Core Design Team
Tay
Kheng Soon
Robert Powell
Chua Beng Huat
Patrick Chia
Winston Yeh
Chung Meng Ker
Rob Hearne
Lai Chee Kien
In 1989, the Tropical City Concept was tested by a team led by Tay Kheng Soon under the auspices of the Singapore Institute of Architects. It was occasioned by the appoint-ment of private architects to undertake urban planning studies of specific areas of the city. It was the first time that private architects were involved in this manner.
As the Singapore Concept Plan was undergoing a statutory review at that time, the team took upon itself to contextualise its study of the allotted site within its own review of the Singapore Concept Plan. This was possible within the open brief provided by the Minister of National Development. Cities cannot be dispensed with. Indeed, they are vital for human progress. Tay's theory of urbanisation, in the context of existing cities in the tropics, emphasises re-urbanisation.
This view is within a larger thesis that the city's relationship with the countryside is to be considered as one, and not two realms, for the sustainability of both. The conservation of bio-diversity and nature which surrounds cities is best achieved by limiting human encroachment into nature and eco-agriculture. The priority is to limit the existing curtilege of the city by better utilisation of existing urban land, through better planning and compact spatial morphologies. In Singapore, there are many vacant or soon to be vacant lands in the city. Obsolete industrial and military buildings or utility yards could be made available for re-urbanisation.
Tropical cities are fundamentally dissimilar to city planning models in
temperate climates in that the reduction of the need to travel or to move
about is predicated by the discomfort experienced in the hot, humid conditions.
Cities should be compact since suburban sprawl generates reliance on private
motor vehicles and greater fuel use. This means more CO2 which in turn
contributes to the green- house effect. Furthermore, the rain and the
sun can be considered positively rather than negatively because at relatively
high densities, economies of scale allow solar energy, rain water collection
and recycling to be incorporated into the infrastructure of the city.
Better bio-climatic synergy can be achieved.
The prime aim in urban design and architecture in the dense city centres
of the tropics should therefore aim at reducing the temperature of the
city as a whole and to make the reliance on air-conditioning optional
rather than mandatory. Single buildings cannot solve the problems of heat
retention, dust and noise pollution which air-conditioning alleviates.
These conditions can only be resolved through large scale redevelopment.
The first strategy in such redevelopment, is to introduce high-level shading
to prevent the heating up of the city fabric. These high-level shading
devices would simultaneously be rain and sun energy collectors. The second
strategy is to green the city both horizontally and vertically to absorb
radiant and ambient insolation. This requires legal enactment. Tay Kheng
Soon thus proposed the introduction of two taxes, the green and the blue
tax. The green tax is based on the fact that every building is deemed
to have removed biomass from nature which existed prior to urbanisation.
To the extent that a building owner reintroduces it back to a site, the
tax is reduced. No tax is payable if the entire biomass is put back. The
blue tax works in a similar manner. Every building has to retain rainwater
as much as possible so as not to burden the city's storm drainage system.
To the extent that water is retained the tax is reduced. If all is discharged,
the full tax is payable. Through co-ordinated spatial design, noise, heat
and dust pollution can be reduced.
In the Singapore context of available re-urbanisable urban central area
land, Tay calculated that an additional one million people including the
necessary non-residential reclaimed land adjacent to the city centre.
The implication of this is significant as possibly five new towns of the
current model need not be built in the outskirts of the city. Many semi-rural
areas and undeveloped farmland can be preserved for nature and future
recreational uses.
The Kampong Bugis site is some 72 hectares of cleared land at the confluence
of two rivers and at the fringe of the city centre. In contextualising
the design parameters of the subject site, all the available urban land
in the central planning area was quantified. Next, the pattern of floor
space generated over the years was analysed from statistics. From this,
it was possible to quantify the residential and non-residential floor
space pattern of demand. It was then a simple matter to compute the total
floor area in relation to a projected population. The next task was to
compute the average plot ratio on the available land to be developed for
the projected population.
It was found to be 4.8 when the total floor area quantum was divided by the available land in the central region. The disused railway yards, oil-storage tank farms, disused gas or abandoned engineering works, etc., when added together, could easily accommodate the extra million people projected without building any more new towns. The proposed plot-ratio of 4.5 was not high by any metropolitan standards. It was therefore judged to be entirely realistic.
A number of other conclusions could be drawn. Firstly, it is feasible
to increase the city centre population greatly without any undue stress.
Secondly, with the possibility of housing a large population in the city
centre, the need for the outward expansion of new towns which are typical
built at a net residential density of only 2.8 in Singapore could be halted
and thereby preserve the outer natural fringes of Singapore island intact
for nature and for future generations. Thirdly, the compactness of the
nodal clusters allows for the interconnection of buildings at basement
level and at podium level.
Indeed, a two-level city becomes feasible to reduce the crush at the pavement
level. The need to travel could be reduced through the mixing of residences
with work place,floor space can be accommodated if mixed-use developments
are planned at appropriate nodes, transit stations, on decks over highways,
on obsolete industrial sites and on shopping, entertainment and social
and cultural facilities. Through heavy planting on roof decks and on the
building surfaces, a conducive micro-climate could be created.
The shielding of the interiors of building sites from the dust and noise
of roads enhanced by interconnecting carparking decks below the buildings
basically creates a quiet and dust-free environment. The optional use
of air-conditioning for comfort in the tropics becomes possible rather
than being obligatory: the need to obviate heat discomfort having been
dispelled through local planning and design. It was reasoned that air-conditioning
is a permanent feature of a more affluent way of life in the tropics.
But a strategy was evolved to enhance options for its use and to introduce
energy-saving technologies. The principal technology is a decentralised
energy production policy. In this policy, the waste heat which would have
to be otherwise discharged can be recovered for district-cooling through
heat absorption refrigeration.
Furthermore,
the transmission losses of remote power generation would also be saved.
A total efficiency factor of 80% could be expected in such a policy. The
feasibility depends entirely on the compactness of the urban morphology.
The tropical city concept was conceived in the context of an island-city-state.
When the thinking is applied to a larger context, other factors come into
play. Factors such as rural to urban migration, ecological protection
of landscapes and natural features, water and soil conservation, preservation
of bio-diversity, etc. all have to be factored into the concept.
All cities came about because of the need to transact ideas, goods and
services. Increasingly, these transactions are speeded up through the
use of telecommunications and information technology (IT). Such networks
will be further intensified with additional features which will enable
remote working, shopping and even automated manufacturing. A degree of
decentralisation of the workplace will be possible.
Simultaneously, the demand for intensive human face-to-face interaction
will increase.
Face-to-face communication has advantages over electronic communication
systems in that it is unpredictable and unplanned. Its importance lies
in the stimulation of ideas and initiatives. In research centres such
as the Silicon Valley, the restaurants and bars are the important meeting
places which researchers frequent to exchange ideas. This has important
implications for the planning of cities where the location of social nodes
must provide scope for a wide range of human transactions. The combination
of Electronic Information Systems and intensive human interface creates
a challenge to consider their enhanced roles for the city. The city can
be a place wherein lifelong learning is feasible; and residence, work,
study and research become closely inter-related. These spatial implications
challenge architecture and urban planning.
Summary of Planning Parameters:
Total site area = 76.01 hectares
Site area excluding water areas = 65.02 hectares
Total buildable land = 46.80
Total built floor area (Residential + Non-residential) = 1,915,600 sq
m
Total Non-residential built floor area (37%) = 703,000 sq m
Total residential built floor area (63%) = 1,212,600 sq m
Total number of dwelling units = 9,748 units*
Residential plot ratio = 2.59* (similar to HDB)
Non-residential plot ratio = 1.50*
Total plot ratio = 2.59 + 1.50 = 4.09
including half of perimeter road (Residential + Non-residential)
Gross plot ratio = 4.80
* Based on average family size of 3.11 persons and residential floor space standard of 40 square metres per person (suggested new national norm)
The Kampong Bugis Development Guide Plan interprets the conceptual idea and agenda for the Tropical City into a strategy awaiting implementation. It represents the critical alternative to HDB and URA policies that Tay Kheng Soon had proposed for two decades commencing with the SPUR fora in 1964-71.
In September 1990, the Singapore public had the opportunity to examine
the plan and alternative strategies prepared by the government planning
body - the Urban Rede-velopment authority (URA). In January 1991, the
Minister for National Development chaired a public participation seminar,
the first of its kind ever to be held in Singapore and in retrospect,
it can be seen as an historical event for it determined the future direction
of planning in this Tropical City. Unfortunately, the vision proposed
by Tay Kheng Soon was deemed to be too radical and a conventional solution
is likely to be implemented. The planning methodology derived from western
practice is evidently deeply entrenched.
