Punggol: From Farmland to Smart Eco-Town

The global rise of cities has been unprecedented. It is estimated that every week, nearly 1.5 million people become urban dwellers. By 2050, the urban population will account for more than two-thirds of the world’s population. Such growth puts tremendous pressures on cities, and many are unable to keep pace with the accompanying needs and demands. The shortfall and uneven access to infrastructure and, in particular, decent affordable housing have led to rising inequities, especially among the urban poor.

For Singapore, the challenges are even greater, given that we are land and resource constrained. Our city-state strives to not only overcome our limitations but to continuously push towards an improved quality environment and quality of life to meet rising aspirations and expectations. Within the larger context of national development is the remarkable story of the public housing programme by the Housing & Development Board (HDB). Over six decades, the HDB has housed almost an entire nation in affordable public housing. Some 80% of the population now live in 26 towns and estates, with the majority owning their own homes.

This book chronicles the development of Punggol Town—the HDB’s first township that reflects its ambition to build a “sustainable” waterfront town when “sustainability” was still a relatively new concept to Singapore. The development of Punggol over the past two decades holds many lessons for us.

First, it illustrated the need for a visionary plan with a long-term perspective. We must dare to dream, be innovative, and take calculated risks when introducing new ideas. For example, Punggol Waterway was an innovation during its time, marrying functional needs with leisure needs, and it catalysed many new housing typologies that line the waterbody. It became the central iconic image that distinguished Punggol from other HDB towns. The trialling of sustainability initiatives at Treelodge@Punggol as a pilot project enabled the HDB to manage the risks, learn from them, and eventually scale up such initiatives to many other towns. Punggol Northshore as the first smart and sustainable district is yet another experimental urban laboratory in the HDB’s learning journey.

Second, for large townships that span some two to three decades to complete, disruptions are hardly unusual. At the same time, an extended timeframe often provides opportunities to harness new ideas and technologies as they become available. In the late 1990s, Punggol was affected by an economic downturn that caused the overall demand for housing to fall sharply. This slowed down the development of Punggol considerably, impacting the building programme and infrastructure.

Source:

https://www.clc.gov.sg/docs/default-source/urban-systems-studies/uss-punggol.pdf