Urban Transformation of Singapore What`s Your Take? Perspectives

February 2014
Urban Transformation of Singapore
Held up as one of the most visible manifestations of its modern success,
Singapore’s urban development grew despite the acute challenges in overpopulation
and infrastructural crunch experienced in the 1960s and before. The CLC invited
four Singapore pioneers — key players in the city’s urban transformation — to share
their experiences and insights at its most-well received lecture yet.
Read more.
What’s Your
Take?
At the CLC lecture on
“Urban Transformation
of Singapore”, Mr
Alan Choe shares
lessons from relocation
of communities in
Singapore’s renewal
projects and viewed
that the community
spirit is built on trust.
Do you think it is
possible to recreate
and sustain the
“kampung spirit” in a
developed, modern
setting?
Take the Poll
Perspectives
CLC hopes to further engage our participants for CLC Lectures through a post-event feedback on the content
of the talk. We hope these quotes and ideas shared could facilitate deeper thinking into the subject matter and
provide a base for more discussions amongst interested parties.
For the CLC lecture on “Urban Transformation of Singapore”, we posed the question, “In the lecture, Mr
Alan Choe observed that in the 1960s–1980s, the public was ‘less demanding’ and redevelopment could be
somewhat ‘autocratic’ and this helped to enable a quick and successful transformation of the cityscape. How
can we maintain Singapore’s exceptional achievements in urban planning and development while engaging a
more demanding population?” We have received a significant number of insightful responses as well as some
unconventional suggestions.
Here, we share two quotes:
“Open communication and consultation is the key. But how do you execute it
effectively? Be bold in experimenting. How about giving Singaporeans a blank map in
which they can fill in how they’ll plan Singapore’s landuse for the next 30 years? We
may see interesting results.”
— Mr Robin Ngiam, Manager
“A more demanding population is typically associated with a more educated population.
This can be seen as an opportunity for the government to tap their constructive
suggestions to bring Singapore to the next level. The key issue is to have an effective
communication channel to engage them. Ultimately, people are the ones that bring life to
city. Build the city the way people want it to be.
— Ms Teh Poh Suan, Director (Building Research), HDB Building Research Institute
CLC’s Visiting Fellowship
The CLC recently established a new Visiting Fellowship Programme. This programme invites distinguished
researchers and practitioners to undertake research in their respective fields for a period of time at the Centre,
where they will share their knowledge on liveable and sustainable cities.
The CLC’s first Visiting Fellows under this new programme are Professors Susan
and Norman Fainstein, renowned scholars in the field of urban studies, who are
also in Singapore concurrently as visiting professors at the Lee Kuan Yew School
of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.
Susan Fainstein is currently a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Department of
Urban Planning
and Design after retiring as Professor there. She is the author of The Just City, which has won various honours,
including the Paul Davidoff Book Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning in 2011. Norman
Fainstein is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Urban Studies at Connecticut College. Educated at MIT in
Political Science, he was founding editor of Ethnic and Racial Studies, and has authored several books and
scholarly articles on areas of urban sociology and politics, planning and development, public policy, race and
social movements.
“As the first visiting fellows at the CLC, we have had the opportunity to meet with senior public
officials. These meetings have challenged us to offer advice in response to planners’ concerns and
also allowed us to discover the thinking underlying the strategies of Singapore’s policymakers. In
addition, we have worked with CLC staff on various research projects and engaged in stimulating
discussions with them.”
— Prof. Susan Fainstein
The Fainsteins will engage in dialogue with various government agencies and divisions during their Fellowship.
Through meetings and panel discussions, the engagement will enable an in-depth look into the work of these
agencies and divisions, as well as for the latter to tap the professors’ knowledge on urban planning and
governance in various cities to supplement their work.
The Fainsteins will also be contributing original articles for CLC’s digital and print publications and be participating
in a panel discussion as part of the CLC Lecture Series titled: “Singapore’s Dilemma as a City-State: Just City or
Global City?” on 27 February.
New Lenses on Future Cities
At a joint launch with the CLC on 14
January, Mr Jeremy Bentham, Shell’s
Vice President, Global Business
Environment, presented findings from
the Shell Scenarios Team’s latest
supplement, New Lenses on Future
Cities.
The report explores the energy
implications of urbanisation, by looking
at different types of cities and how they
may evolve as well as the conditions
that shape how well cities adapt and
reform to external change. A chapter
on Singapore, co-authored with the
CLC, details Singapore’s journey to
becoming a densely populated yet
liveable city through careful urban
planning.
Read more.
City in a Garden — The Legacy of Lee Kuan Yew
It has been five decades since 1963, when then Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew planted a Mempat tree that
signified the start of the city’s greening movement. Today, Singaporeans are the beneficiaries of his vision as we
see what was anticipated has now turned
into
reality with Singapore being placed on the
world map as a city in a garden.
To commemorate this achievement and
to answer the perennial question of how
urban Singapore managed to remain
“green”,
five senior officials from the
Singapore
Government Service — all pioneers
of
the early development of Singapore
— were
brought together to recount their
experiences on a shared passion.
GARDEN CITY
SINGAPORE
- the legacy of Lee Kuan Yew
Book Launch
25th February 2014
Garden City Singapore 4 Cover.indd All Pages
2/20/2014 10:33:28 AM
Mr Wong Yew Kwan, Dr Chua Sian Eng, Prof. Lee Sing Kong, Mr Choo Thiam Siew and Mrs Pamelia Lee shared
their insights, anecdotes and life experiences in greening Singapore as they wrote and published the latest book,
‘The Greening of Singapore, A Legacy of Lee Kuan Yew’.
The book was launch on 25 February and can be purchased at all regular bookstores from 26 February.
A Singapore voice in a Copenhagen magazine
Following the Leaders in Urban Governance Programme (Local) organised last
October, where the Singapore delegation visited Copenhagen as part of their
overseas learning journey, the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC) and the Rambøll
group interviewed Mr Khoo Teng Chye, CLC’s Executive Director.
The interview was published in Ramboll’s Response magazine in an article, “The
Urban Brand Battle”, that discussed liveability in relation to the cities of Singapore
and Copenhagen.
response
engineeRing / consultancy / design
By RamBoll
liveable
cities
improving life quality
for the 3.6 billion people
living in urban areas
For his response to the question: “From a global perspective, what are going to be
the biggest challenges in terms of using water as a resource for more liveable cities?
Is it technology, funding, lack of policies?” — click on the right image to read the
article on p.34 of the magazine
+
the hidden backbone of a city
smart energy grids
p. 14
copenhagen’s north harbour
future-proof
urban planning
p. 26
CLC shares its new publication — CLC Insights
A new research publication by the Centre, CLC Insights is an occasional series of short analytical papers by CLC
researchers on strategies to making cities more liveable and sustainable.
CLC Insights shares timely, policy-oriented research that is relevant to Singapore and the growing crop of urban
centres facing sustainability issues in their growth.
Do share your views with us by starting a conversation on some of these topics or sending us your direct
feedback. Based on your feedback, the Centre aims to further develop these papers and disseminate them to
policymakers.
In this edition, we features responses by CLC Manager Dr Guangming Lin and CLC Adjunct Researcher Ms
Elyssa Ludher on liveability indices in the light of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s recently published Global
Liveability Survey. The paper discusses a number of issues, including:
• What do liveability indices measure?
• Who are the users of these indices?
• What are the key takeaways for Singapore?
Read more of CLC Insights issue #1 here.
January’s Poll Results
63% of respondents agree with researchers on the idea that high- density developments are not perceived
negatively if there is positive social interaction and connectedness among its people.