The thesis challenges existing top-down approaches towards public space design, provision and management in Singapore, which leaves little room for meaningful social interactions and participation within the public realm.

Consequently, this thesis proposes an alternative bottom-up co-creative process which encourages greater community stewardship and inclusiveness within public spaces, and a productive urban commons centered around mushroom and mycelium cultivation is introduced as the basis for the co-creative process. The proposal takes the form of a network of architectural interventions which are inserted into the site and provide opportunities for cultivation by the community.

This cultivation programme leads to a self-build spatial catalogue based on mycelium, allowing community members to transform and contribute towards existing public spaces in their neighbourhood. Taking Upper Serangoon as a demonstration site, the proposal also involves the adaptive re-use of aging commercial buildings as a means of injecting new life into the existing community, ultimately contributing towards the further engagement of community members within the public realm.