Singapore
The challenge of planning
by Raymond Kuah Leong Heng
IF planning means politics and eco- nomics, law and administration, be- fore it means architecture, surveying and engineering, then Singapore stands on the threshold of the seventies facing the most pressing problems of econo- mic expansion, employment, industrial- ization and credible defence.
What then does all this and nation building mean in terms of physical planning?
It simply means that the need for a dynamic, comprehensive and integra- ted concept plan for the Island Repub- lic is long overdue, especially one that is of sufficient flexibility to meet the changing needs, to provide for pressing urban renewal programmes and to ac- commodate large scale developments.
In recent years, the thinking and emphasis in the modern techniques of planning, highlighted by several United Nations consultants who have surveyed the local scene, has laid great stress on action-orientated program- mes which, in providing rapid develop ment, must also take into account cer- tain basic social principles or perfor-
Mr. Kuah Leong Heng of the Urban Renewal Department, Singapore Housing and Development Board, presented this pa- per to the recent Science Congress in Singa-
pore, at which he represented the Singapore
Institute of Architects.
mance standards, and in their imple- mentation must fit into certain overall guiding concepts.
These guiding concepts will have to be sufficiently comprehensive to meet the needs and requirements of the re- public for the next three decades.
The problems of housing and em- ployment distribution, industrial and commercial developments, urban re- newal and comprehensive development areas are all linked together through the need to provide better traffic net- works and transportation.
The pressing developments and eco- nomic viability of the island cannot wait and indeed must press on, while the long-term comprehensive guiding concepts are being studied, defined and planned upon. Performance standards therefore become of paramount im- portance and basic guide lines must be laid down for active programmes.
To achieve this type of sophistica- tion in tackling these island-wide plan- ning problems requires more compre- hensive qualitative data as well as a wider range of information than has been available hitherto. A place must be found for more advanced forms of data collection in the planning process.
But the enormous amount of work involved in data collection can all too easily obscure the main task of pro- ducing a working system, a set of ideas
which make sense, for the future use of land in Singapore. Fact assembly and its analysis can all too readily be- come a fascinating occupation, but the ultimate test of its usefulness is whether it will help to formulate and validate resources, attitudes and thinking which can change the course of events to wards useful directions.
Creative thinking and ideas should be encouraged so as to explore or dis- card methodology of planning in order that the present political situation in the region and the range of future pos- sibilities becomes more clearly under- stood by all involved. Such encourage- ment will help to avert the hidden danger of "trend planning" as adopted and practised by builders of our urban fabric – be it public or private — in the absence of any positive forms of guid- ance by planning authorities.
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Often they make a multiplicity or series of unrelated decisions culmina- ting in, among other ills, gross over- building of the central business district and the spread of formless suburbs. Much more important at this juncture, with regard to propagating creative thinking in planning now, is the ap parent readiness of the Singapore Gov- ernment to respond to productive ideas of planning.
The time has now come when the professions must poise themselves for
Far East BUILDER, October 1968.
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