Government to spend S$30m on Punggol Waterfront Town

Channel NewsAsia 21 May 08;

SINGAPORE : The government will spend about S$30 million to develop key features of the new Punggol Waterfront Town.

Most of that amount - S$25 million - will go towards the man-made Punggol Waterway, which will be constructed next year. The waterway will be the focal point of activities, according to plans by the Housing and Development Board (HDB).

Professional planners have been invited to submit designs and concepts to develop the areas along the waterway.

Punggol residents have a lot to look forward to. They will soon have plenty of activities that are centred around a new 4.2-kilometre waterway.

The waterway will connect Sungei Serangoon and Sungei Punggol. It will snake through various areas, including the proposed Town Centre - bringing water and water activities closer to residents.

Dr Johnny Wong, Deputy Director, Building Technology Department, HDB, said: "We are hoping that it will promote activities like canoeing, some passive walking along the waterways, and even alfresco dining. So we are quite excited about this project."

Architects, engineers and landscape planners have been invited to enter the Punggol Waterway Landscape Masterplan Design Competition. Interested groups were brought to the sites of some of the developments - including the waterway - on Wednesday.

The waterway will be built mostly on vacant land, so that there will be minimal disruption to the surrounding areas.

Mabel Goh, Director, Design Link Architects, said: "We have done quite a fair bit of public housing and it's not new to us. The exciting thing is to redesign public housing with spaces, balconies overlooking the waterways and even private space to integrate with the waterways..."

Leonard Ng, Landscape Architect, Atelier Dreiseitl Asia, said: "It has to be considered in the urban context. We have to relate it to the buildings around it, to the open spaces, the parks around, and how the edge of the river can connect the people and engage the people.

"And so the challenge would be how to carry that out while still being mindful about the safety and security aspects."

The winner of the competition will be announced in November and stands to win S$300,000 and will work with the HDB to develop the Punggol area.

Punggol Town will have 21,000 housing units eventually, with 60 percent allocated for public housing and the rest for private housing.

The residential areas will also house eco-friendly features and be a showcase for green technology. - CNA/ms

Landscape design contest for Punggol waterway
Competition includes design of Punggol Town Park
Charmian Kok, Business Times 22 May 08;

FOLLOWING its announcement to develop Punggol into a modern waterfront town, HDB is also engaging with the private sector to design the landscaping of the Punggol waterway through a Landscape Masterplan Design Competition for the Waterway.

The competition aims to draw on fresh and innovative ideas for the landscaping of the 4.2 km waterway, and also includes the designing of the Punggol Town Park - a 10.6 ha land that will provide a range of water-based activities and facilities.

Besides proposing the landscape design development direction of the waterway, entrants to the competition can also actively participate in creating the communal and commercial spatial typologies along the waterway.

Proposals for the competition are expected to introduce new sustainable development concepts and features, in line with HDB's concept of 'green living by the waters'.

According to HDB, response to the competition has been good, with 17 firms registered as of yesterday.

Design Link Architects is one such company, and its director Mabel Goh said: 'We feel that this project is quite innovative. So far, waterfront housing has been largely limited to the East Coast side, but this is an innovative attempt to integrate the water body with public housing.'

Another firm, Atelier Dreiseitl Asia, which has years of experience in landscape architecture and urban hydrology, is evaluating the competition brief and its director Leonard Ng has expressed interest in the project.

'Right now, it's a clean slate and it gives you the potential to work out a complete approach to design, being sensitive to all the aspects of an urban environment. If that's taken into consideration, it can have a cutting edge design that integrates the urban fabric with the waterway.'

The winner of the competition will receive $300,000, which will form part of the professional fee to be paid to the appointed firm or team. The professional fee will be fixed at 3.68 per cent of the total construction costs of the landscape development. In addition, two merit prizes of $50,000 each will be awarded.

The competition is opened to urban planners, architects and landscape architects from May 17 to September 16 and registration closes on July 16.