Flats Outdoor Space as a Vital Social Place

Minimum dwelling space of low-cost walk-up flats forces life to spill outdoors involving daily mundane activities affecting neighbourhood social vitality. In design, this affordance of such 'marginal' outdoor space has been neglected. Using data derived from systematic observations in various low-cost walk-up flats, this paper explores the use of these outdoor near-home spaces and found that they support various domestic, social and retreat activities generating liveliness in the otherwise barren low-cost environment. Potentials for social encounters and casual surveillance were partially affected by flats configurations.