Forum: Replicate innovative use of Marine Parade MRT corridor space elsewhere
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In land-scarce Singapore, infill sites – vacant or underutilised areas that have useful development potential without the need to clear forests or reclaim land – can serve an important purpose.
Looking closely and creatively at the gaps and possibilities in our urban fabric provides interesting opportunities. I want to highlight a new and particularly relevant development in my own neighbourhood of Marine Parade.
Branded as The Anchor@Marine Parade, it repurposes what would have been an empty underground MRT access corridor, like many others in Singapore, into a highly functional and useful community space. It features several amenities for the elderly, youth, children, people with disabilities and even often-overlooked groups like caregivers.
Many of these activities are innovative, designed to support an active lifestyle and provide safe and supportive spaces for the community, especially its more vulnerable members. I suspect they will also serve as labs and sandboxes to test new concepts for the community.
The Anchor@Marine Parade hub has a good mix of commercial uses to support the upkeep and viability of the development, as well as subsidised and community-friendly spaces.
During days of haze and poor air quality, it is also a welcome sanctuary of clean, air-conditioned air.
I am sure that when the new Marine Parade community club and library open, this will be a natural and important extension of its activities. The hub initiative deserves replication in other estates, especially ones with ageing populations.
I look forward to more such interesting and innovative uses of overlooked spaces to enhance the quality of life we enjoy in our city.
K.T. Sandip