime that maintains this clean and green city and the result of this is harmonious and orderly living.

To conclude, familiarity in a space and the relationship of a person with the space is what transcends a space into a place. The surroundings of a space are what make us remember the place as there is an association to the place in memory. The experience one has in a place gives us a sense of place and identity. As Singaporeans, we take this planned greenery as our pride and identity. We live in an ungracious society where many things are tied in with regulations by our government. However, in exchange for a little bit of freedom is a harmonious, undisruptive and clean lifestyle -- a Singaporean culture that we grew familiar and comfortable with.