Rachel Au-Yong Straits Times 7 Aug 10;
THE entire world population could fit into less than 0.5 per cent of earth's total land area - the size of 1,000 Singapores.
It may sound rather cosy, but the DesignSingapore Council and the Singapore Institute of Architects are keen to show how it would look.
The two bodies have collaborated to present a 35m-long model and pavilion of the country - showcasing the different types of housing and landscapes on the island -at the international architectural exhibition of the Venice Biennale. The idea is to highlight sustainability issues.
Singapore is home to five million residents with a projected population of 6.5 million, spread out over a land mass of 710 sq km.
'The worldwide concern over sustainable development ranks high on the agenda of more and more countries...with many cities adopting compact development policies to find solutions to sustainability issues,' said Mr Ashvinkumar Kantilal, co-commissioner of the Singapore pavilion and the institute's president.
Singapore's projected population of 6.5 million multiplied by 1,000 is 6.5 billion -the world's population. Its land area multiplied by 1,000 is less than 0.5 per cent of the world's land area.
This compactness is demonstrated in the showcase. Built with a 1:1000 scale and painted white, the model of one Singapore suggests that the entire world could work, play and live in a land area equivalent to that of a thousand Singapores.
It is an 'invitation to look at how compact cities can reduce our demand for land', and how humans can 'inhabit the earth with the smallest footprint possible', said Mr Khoo Peng Beng, lead curator of the project and founder of Arc Studio.
The pavilion, made to showcase the two sides of Singapore -'the pragmatic and the sublime' - is also 'about the thousands of lives, faces, ideas and experiences of a high-density city-state', according to Mr Jeffrey Ho, commissioner of the Singapore pavilion and director of the DesignSingapore Council.
The exhibition, titled 1000 Singapores -A Model Of The Compact City, will officially open at the Venice Biennale in Calle della Pieta, Venice, in Italy, on Aug26 and run until Nov 21.
Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew will officiate at the opening ceremony. The exhibition will return to Singapore after the Biennale.
