After visiting the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore, i found out that the urban planning of Singapore are not accidental but rather, they are intensively being reviewed to see whether its feasible in the years to come. Take the Concept Plan for example, they plan it for a period of like more than 10 years. However, at every 5 years interval, they would review the plan again to improve on the plan so that it really implies to the current situation in Singapore to keep it updated.

Certainly, much effort has been put in to contribute to what Singapore has become now and these attributes to those Urban Planners effort to make full use of Singapore's limited amount of land. In my opinion, these Urban Planners are very far-sightly as they have already seen the shortage of land even 30 years ago and reclaimed the piece of land in Marina Bay. Even though that piece of land has not been used for over 30 years, however it has now becomed an important piece of land to expand the financial district from Shenton Way to Marina.

As more and more developments are on their way, URA is also constantly trying to develop Singapore into a City in the Garden to reduce the use of resources as being a Garden city does help to cool down buildings and thus reducing the amount of electricity needed to cool down a building.

Therefore, i feel that URA should be appreciated for the contributions that they have done to Urban Planning in Singapore and i definitely look forward to see the even more intensive planning that they planners have done for the Urban Planning in Shanghai!

Jun Wen

After going to URA, I then realised how singapore's limited land area is so extensively planned by the urban planners there and they look into the future 30 to 40 years in advance as to what areas in which how the land will be used.

I feel that in Singapore's journey to success, URA has done alot in making things on the drawing board reality and they are the un-sung heros which hardly a few people know of them and those huge efforts they have put in.

Beng Koon.

URA visit on 29th march 2010

“Meet the planner” session

In our URA visit, we had our questions answered and our understanding on the Singapore urban planning deepened.
Before the URA visit, we were advised to come up with numerous questions that we felt we had to clarify in order to understand the complex urban planning of Singapore.

These are some of the questions we had and the answers we got from the URA.

-How does reclaimed land affect the number and height of the buildings that are built on it?

From what we have found out, we believe that reclaimed land does not seem to have any effects that could affect the number and height of the buildings that are situated on it. However, there are suggestions to enforce stricter building requirements for sky scrapers that built on reclaimed land and strengthening of the reclaimed soil as it will be a potential danger if there is an earthquake. Almost twenty percent of Singapore’s surface area is reclaimed land. Scores of buildings that include houses, factories and hotels are located there. In the event of an earthquake, buildings will be shaken up more violently as compared to those on non-reclaimed land, which is solid and will not be liquefied by the shake.

-What are the height restrictions for buildings that are built near the airport?

Height restriction laws are always applied for the surroundings of airports, because too tall structures of any kind are always a danger for flight safety. Often red and white paint and flight safety lamps have to be installed on high structures (taller than 100m) far away from airports.

Zhou Bo