Productive Landscape

9 July 2022

 

In his book, The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991) discusses the Circuits of Capital and identifies a primary circuit and a secondary circuit. The Primary Circuit of Capital is the investment in labour, materials, and machines that produce products for the market to make a profit, while the Secondary Circuit of Capital is the investment in real estate, which is the development of land for making a profit. 

In a capitalist economy, urbanity is usually defined by the deployment of capital to production in the siting of factories, workers’ housing, recreational areas, and community amenities. In the same way, the deployment of capital to land for commercial purposes defines the downtown urban structure we know, i.e. the Central Business District in Singapore. However, as the owner of the majority of land in the city, the state government has the power to influence the development of land through its land-use policy. It also reaps revenue from the sale of land. The revenue in turn pays for the development of public amenities and institutions in the city.

To Henri Lefebvre, urban spatial form has three attributes, they are namely:

  1. Physical 

  2. Mental

  3. Social

According to Lefebvre, social space creates the environment, molding and influencing the residents, and thus recreating and reshaping them in the process. This demonstrates the power of urban space in its ability to influence social behaviour.

In his book, Lefebvre also discusses the notion of the Spatial Triad. Graphically, the Spatial Triad consists of three overlapping circles. Each circle represents a type of social space. The first is spatial practice, the second is the representation of space and the third circle is representational space. 

  1. Spatial Practices are the perceived space

  2. Representation of Space is the conceived space, which is cognitive or mental space, and 

  3. Representational Space is the lived space that comprises the perceived and conceived spaces

These three types of spaces exist in a dialectical relationship.

At the same time, the spatial triad also manifests a contest between the developer of the land and its occupiers, both before and after the development of the land. In most situations, the emerging triumphant has always been the developer of the land, in Lefebvre’s view. This has been the case in the past, but there has been a shift in the power play in recent years. Residents are pushing back. They expect their rights to public spaces in the development of state land. At the same time, physical land planners of the city have a broader set of parameters to set planning goals and measure the well-being of the city folks.

We set the lens in Singapore. In recent decades, Singapore has done well in urban planning and the provision of excellent public spaces, institutions, and amenities. The way that Singapore has been able to invent and reinvent itself - from a Garden City to A City in a Garden, to a City in Nature - speaks volumes about the government’s efforts to address the health and the wellness of the residents in the physical aspects of the urban conditions.  For future growth and development, Singapore has positioned itself as a Liveable, Sustainable, and Resilient City with a circular economy. Singapore sets its goal of building a robust and sustainable food supply from multiple sources, developing a strategy for local food production (30% of essential food needs by 2030), and growing food overseas form key cornerstones of food resiliency for the nation.

The thesis studio would like to expand and explore the robustness of the current food resilience strategy. It postulates A Productive Landscape that embodies a concept of food production, natural resources, and the environment. It would probe the Three Food Baskets Strategy for its comprehensiveness. Speculate the role that urban planning and architecture can perform. A productive Landscape is a conception of a landscape which includes land, air, space, and the seas. Lefebvre’s notion of production of urban space is adapted to include conditions where a productive landscape empowers the participation of the community in a collaborative endeavor. How can this happen? What probable urban design and architecture may evolve? This thesis studio argues that the development of a productive landscape also embraces the principles of restoring the wellness of the residents.


References

  1. The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre 1974

  2. Restorative Cities, Jenny Roe, and Layla McCay, 2021

  3. Singapore Food Agency