Singapore is building an “smart” green city with 42,000 homes

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Written by Oscar Holland, CNN

In a country where more than 80% of residents live in public housing, the government’s commitment to sustainable urban design could have huge implications. And when it’s a tropical country where comfort and air conditioning are a way of life, the impact could be even greater.

Promising 42,000 new homes in five residential neighborhoods, the green city of Tengah – the Malaysian word for “middle”, although located in the western part of the island – will be the 24th new government-built settlement in Singapore. -WWII. It is, however, the first with central cooling, automatic garbage collection and a car-free city center, which the Conservatives hope will provide a roadmap for reducing carbon emissions in the city-state of Southeast Asia.

The development is called “forest city” by officials, due to its abundant greenery and public gardens. Once housed in brick factories and later used for military training, the 700-hectare (2.7-square-mile) site has been reclaimed by an extensive secondary forest in recent years. An ecological “corridor” with a width of 328 meters will be maintained through its center, ensuring a safe passage to wildlife and connecting a water catchment area on one side to a nature reserve on the other.

Planners say the city was designed with pedestrians and cyclists in mind.

Planners say the city was designed with pedestrians and cyclists in mind. Credit: Kindness of the Housing and Development Committee

The project has proven to be a clear slate for urban planners advocating green design principles and “smart” technology, according to Chong Fook Loong, director of the research and planning group at the Singapore and Development Board (HDB), the country’s public housing agency.

“Tengah is a clean slate,” he said in a video interview, explaining that roads, parking lots and utilities are being pushed under the city center. “We are going for the ideal concept of traffic segregation, (with) everything underground and then the level of the ground completely released for pedestrians – for people. So, it is a very safe environment for everyone.

“We want a city that allows walking and cycling in a very easy to use way,” he added, saying that cycling has “taken off” in Singapore in “the last three to five years in particular.”

The master plan will include the installation of charging stations for electric vehicles, while the streets are also “protected for the future” to adapt to emerging technologies, Chong said.

“When we planned the road network, we thought of a future in which autonomous vehicles and motor vehicles will become a reality,” he said.

Cooler by design

Although relatively small, with a population of less than 6 million people, emissions per capita in Singapore are higher than in the United Kingdom, China and neighboring Malaysia, according to the country’s National Climate Change Secretariat.
This is partly due to air conditioning, which accounts for more than a third of typical household energy consumption. Global warming will exacerbate this dependence. The Singapore Meteorological Service (MSS) predicted that by the end of this century, average daily temperatures in the city-state could be at least 34.1 degrees Celsius (93.4 degrees Fahrenheit) “almost every day” during warmer eight months of the year.
An artist's impression of the 2.7-square-mile site.

An artist’s impression of the 2.7-square-mile site. Credit: Kindness of the Housing and Development Committee

As such, keeping cool will increasingly be a necessity for residents. Instead of demonizing the air conditioning, Tengah’s planners tried to reimagine it. Cold water, cooled by solar energy, will be channeled into the houses of the neighborhood, which means that residents do not have to install inefficient outdoor air condensers (although they can control the temperature in their apartments).

According to the city’s energy supplier, SG Group, this will generate carbon dioxide savings equivalent to removing 4,500 cars from the roads each year. The state-owned energy company reports that of the apartments already sold in advance, 9 out of 10 future residents have signed up for central cooling.

Planners used computer modeling to simulate wind flow and heat gain in the city, helping to reduce the so-called urban heat island effect (by which human activities and structures make urban areas especially warmer than the surrounding nature). Elsewhere, “smart” lights will go out when public spaces are unoccupied, and the trash will be stored centrally, with monitors that detect when garbage should be collected.

“Instead of using a truck to collect garbage from each block, we will vacuum all the garbage through the pneumatic system in a room that serves several blocks,” Chong said. “From time to time, the (garbage) truck just has to collect from the room.”

One of the city's five residential neighborhoods, known as the Plantation District, will provide community farming.

One of the city’s five residential neighborhoods, known as the Plantation District, will provide community farming. Credit: Kindness of the Housing and Development Committee

Of the 42,000 homes built in Tengah, more than 70% will be made available through HDB on long-term leasing. Prices for two-bedroom apartments currently start at just $ 108,000 in Singapore ($ 82,000), with the first apartments set to be completed in 2023.

All residents will have access to an application that allows them to monitor their energy and water consumption. (“Empower them to take control of where they can reduce their energy consumption,” Chong said.) Digital displays in each block will meanwhile inform occupants of their collective environmental impact, which could even encourage competition. between residential blocks, according to SG Grup.

Whether the use of smart technology can significantly affect greenhouse gas emissions or not, hiring residents for their own consumption could cause behavioral changes, according to Perrine Hamel, an assistant professor at Nanyang University of Technology’s Asian School of Environment. This, she added, is a crucial part of Singapore’s goal of peaking and reducing emissions by 2030.

“Thinking about food and thinking about how people use air conditioning is part of everything (achieving climate goals),” she said. “Behavior change will be an integral part of it, and of course, urban design is the first way to affect and change behavior.”

Duplication of the project a

Calling the project a “forest city”, the planners aim to preserve some of the natural greenery of the site. Credit: Kindness of the Housing and Development Committee

Connecting with nature

For Hamel, the integration of nature and residential areas – which creates “more opportunities for people to interact with nature” – is where the Tengah plan excels. In addition to the forest corridor mentioned above, the inhabitants of the city will have access to community agriculture in the so-called Plantation district.

Beyond promoting and protecting biodiversity, nature conservation on the site can lead to additional behavioral changes, Hamel said.

“There are a lot of examples around the world that show that changing our relationship with nature through everyday encounters helps people take environmental action,” she said. “In that regard, I think the biophilic design and the general plan (of Tengah) actually do a good job.”

Nature Society Singapore (NSS), however, criticized the plan to conserve too little – less than 10% – of the site’s existing forest. The environmental group has proposed two additional “basic forest areas” at both ends of the green corridor to promote biodiversity and protect migratory species.

Associated video: How to design the perfect city

The government has said it is “refining” its plan based on the NSS report, although the Singapore Land Transport Authority has since revealed that even more of the remaining forest – about 3% of the proposed corridor – will be cut to make way for the viaducts. the city to a nearby highway.

(In an email to CNN, the agency said it would later replant trees in the deforested area and create “appropriate temporary wildlife crossings … to provide a safe passage for animals during construction”).

However, even Tengah’s critics hailed the green city heavily, with the NSS concluding its environmental criticism by saying it was still “encouraged by this bold plan.”

What these urban design initiatives mean for the rest of Singapore remains to be seen. When Tengah was first unveiled in 2016, it was the first city announced by the Singapore government in two decades, meaning that every other neighborhood was designed long before the era of autonomous vehicles and internet facilities. Chong readily acknowledged that it was “not so easy” to modernize the underground road networks and air dumps in existing cities.

However, he took a positive note when asked what model Tengah offers for future residential projects.

“We try to bring all the lessons forward – whenever we can and as much as we can,” he said. “You look at Tengah and, in short, you see the future of what (the government) is trying to build: the future of cities.”

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