Urban planning in Singapore has its beginnings in the 1820s, when Sir Stamford Raffles implemented a land-use plan later known as the Raffles Town Plan. However, for most of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Singapore's physical growth was haphazard and largely unregulated. It was only in the mid-1950s that Singapore truly began its journey towards the planned city-state that the world sees today. Urban planning is currently undertaken within a comprehensive framework comprising two key plans: the concept plan, which is the macro-level blueprint, and the statutory master plan, which translates the vision of the concept plan into detailed guidelines.
Under British Rule
In 1822, Raffles initiated a comprehensive town plan to guide the allocation of land in the principal town to ensure that its physical growth followed an orderly pattern. This became known as the Raffles Town Plan. Among its key features were a grid layout for the road network and a clear segregation of residential communities by ethnic group (European, Chinese, Indian, Malay and Arab). A separate area called Commercial Square was designated for commercial activities and another area was zoned for government functions. Raffles Place, which was formerly Commercial Square, and the street pattern of the city centre today are evidence of this colonial legacy.
However, the Raffles Town Plan guided the city's growth for less than a decade. By the early 1900s, the city area had become severely overcrowded. In the absence of an updated town plan and with the lack of control by the British government, slums had sprung up in the older sectors of the city and in the outlying areas. The roads had also become congested, unable to cope with the growth of motor transport. To alleviate these problems, the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) was set up in 1920 and constituted as a legal entity in 1927 with the enactment of the Singapore Improvement Ordinance. But by the time it was dissolved in 1959, SIT had achieved very little. It had built only 23,000 housing units, far from adequate to meet the needs of the burgeoning population, and it had carried out only limited improvement works such as widening of roads. It had neither the power to undertake overall physical planning nor the power to control development, until 1951.
In 1951, following an amendment to the Singapore Improvement Ordinance, the SIT was tasked with conducting an islandwide diagnostic survey of Singapore and subsequently preparing a master plan to guide its physical growth. The statutory master plan was completed in 1955 and approved in 1958. A predecessor of the current master plan, it regulated the type and intensity of development by specifying the land-use zoning and the maximum density or plot ratio for each site. It also reserved land for infrastructural uses, community facilities and open spaces.
After Self-Government (First Concept Plan)
In 1959, the British government enacted the Planning Ordinance to replace the Singapore Improvement Ordinance. The new law took effect in February 1960, simultaneously dissolving the SIT and creating the Planning Department within the Prime Minister's Office to take on the role of central planning authority. By then, Singapore was a self-governing state. The Planning Department was given the power to control the development of land throughout Singapore for the purpose of implementing the 1958 master plan. It also had the power to review and amend the master plan once every five years.
However, the government soon realised that the planning strategies embodied in the master plan would be inadequate to cope with the rapid social and economic changes taking place in Singapore. It therefore sought the help of the United Nations (UN) to formulate a long-term framework for urban development in Singapore. UN representatives visited Singapore in 1962 and 1963 and their recommendations eventually led to the launch of the State and City Planning Project (SCP) in 1967. For the government, land-use planning then had to address the two priorities of a newly independent Singapore: the provision of adequate housing and the generation of employment opportunities for the people.
Assisted by the UN, the government completed the SCP in 1971 and the result was Singapore's first concept plan, a long-range plan to guide the country's physical development for the next 20 years. Unlike the master plan, which provided detailed zoning and density parameters, the concept plan showed only the broad direction of the government's land allocation and transportation policy. Another key difference was that the concept plan was not a statutory document, though most of its proposals were implemented.
The concept plan envisaged the development of high- and low-density residential estates, industrial areas and commercial centres in a ring formation around the central water catchment area, as well as a network of expressways and a mass rapid transit (MRT) system to provide islandwide interconnectivity. Safeguarding land for the expressway and MRT networks early on meant fewer planning problems and less disruption to the public when construction actually began. Similarly, the concept plan set aside land for the Changi Airport. The first expressway, Pan Island Expressway, and the Changi Airport Terminal 1 were completed in 1981 and the MRT network was opened in 1987.
Revisions of Concept Plan and Master Plan
The 1971 concept plan was subsequently reviewed to take into account the country's changing needs. This task was undertaken by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which had been designated as the national planning and conservation authority since 1989. The revised concept plan was finalised in 1991. With the economy growing well and the majority of Singaporeans already properly housed, the focus was shifted to transforming Singapore into a "tropical city of excellence". With an emphasis on improving the quality of life, the revised plan proposed a wider variety of housing, more leisure facilities and more greenery. The most notable difference was that, instead of the ring layout adopted in the 1971 plan, the updated plan divided Singapore into five regions (central, north, northeast, east and west) and proposed the development of four regional centres outside the central region to reduce congestion in the city centre. This led to the development of the Woodlands, Tampines and Jurong East regional centres; the fourth was to be at Seletar but it was not developed. The new downtown that is now taking shape in Marina South is also a product of the 1991 concept plan.
Between 1971 and 1991, the master plan was revised five times - in 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980 and 1985. After the 1991 concept plan was completed, the government embarked on a major review of the 1985 master plan. This involved a more forward-looking approach compared to the previous reviews, which were mainly updating exercises. In the process, 55 development guide plans were drawn up between 1993 and 1998, and these formed the final 1998 master plan.
Another review of the concept plan was completed in 2001 and its broad strategies were translated into the 2003 master plan. Building on the preceding plan, the 2001 concept plan aims to make Singapore a "thriving world-class city". Although the plan was originally scheduled to be reviewed after ten years, a mid-term review was conducted in 2006 and the resulting proposals were incorporated into the latest master plan released in 2008. The government began work on the next concept plan in 2009 and the revised blueprint will be completed by 2011.
Author
Valerie Chew
References
[Announcement]. (1920, May 22). The Straits Times, p.8. Retrieved August 5, 2010, from NewspaperSG database.
Chin, H. C. (1998). Urban transport planning in Singapore. In B. Yuen (Ed.), Planning Singapore: From plan to implementation (pp.81-132). Singapore: Singapore Institute of Planners.
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Dale, O. J. (1999). Urban planning in Singapore: The transformation of a city. Shah Alam, Malaysia: Oxford University Press.
(Call no.: RSING 307.1216 DAL)
Khublall, N., & Yuen, B. (1991). Development control and planning law in Singapore. Singapore: Longman Singapore.
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Lim, W. S. W. (c1990). Cities for people: Reflections of a Southeast Asian architect. Singapore: Select Books.
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Living the next lap: Towards a tropical city of excellence. (c1991). Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority.
(Call no.: RSING 307.36095957 LIV)
Ooi, G. L. (2004). Future of space: Planning, space and the city. Singapore: Eastern University Press.
(Call no.: RSING 307.1216095957 OOI)
Tan, S. (c1999). Home, work, play. Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority.
(Call no.: RSING 307.1216095957 TAN)
Urban Redevelopment Authority. (2001, July 20). URA releases concept plan 2001 after extensive consultation [Press release]. Retrieved August 28, 2009, from http://www.ura.gov.sg/pr/text/pr01-34.html
Work begins on URA concept plan 2011. (2009, August 7). Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved August 28, 2009, from Factiva database.
Further Readings
Urban Redevelopment Authority. (n.d.). Concept plan 2001. Retrieved August 28, 2009, from http://www.ura.gov.sg/conceptplan2001/index.html
Urban Redevelopment Authority. (n.d.). Master plan 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2009, from http://www.ura.gov.sg/MP2008/
The information in this article is valid as at 2010 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.
