Singapore, world's most modern city by 2030

Only electric cars on the roads? HDB estates powered by biogas? Steffen Lehmann thinks it's possible
Paul Gilfeather Today Online 17 Jul 10;

Singapore could become the world's most modern city within 20 years, says the man whose vision for future living offers a blueprint for governments around the world.

That's an encouraging view but a fascinating challenge at the same time from Professor Steffen Lehmann, the United Nations' resident chair on Sustainable Urban Development for Asia and the Pacific, and considered the world's leading expert on urbanisation.

The German-born architect isn't just giving some flattering prognostication as an outsider. He has been a regular visitor to the Republic over the past 10 years and last year actually lived here for four months while a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore.

So he can tell you, from first-hand experience, what he thinks needs to be improved.

"The way some parts of Singapore are designed at the moment is totally unacceptable. Some of the underpass walkways are a maze and there is a lack of proper pedestrian connectivity. If you think about the underground walkway beneath the Marriott Hotel on Orchard Road, it is terribly designed. When you go down there you are not sure where you are going to surface," he said in a phone interview from his home in Sydney.

To be a truly modern city, he feels, "there has to be proper public space for the pedestrian and Singapore has to give more respect to the cyclist".

Another bugbear with Prof Lehmann: The city's apparent obsession with the car. That is a sentiment I can identify with. On arriving here 18 months ago, the sheer number of cars on the roads here was one of the first problems I encountered, and I continue to be frustrated by the regular traffic build-up.

Now to truly be radical, Singapore, Prof Lehmann suggests, could become the world's first city to scrap the car combustion engine. I feel we might be moving into the realm of fantasy but he is convinced this is an achievable target.

Said Prof Lehmann: "If Singapore starts creating the infrastructure for electric cars now, in terms of charging points around the city, it could become the first 100-per-cent electric mobile city in the world."

A consultant adviser to the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the National Environment Agency, he believes the Government is open to this idea.

An Electric Vehicle Taskforce chaired by the Energy Market Authority and the Land Transport Authority is spearheading national test-bedding efforts this year. Fifty Mitsubishi I-MiEV electric cars are being brought in for the project and earlier this year, proposals were sought from vendors for an island-wide network of up to 63 charging stations.

FROM TREE CLIPPINGS TO ELECTRICITY

To Prof Lehmann, being a modern city has little to do with the fact that four-fifths of the Republic has been built within the last 25 years. While this means urban renewal isn't an issue here as it is in many countries, Singapore "does face other challenges if it is to become the most modern city in the world".

Indeed, the most effective cities of tomorrow will be those to have tackled the problem of renewable energy solutions and efficiency.

For instance, he is urging the authorities here to look to solar energy and bio-gas as alternatives. He hopes Singapore will roll out as many as 20 new bio-gas plants in the coming years.

"A lot of European cities are using bio-gas," he explained. "There is no wind in Singapore so you do not have that as an option to create power. Bio-gas is the obvious alternative.

"In Singapore there is a lot of vegetation and this can be used for creating bio-gas. You take tree clippings and create manure which powers turbines for heat and electricity. At the moment there is just one plant here but there should be as many as 20, powering HDB areas all over the island."

This move, he says, should be coupled with the creation of a smart grid system for distributing energy. The smart grid draws power from alternative sources, stores what is not used during the day, then redistributes it after sunset.

He is also all for "green-roof" gardens that the authorities are encouraging to help cool concrete structures in these tropical temperatures, as an alternative to air-conditioning.

Waste management is another area of concern and Prof Lehmann feels recycling has been slow to take off in a country with a consumption appetite bigger than that of Seoul or Tokyo per head of population. Singapore, he says, has a 50-per-cent recycling rate and this needs to grow to 80 per cent if we are to see a difference.

URBAN 'DISNEYLAND' DANGER

Prof Lehmann cut his teeth as a young architect in Berlin after the wall came down in 1989. His competition-winning designs feature prominently in the new Berlin, now one of the world's most modern cities.

So it is interesting when he says that rather than produce a series of spectacular building designs, architects in Singapore need to go in a totally different direction.

He has advised leaders here to focus on "architectural normality". If the city continues to house one spectacular building after another it is in danger of becoming an urban "Disneyland".

"Singapore does not need yet another architectural highlight. It has so many spectacular buildings already," he said. "The next generation of buildings have to be more modest and appropriate. Cities of the future will find the perfect blend of architectural highlights and normality."

In all, he says, if the Republic embraces such changes to "future proof" itself, it could "easily lead the world in terms of being a true modern city".

"Luckily, Singapore has some seriously talented people at the forefront of this process," said an optimistic Prof Lehmann.

The writer is the principal correspondent with Today.