Proposals for Paya Lebar Air Base area to be unveiled

Connectivity, empathy and building for communities are buzzwords of urban development, and the public will see how such ideas translate into built form when proposals for the Paya Lebar Air Base area are shared next month.

The area, sited between Hougang and Serangoon to its west and Pasir Ris and Tampines to its east, will have 800ha freed up for development when the airbase is relocated in the 2030s.

Two teams from the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) and the Singapore Institute of Planners are currently developing conceptual ideas and proposals for the area in collaboration with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). They are expected to be ready next month.

SIA's newly elected leadership told The Straits Times that because the URA's long-term land use plan review is running alongside the Paya Lebar planning exercise, architects and planners have been able to adapt ideas raised during the review in their plans for the area.

The institute's first vice-president Tiah Nan Chyuan said: "You can always talk about connectivity and empathy, or building for communities in a manner that is meaningful and endearing, but what do these look like?

"Now there is an opportunity to translate some of these words into actual working drawings and diagrams."

SIA president Melvin Tan, 47, said the teams have completed the concept master plan for the area and have moved on to the urban design phase, which is slated for completion next month.

The public sector has been engaging more extensively with the private sector and the public in the long-term plan review, he said.

For its part, the institute organised a workshop on the review for its members, with participants bringing drawings and sketches to illustrate their ideas.

Mr Tiah, 45, said some conversations during this workshop piqued URA's interest and it is set to engage the institute's members further.

These discussions are likely to involve a broad range of stakeholders, he said. "The idea is that policy is no longer a public sector-only domain; the private sector has a role to play."

Besides discussions, Mr Tan said the increasingly consultative approach the Government is taking means that private-sector architects will have more opportunities to help realise some of the targets Singapore has set in the coming decades.

This, to him, is welcome, given architects' role in the built environment, which goes beyond just designing buildings and also involves upstream planning.

Citing Singapore's sustainability goals, such as phasing out internal combustion engines by 2040, Mr Tan said architects are well placed to help realise these goals through their "integrator role".

This involves coordinating the work of various parties such as developers and engineers, as they collectively translate policymakers' goals into infrastructural changes.

While the Government sets policy and land developers have a vision for their projects, said Mr Tan, architects will turn these into tangible outcomes for everyday users, such as by planning for substations for increased power load and vehicle-charging provisions.

With limited new land to build on, Mr Tiah said that building on brownfield sites - those which have been developed previously - will be a big part of Singapore's development in the coming years.

Noting that the adaptive reuse of buildings can be more sustainable as it avoids the carbon footprint of demolition and rebuilding, Mr Tiah said schools are one building type suited for new uses.

"A lot of these structures sit in existing neighbourhoods and communities and when they get torn down, it's actually a big disruption," he said, adding that the Government has already reused some school campuses.

Mr Tan said that besides crea-tively repurposing built infrastructure, there is scope to consider how Singapore's green and blue spaces may change over time, and how these can be factored into the country's plans.

Citing Dover Forest - a former plantation site that has been covered by secondary forests since the plantation was abandoned - Mr Tan said green and blue spaces are not static and planning should account for this.

In the case of Dover Forest, the Housing Board revised its plans for the site last year and announced that development plans for the forest's western half will be put on hold and reviewed in about a decade. Meanwhile, a sizeable nature park will be established in it.

Said Mr Tan: "Green and blue spaces can dynamically evolve with the city and also be integrated into our developments."