Singapore builds ‘smart’ city with 42,000 homes

Singapore builds ‘smart’ city with 42,000 homes

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Written by Oscar Holland, CNN

In a country where more than 80% of residents live in public housing, a government’s commitment to sustainable urban design can have major consequences. And if it’s a tropical country where comfort and air conditioning are a way of life, the impact could be even greater.

The eco-city Tengah – the Malay word for ‘middle’, although in the western part of the island, promises 42,000 new homes in five neighborhoods, but is the 24th new settlement the Singapore government has built since World War II . However, it is the first with centralized refrigeration, automatic garbage collection and a car-free city center, which according to conservationists is a roadmap for reducing carbon emissions in the Southeast Asian city-state.

The development is called a ‘forest town’ by officials due to the abundant greenery and public gardens. The home of brick factories and later used for military training, the 700-acre site (2.7 square miles) has been reclaimed over the past few years by an extensive secondary forest. An ecological “corridor” of 328 feet will be maintained through its center, providing safe passage to wildlife and connecting a water catchment area on one side with a nature reserve on the other.

Planners say the city is designed with pedestrians and cyclists in mind.

Planners say the city is designed with pedestrians and cyclists in mind. Credit: Thanks to the Housing and Development Council

According to Chong Fook Loong, group director for research and planning at the Housing and Development Council of Singapore (HDB), the agency overseeing the country’s public housing is a tabula rasa for urban planners who embrace green design principles and ‘smart’ technology. advocate.

“Tengah is a clean slate,” he said in a video interview, explaining that roads, parking and utilities are being pushed under downtown. “We’re going for the ideal concept of segregation of traffic, (with) everything underground and then the ground level completely free for pedestrians – for people. So it’s a very safe environment for everyone.

“We want a city that can walk and cycle in a very user-friendly way,” he added, adding that cycling had ‘risen’ in Singapore in the “especially three to five years”.

The master plan will include the installation of charging stations for electric vehicles, while also protecting the streets ‘in the future’ to accommodate emerging technologies, Chong said.

“When we planned the road network, we envisioned a future in which autonomous vehicles and self-driving vehicles would become a reality,” he said.

Cooler by design

Although relatively small, with a population of less than 6 million people, Singapore’s per capita emissions are higher than those of the United Kingdom, China and neighboring Malaysia, according to the country’s national climate change secretariat.
This is due in part to air conditioning, which accounts for more than a third of typical household energy consumption. Global warming will only exacerbate this dependence. The Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) predicted that the average daytime temperatures in the city-state by the end of this century would be at least 34.1 degrees Celsius (93.4 degrees Fahrenheit) during the eight hottest months of the year.
An artist's impression of the site of 2.7 square kilometers.

An artist’s impression of the site of 2.7 square kilometers. Credit: Thanks to the Housing and Development Council

As such, it will be increasingly important to stay cool. Instead of demonizing air conditioning, Tengah’s planners tried to re-imagine it. Cold water, cooled by solar power, will be passed through the homes of the district, meaning residents do not have to install inefficient AC capacitors (although they can still control the temperature in their own apartments).

According to the city’s energy supplier, SG Group, this will yield carbon dioxide savings equivalent to taking 4,500 cars a year. The state-owned energy company reports that 9 out of ten future residents of the apartments that have already been sold in advance have signed up for central cooling.

Planners used computer modeling to simulate wind flow and heat increase throughout the city, reducing the so-called urban heat island effect (whereby human activities and structures make urban areas especially warmer than the surrounding nature). Elsewhere, ‘smart’ lights will switch off if public spaces are not occupied, and the rubbish will be stored centrally, with monitors that can determine when rubbish is needed.

“Instead of using a truck to pick up garbage from each block, we will suck all the garbage through the air system to a room that serves multiple blocks,” Chong said. “From time to time the (garbage) truck just has to be picked up at the room.”

One of the five residential districts in the city, known as the Plantation District, offers community farming.

One of the five neighborhoods in the city, known as the Plantation District, offers community farming. Credit: Thanks to the Housing and Development Council

Of the 42,000 homes being built at Tengah, more than 70% will be made available on long-term leases via the HDB. Prices for two-bedroom apartments currently start at just 108,000 Singapore dollars ($ 82,000), and the first apartments will be completed in 2023.

All residents have access to an app that allows them to monitor their energy and water usage. (“You empower them to take control of where they can reduce their energy consumption,” Chong said.) Meanwhile, digital exhibits in each block will make residents aware of their collective impact on the environment, which could even encourage competition between apartment blocks, according to SG Group.

Regardless of whether or not the use of smart technology can significantly ward off greenhouse gas emissions, the involvement of residents with their own consumption can trigger behavior change, according to Perrine Hamel, an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Asian School of the Environment. This, she added, is an important part of Singapore’s goal of achieving the highest emissions by 2030 and reducing them thereafter.

“Thinking about food consumption and thinking about the way people use air conditioning is all part of (achieving climate goals),” she said. “Behavior change is going to be an integral part of it, and of course urban design is the first way to influence and change behavior.”

Copying the project a

Calling the project a ‘forest town’, planners aim to preserve the natural greenery of the site. Credit: Thanks to the Housing and Development Council

Connect with nature

For Hamel, the integration of nature and residential areas – which “creates more opportunities for people to communicate with nature” – Tengah’s plan is excellent. In addition to the aforementioned forest passage, the residents of the town will have access to community farms in the so-called Plantation District.

In addition to promoting and protecting biodiversity, conserving nature on the site could also lead to further behavioral change, Hamel said.

“There are many examples from around the world that show that changing our relationship with nature through everyday encounters does help people to act in the environment,” she said. “As far as that goes, I think the biophilic design and (Tengah)’s master plan actually do a good job.”

The Nature Society Singapore (NSC) nevertheless criticized the plan to conserve too little – less than 10% – of the site’s existing forest. The environmental group has proposed two additional ‘core forest areas’ on either side of the green corridor to promote biodiversity and protect migratory species.

Related video: How to design the perfect city

The government has said it is “refining” its plan based on the NSC report, although the land transport authority in Singapore has since announced that more of the remaining forest – about 3% of the proposed corridor – will be cut down to make way for make for viaducts that are connected. the city to a nearby highway.

(In an email to CNN, the agency said it would later replant the trees in the cleared area and “create suitable temporary game crosses … to provide a safe passage for animals during construction.”)

Yet even critics of Tengah welcomed the eco-city in general, and the NSC closed off environmental criticism by saying it was still ‘heard by this daring plan’.

What these urban design initiatives mean for the rest of Singapore has yet to be seen. When Tengah was first announced in 2016, it was the first new city to be announced by the Singapore government in two decades, meaning that every other environment was designed long before the era of autonomous vehicles and internet facilities. Chong readily acknowledged that ‘it is not that easy’ to adapt underground road networks and pneumatic bins in existing towns.

Nevertheless, he struck a positive note when asked what Tengah’s model offers for future residential projects.

“We try to bring everything forward – when we can and to the best of our ability,” he said. “You look at Tengah and in a nutshell you see the future of what the (government) is trying to build: the future of towns.”

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