Uploaded on 2014-10-12 by DanielLeong

Park(ing) Day is an annual worldwide special event where parking lots are repurposed for other uses for a day, to demonstrate how more public spaces and a less car-dependent city can improve the quality of life. This photo shows my team's installation at Liang Seah Street, in the historic Bugis neighbourhood near Singapore's CBD. From the photo, we can see different development patterns (three-storey streetblock developments from the early 20th century and downtown skyscrapers from the 1990s) and usage patterns (the street is lined with street-oriented small businesses, mainly eateries, while upper floors house offices, while the larger floor plates in the skyscrapers are likely housing corporate offices). We can also see that the street supports vehicular traffic and substantial parking on both sides. There are also sheltered walkways along the ground floors of the older buildings, but we can also see that people prefer to walk on the roadway, mingling with vehicular traffic. The overcast sky also highlights the importance of weather in deciding how the street is used. Two pieces of invisible information that can be extracted are the rates of pedestrian footfall on the street by time of day, and the durations of pedestrians' stays at the Park(ing) Day installation. With this information, we can determine how environmental factors (such as the temperature, amount of sunlight, amount of shading) and improvements to public space (such as availability of seating and shading, and availability of activities) affect pedestrian use of Liang Seah Street. This information can be used to design a pocket park that replaces a few of Liang Seah Street's parking, but which improves the public realm so that pedestrians can reclaim more space from vehicular traffic to linger and enjoy the street life. [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14131179751350759.jpg