Singapore Releases Urban Redevelopment Authority Lifestyle Survey
More than 80% found Singapore a great place to live, work and play.
The URA Lifestyle survey shows a positive trend, more than 80% found Singapore a great place to live, work and play in said Minister Mah Bow Tan.
The Government will continue to make Singapore more vibrant and distinctive, through good planning, active programming and harnessing the collective efforts of its people.
Keynote speech by Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development, at the URA Corporate Plan Seminar, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel on 30 April 2010.
“Creating a Liveable City with Soul”
URA Chairman Mr Alan Chan, URA Colleagues, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
Good morning. We meet in better times this year. When we met last year, Singapore was in the midst of an economic crisis, one of the worst ever. But today, our economy has rebounded robustly and the economic outlook ahead is positive.
2010 is a milestone year for Singapore for another reason – it will be the year in which our efforts to remake our city will be substantially completed. The Sentosa Integrated Resort opened early this year. At Marina Bay, the Helix Bridge and the first phase of the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort have also been opened, with Phase 1 of the Marina Bay Financial Centre, and the 3.5 km-long waterfront promenade completing later this year. This year also marks the year of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, where we present our new city skyline to the world. This Corporate Plan Seminar therefore holds special significance to all of us who are involved in shaping Singapore’s physical development, because the plans that we discussed in past corporate plan seminars are becoming reality on the ground.
URA’s Lifestyle survey
How has the implementation of our plans improved the quality of life for our people? Has the remaking of Singapore made it a better home for Singaporeans.
URA recently conducted a Lifestyle Survey to seek answers to these questions, and to better understand the lifestyle needs and aspirations of residents. Some 4,000 respondents were surveyed through face-to-face interviews.
The survey results were encouraging. The level of satisfaction with our living environment has increased since the last survey in 2006. Overall, more than 80% of the respondents agreed that Singapore was a great place to live, work and play in, and some 78% agreed that Singapore was a vibrant and exciting city with her own distinctive character. This is a 10% improvement in satisfaction levels compared to 2006.
Ratings have jumped more than 10 percentage points across all aspects of “live-work-play” in this city. Specifically, over 90% of the respondents said that they were satisfied with the living environment, over 85% of the respondents were satisfied with the working environment and over 80% were satisfied with the leisure offerings in Singapore.
The remaking of Singapore has not gone unnoticed by foreigners. Over 85% felt that Singapore was a great place to live, work and play in, and 81% of them agreed that Singapore was a vibrant and exciting city with her own distinctive character.
A City with Soul
But what I find most heartening is that Singaporeans identify more with Singapore. Close to 90% of the respondents say that Singapore is their home and where they belong. This is a 20 percentage point improvement from the last survey in 2006. More than 70% want to retire in Singapore. Similarly, over 70% of respondents hope that their future generations will be based in Singapore.
I remember five years ago, at this very same platform, the topic of discussion was Singapore’s future, and what were the X-factors that would make us a world-class city. During the discussion, CEO of Far East Organization, Philip Ng, quoted Gilbert Keith Chesterton who said, “Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her”. He said “Love must be encrypted into the DNA of urban planning… and transmitted into the artifices, buildings, road systems and hardware, which then tells the people that this is a city that you can love, and one that loves you back.”
For the past few years, we have been working hard in terms of promoting architectural and urban design excellence and upgrading the hardware in both the city centre and in our heartlands, to make Singapore a more distinctive city. The survey results are showing a positive trend – that Singaporeans love their city more. during the “My Endearing Home” exhibition organised by the URA last year, I saw many Singaporeans penning down their thoughts on the photo wall, such as this one which says: “Singapore will always be my home”. In fact, some of these pictures shown on the screen are also taken by members of the public. There can be no better affirmation for the work that the URA and various agencies have done.
With more Singaporeans travelling round the world and working across borders, Singapore must still mean something special, as home, to our people. A house is not a home. Simply having a good living environment and first world infrastructure will not create an endearing home. The character of a city, what makes it stand out among many new cities, goes beyond new buildings or iconic structures. Take Times Square, New York and West End, London for example. Their claim to fame is not based on the latest or best infrastructure, but they are distinctive in character and have established a personality of their own in peoples’ minds.
Therefore, while we congratulate ourselves for our achievements, we need also to remind ourselves that the work does not stop here. More needs to be done. With our new hardware in place, we need to look beyond the physical, to search for the “soul” of our city, and work towards enhancing it.
Place management
We cannot manufacture the soul of a city. It has to develop over time. But as a start, the Government agencies will put more effort in “making places”, or place management, to activate key areas in our city. We are doing so at Marina Bay and moving forward, we will apply place management to the Singapore River, Orchard Road, Bras Basah.Bugis and historic districts.
What is place management? it is about stakeholders of a district coming together to work on creating economically and socially vibrant districts, through activities to activate, promote and market the district which they have a stake in. To make a place vibrant and distinctive, we need three key ingredients, or the 3 “Ps”. These are: good Planning, active Programming and engaged People. Let me elaborate on each.
The first “P” is Planning. We can shape the character of different social districts in Singapore by being selective and purposeful in guiding the land uses of the place. In particular, we can retain social memories and sharpen the character of the place through selective conservation and adaptive re-use of old buildings. The shop house where your grandparents used to patron, the school which your parents used to attend, military barracks (e.g. Tanglin Village) and even the familiar post office (e.g. Fullerton) – these buildings are physical links to our past, giving us a greater sense of our common history and strengthening our emotional links to Singapore.
Over the past two decades, URA has more than doubled the number of conserved buildings and structures from about 3,000 to some 7,000 buildings across the island today. But conservation is particularly challenging in a land-scarce nation. On the one hand, with limited land, Singapore has to constantly rejuvenate itself and intensify our land use to meet the growing needs of a larger economy and to ensure that our infrastructure is competitive with other cities. On the other hand, rapid change can be de-stabilizing. URA’s survey shows that people are concerned that the physical landscape in Singapore changes too quickly and that we do not keep enough of our familiar buildings and places. For each potential conservation site, there is a tension between the redevelopment and conservation and we have to weigh the trade-offs. There will be cases where conservation will mean excessive costs to society in terms of financial loss to property owners or serious loss of redevelopment potential.
Fortunately, it is not always a zero-sum game and we can have the best of both worlds through creative land use solutions to marry the old and new, and to breathe new life into old buildings. An example of how we have rejuvenated a place to support new commercial activities while sharpening its character is China Square. There, we have conserved shop houses and blended them harmoniously with the new and taller infill office developments that house financial institutions, advertising agencies, and law firms today.
Bras Basah.Bugis is another example of how we have carefully shaped an Arts, Culture, Learning and Entertainment district through land use policies. Before the 1980s, it was an area of low real estate value with deteriorating physical conditions. But we saw enormous development potential and opportunities to capitalise on the rich architectural and cultural heritage in the area. So URA embarked on urban rejuvenation efforts to dramatically transform the area. We brought in key educational institutions and art schools like the Singapore Management University, NAFA, La Salle College for the Arts and School of the Arts, into the area. We also conserved distinctive architecture such as the National Museum, Stamford Art Centre, and Church of St Peter and Paul to retain the sense of history in the area. When schools that were previously located within the district moved to newer facilities outside the city, we adaptively re-used the buildings and integrated them into the new landscape. Walk along Bras Basah.Bugis today and you see the harmonious co-existence of new and old. The former St Joseph’s Institution is now the Singapore Art Museum; the former Tao Nan School is now the Peranakan Museum; and some State-owned properties along Waterloo Street are now arts housing facilities.
But beyond the macro land use vision for an area, place management is also about being creative in the implementation of hardware at the micro level to support life and activity. So these districts will continue to be refined. For instance, in the second half of this year, URA will begin environmental improvement works to improve pedestrian connectivity along Waterloo Street and Queen Street and to provide the space and infrastructure to facilitate the organising of street events and performances.
This brings me to the next “P”, which is Programmes. Concrete, bricks and mortar, however beautifully designed, are “dead”. What breathes life into a place are the programmes that will in turn, bring the people in. We have done well in terms of hardware: building homes, developing new parks and waterways, and developing a transport network. But we need to work on improving the software in our city. In fact, URA’s Lifestyle Survey shows that less than half of the respondents were satisfied with our night time offerings. So while we continue to beef up our infrastructure provisions, we will shift the focus to work on the softer aspects of our quality of life.
At Marina Bay, URA, Esplanade Theatres and various stakeholders have planned and organized activities to activate the new hardware developments that will be operational this year. A series of events called the “Marina Bay Invitations 2010″ has been planned throughout 2010 to attract members of the public to experience the Bay. Singaporeans and visitors can look forward to being entertained by a host of arts performances by the Bay, participate in a walkathon and carnival when the waterfront promenade opens, and of course, welcome 2011 together at the Marina Bay Singapore Countdown. And in the fourth quarter this year, Singaporeans are set for an enchanting time as Marina Bay transforms into a spectacular canvas of light. A first of its kind in Asia, we will play host to the urban light art festival which will feature over 20 low-energy light art installations by international, regional and local designers.
And at the Bras Basah.Bugis precinct, close to 65,000 festival-lovers have enjoyed the annual Bras Basah Night Festival, which is co-organised by the National Museum and other stakeholders in the area, like SMU. The theatre, music, dance and visual arts extravaganza has successfully brought museums to the people by introducing arts and culture at the open spaces in the precinct. The third instalment of the Festival will be held later this year, and will once again feature free performances, public art installations, outdoor film screenings and more. In future, visitors can expect more arts-buzz in the area as URA, MICA, NAC and NHB work closely together to organise art-themed street markets, performances and exhibitions.
At Orchard Road, we can look forward to the Great Singapore Sale and the Christmas Light-up. As Singapore’s most famous shopping street, Orchard Road is currently playing host to Fashion Season @ Orchard 2010, delighting fashionistas with six weeks of fashion-related events, a street exhibition on fashion photography, performances and parties. Indeed, we have much to anticipate this year as the calendar is packed with exciting activities and programmes happening at various districts.
But ultimately, what gives a place its soul is the last “P”, which is People. The government facilitates by making places, putting in the infrastructure and facilities, but places only truly come alive when the community uses the spaces to interact and bond. It is the collective spirit and engagement of stakeholders and residents that makes the X-factor, or the soul, of the place.
Therefore, place management must include efforts to nurture and strengthen the partnerships among stakeholders within each district and harness their collective efforts to shape and sustain the vibrancy of these places. The agencies, URA, STB, NHB will work hand-in-hand with the stakeholders in the area, to create a menu of offerings unique to the area that will help to draw the community to visit and enjoy, and in the case of conservation areas, to also appreciate their rich heritage.
To kick-start place management efforts at the Singapore River precinct, URA will engage the stakeholders to develop a five-year business plan to increase the economic and social vibrancy of the area. These could involve working with stakeholders to improve the infrastructure of the area, how they can host events to attract people to the precinct to develop Singapore River into a vibrant riverfront for all.
Conclusion
Let me come back to Rome. As they say, Rome was not built overnight. I would like to thank the various agencies for their hard work in bringing plans into reality as we enjoy our new cityscape in this significant year of transformation.
By the way, URA has recently launched an application called “Photosynth” in conjunction with the opening of The Helix Bridge. Photosynth “stitches” 2D photographs together to create a 3D, 360 degree image. When members of the public contribute their own photographs, they can “construct” a panoramic view of The Helix, one piece at a time. You can check out the application at the Marina Bay fan page on Facebook. Response to this new initiative has been very encouraging. It was launched just last week, but there are already over a thousand fans and many have shared their favourite shots of The Helix.
Singapore is work in progress. Much more planning and development work lies ahead. What I hope is that with each passing day, our city will become a better home, and our people will love this city more. We are not a big city, we may not be the best city, but it is our city. Together, we can shape Singapore to be a special home that is uniquely ours.
Thank you.
Topics: 2010, Arts, Asia, business, corporate sector, CPF Contribution, Creating a Liveable City with Soul, culture, economic development, economic growth, Economy, entertainment, finance, financial sector, Foreign Assets, Foreign Direct Investment, foreign equity investment, foreign investors, GDP, Governance, government, growth, infrastructure, investors, labor, learning, Lee Hsien Loong, Lifestyle Survey, loans, Mah Bow Tan, manufacturing, market, moniter, monitor, news, Overseas Investment, place management, portfolio investment, recession, Singapore, Singapore River, social cohesion, society, stakeholders, stock, technical, URA, URA Corporate Plan Seminar, urban planning, Urban Redevelopment Authority
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