Urban planning in Singapore
Urban planning in Singapore is the direction of infrastructure development in Singapore. It is done through a three-tiered planning framework, consisting of a long-term plan to plot out Singapore's development over at least 50 years, a Master Plan for the medium term, and short-term plans, the first two of which are prepared by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the last by multiple agencies.
Planning in Singapore first began with the Jackson Plan in 1822, which divided Singapore town into multiple ethnic areas and established Singapore as a commercial and administrative centre. For a century, the colonial authorities in Singapore were not very involved in its development until they began engaging in urban regulation in the 1890s, in response to congestion and squatter settlements. When this proved inadequate, the British established the Singapore Improvement Trust in 1927, which had limited powers and hence limited initial impact. Detailed urban planning for Singapore eventually started in the 1950s, with the goal to give Singapore a wider economic role in the Federation of Malaya. The 1958 plan was produced as a result, heavily influenced by British planning practices and assumptions.
After Singapore's independence in 1965, planning policies were revised, and the State and City Planning Project was initiated to produce a new plan for Singapore, which became the 1971 Concept Plan. This plan laid out the basic infrastructure for Singapore's development and brought about the integrated planning process used ever since. Planning in Singapore began to incorporate additional priorities from the 1980s, such as quality of life and conservation, while the 1991 revision of the Concept Plan introduced the concept of regional centres to promote decentralisation. To improve the implementation of the Concept Plan's strategies, Singapore was divided into multiple planning areas in the 1990s, and comprehensive plans for each area's development were produced and compiled into a new plan. In the 2001 and 2011 concept plan, Singapore's urban planners began to incorporate public feedback and opinions into the planning process, shifting towards liveability and sustainability, while prioritising economic development as the powerhouse of each plan's success. The 2011 Concept Plan also featured a distinct focus on sustainability and conservation. The most recent plan is the 2019 masterplan, which details Singapore's increasing consideration towards sustainability, cultural preservation, building communities and closing resource loops.
History
Colonial Town Planning (1819 – 1958)
When Stamford Raffles, who founded Singapore in 1819, returned to the colony, he was dissatisfied with the haphazard development he encountered. At this time, Singapore was considered the trading factory and warehouse of the British East India Company. As a result, commercial houses and wharves grew disorderly along the banks of the Singapore River, a location known for its accessibility to trading boats. A town committee was formed as a result, to ensure that Singapore developed and grew in an orderly manner, as part of Raffle's vision of Singapore as a commercial and administrative centre. The first official plan of the town, the Jackson Plan, was drawn up in December 1822 or January 1823.The strict regularity of the plan placed Singapore's streets and roads in a grid network. An area south of the Singapore River was set aside as a commercial and administrative centre, while the river's east bank, the 'Forbidden Hill' and south-western tip was used for defence purposes. Crucially, the plan divided Singapore into several ethnic subdivisions, the Europeans, Malays, Chinese, Indians, Arabs and Bugis were placed in separate ethnic enclaves. To make Singapore a commercial and administrative centre, haphazardly constructed buildings were discouraged and significant disruptions were caused by the massive movements of people to and from their designated areas. Furthermore, to add professionalism to the planning process, Raffles secured the services of G.P Coleman, an architect and surveyor, and appointed Jackson, an assistant engineer, to build and oversee the development of the island. It was Jackson who would have the most significant impact on the appearance of the town, building the earliest Raffles Institution and the earliest bridges across Singapore River.
The ethnic segregation was considered by some as part of a "divide and rule" strategy, a concerted effort by the British government to make residents reliant on them for matters related to race and ethnicity. The demarcations also allowed the British political and economic control over the separated indigenous population, depending on the European Quarter as an administrative and commercial centre. This perspective is part of the larger critique of British hegemonic rule, where only selected ethnic leaders were represented in the Municipal Committee, which regulates ethnic interests. Such policies gave the appearance of mass support for British planning policies, such as those involving ethnic segregation, without considering the interests of the working class or other under-represented ethnic groups.
The Jackson Plan formed the foundations of Singapore's Central Business District and morphologically, the grid street pattern provided the form for the central area. The rigidity of the street pattern also became one of the main reasons for traffic congestion post-war when private cars began to take to the streets. Long afterwards, the segregation of racial groups will continue to remain intact and only begin to change in the mid-1960s.
For the next century, until 1958, there was little involvement by the colonial authorities in the planning of Singapore, and while the authorities occasionally modified Raffles' plan, they did not make any official plans on a comprehensive scale. The authorities only became more involved in urban development from the 1890s, taking responsibility for development work under the Municipal Bill of 1896, constructing back lanes and introducing building regulations. Nevertheless, these efforts were far from able to control urban development, and by the 20th century, Singapore faced congestion and squatter problems. This observation was made with regards to Singapore in the 1920s:
In 1918, in response to a Housing Committee's findings regarding unsanitary living conditions posing a health hazard, the Singapore Improvement Trust was established in 1927. Tasked with carrying out urban improvement and rehousing works, the SIT was not empowered to prepare comprehensive plans or to control development, initially only handling minor development schemes. In the years preceding the Second World War, the SIT concentrated mostly on building and improving roads and open spaces, and constructing public housing.
Post-World War II Town Planning (1958 and 1965 Master Plan)
During the British Military Administration after World War II, the British government was focused on alleviating the housing shortage in Singapore, redeveloping the central area and to improve living conditions in the congested city centre. At this time, Singapore faced an urgent need for environmental management and to control land use. This was further motivated by the vision that Singapore will play a wider economic role in the Federation of Malaya. A comprehensive plan for Singapore's development was drafted, but was not implemented after the return of civilian rule. Nevertheless, to provide more housing and raise living standards in the central area, the SIT started preparing a Master Plan in 1951. The plan was passed to the government in 1955 and was adopted in 1958.In order to formulate the plan, the 1958 Master Plan undertook detailed surveys and forecasts of major variables: land use, population, traffic, employment and possible industrial development. A blueprint planning approach was adopted for the plan, with a strong emphasis on rational use of land for zoning and physical elements of the plan. The plan consisted of zoning throughout all urban land uses, open spaces such as greenbelts, and several new towns away from the city centre for the purpose of decentralization. In addition, significant road network upgrades were proposed to handle predicted large increases in road traffic volumes, and two-thirds of slum residents were to be rehoused in formal housing. The plan was conceived with the expectation that Singapore would grow gradually and was unsuited for the social and economic change, rapid population growth and the Central Area's expansion in the early 1960s. Expected to last for 20 years, the Master Plan was formulated to be an instrument of control which could be expanded or retracted. Several British planning assumptions were evident in the plan, such as the slow and steady rate of social change and minimal public sector intervention in planning, ideas transmitted through the involvement of British planners overseas. Despite its short timeline, the 1958 Master Plan laid the groundwork for detailed urban planning in Singapore and came to be regarded as essential for the development of the country.
Singapore gained self governance in 1959 and was part of the Federation of Malaya for four years. The uneasy political arrangement and disputes over Singapore's status within the federation played a big influence on the planning process and the formulation of the 1965 Master Plan. While the 1958 Master Plan provided a guide for the control of development and land use, it became inadequate for the rapidly changing social and economic conditions in Singapore as a result of self governance and time lapses between policy formulation and implementation. The main problems that the plan had to target was the high rate of population growth, rapid expansion of central area, traffic congestion and deterioration of the city core.
Unlike the 1958 masterplan, the 1965 plan had a regional element, characteristic of the new government's priority that Singapore's future planning cannot be considered in isolation to its surrounding regions. Beyond basic standard of living and amenity, the 1965 Plan re-oriented Singapore from a mere commercial outlet to a centre of manufacturing export for Malaysia's industries and a centre for industrial expansion. The population basis for planning was raised to between 3.5 and 4 million, and plans to accommodate this expanded population took the form of a radial expansion. The