PubliCity is an initiative that aims to involve the community to celebrate good public spaces and to enliven public spaces through good design and programmes. Public spaces are important components of our living environment. The creation and development of well-designed public spaces provide areas for people to gather for social activities and serve as leisure and recreational spaces. As part of urban planning and design, public spaces are carefully planned and distributed across the island. PubliCity strives to create both new public spaces as well as rejuvenate existing ones.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is inviting the public to submit creative ideas for underused or overlooked pockets of public spaces in our city. These ideas will serve as inspiration for future PubliCity programmes. Up to 10 winners will each win $1,000 in cash.
Called “My Ideas for Public Spaces”, the competition aims to inspire people to transform forgotten spaces into something more meaningful.
The public can submit ideas for forgotten spaces such as:
The URA is looking for ideas that can creatively transform these spaces, making them inviting and accessible for the community. The public should also consider how their ideas relate to the surrounding context, and whether they can be easily implemented and sustained in the long run.
URA launched the first edition of the competition in late 2013 as part of the Draft Master Plan 2013. During its previous competition, creative ideas were sought for four spaces – The Lawn @ Marina Bay, spaces along the Singapore River Promenade, an open space in Kampong Glam, and Woodlands Civic Plaza. The competition ran from 22 September 2013 to 14 February 2014. It saw over 160 entries, of which 11 received awards.
The entries inspired the first series of PubliCity pop-up projects. These include ‘Chairs in Squares’, ‘Picnic in the Park’ and ‘Play Space’. ‘Picnic in the Park’ took place at the Sultan Gate open space in Kampong Glam. URA worked with the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) and the local community to activate the space with picnic benches, garden swings and colourful lanterns.
“We were delighted with the many innovative ideas received in the first competition and have adapted some of them for our PubliCity projects. With the spotlight turning to ‘forgotten spaces’ this year, we hope the public can apply the same inventiveness to turn these overlooked spaces into delightful, meaningful ones that the community can enjoy,” said Ng Lang, Chief Executive Officer of URA.
Participants who are interested in this year’s competition can submit their entries by hand or mail between 14 May 2015 and 26 June 2015. The winning entries will be announced later this year.
The public can visit ura.sg/myideas2015 for more competition details.
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