Singapore is building an eco ‘smart’ city with 42,000 homes

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Written by Oscar Holland, CNN

In a country where more than 80% of the inhabitants live in public housing, a commitment by the government to sustainable urban development can have major consequences. And if it’s a tropical country where convenience and air conditioning are a way of life, the impact could be even greater.

The eco-town of Tengah – the Malay word for ‘center’, although located in the western region of the island, promises 42,000 new homes in five residential areas and will be the 24th new settlement to be established by the Singapore government since World War II built. However, it is the first to feature centralized refrigeration, automated waste collection and a car-free city center, which conservationists hope provides a roadmap for reducing CO2 emissions in the Southeast Asian city-state.

The development has been called a “forest town” by officials due to its abundant greenery and public gardens. Once home to brickworks, and later used for military training, the 700-acre site has been reclaimed in recent years by extensive secondary forest. A 100 meter wide ecological “corridor” will be maintained throughout the center, providing safe passage for wildlife and connecting a water catchment area on one side with 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: Thanks to The Housing & Development Board

The project has proven to be a tabula rasa for urban planners advocating green design principles and ‘smart’ technology, said Chong Fook Loong, group director for research and planning at the Housing and Development Board (HDB) in Singapore, the agency that oversees public housing in the country.

“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 go for the ideal concept of separation from traffic, (with) everything underground and then the ground level completely cleared for pedestrians – for people. So it is a very safe environment for everyone.

“We want a city that allows for walking and cycling in a very user-friendly way,” he added, saying that cycling in Singapore has really taken off, especially in the “last three to five years”.

The master plan provides for the installation of charging points for electric vehicles, while also making the streets “future-proof” to accommodate emerging technologies, Chong said.

“When we planned the road network, we envisioned a future where autonomous vehicles and self-driving vehicles would become a reality,” he said.

Cooler by design

Although relatively small, with a population of less than 6 million people, per capita emissions in Singapore are higher than those of the UK, China and neighboring Malaysia, according to the 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 only increase this dependence. The Singapore Meteorological Service (MSS) has forecast that by the end of this century, the average daily temperature in the city-state will be 34.1 degrees Celsius (93.4 degrees Fahrenheit) ‘almost every day’ during the eight hottest 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: Thanks to The Housing & Development Board

Keeping cool is therefore increasingly a necessity for residents. Rather than demonizing air conditioning, Tengah’s planners have tried to reinvent it. Cold water, cooled using solar energy, is run through the district’s homes, meaning residents don’t have to install inefficient AC condensers outside (although they can still control the temperature in their own apartments).

According to the city’s energy provider, SG Group, this will deliver carbon dioxide savings equivalent to taking 4,500 cars off the road annually. The state energy company reports that of the apartments that have already been sold in advance, 9 out of 10 future residents have signed up for centralized cooling.

Planners used computer modeling to simulate wind currents and heat gain through the city, reducing the so-called urban heat island effect (where human activities and structures make urban areas noticeably warmer than the surrounding nature). Elsewhere, “smart” lights turn off when public areas are unoccupied, and waste is centrally stored, with monitors detecting when it needs to be collected.

“Instead of using a truck to pick up waste from each block, we will suck all the waste through the pneumatic system into a room that serves multiple blocks,” Chong said. “Every now and then the (waste) truck just has to come out of the room.”

One of the city's five residential areas, known as the Plantation District, offers community farming.

One of the city’s five residential areas, known as the Plantation District, offers community farming. Credit: Thanks to The Housing & Development Board

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

All residents have access to an app with which they can monitor their energy and water consumption. (“You allow them to decide where to reduce their energy consumption,” Chong said.) Digital displays in each block meanwhile inform residents about their collective impact on the environment, which SG said could even increase competition between residential blocks. encourage. Group.

Regardless of whether the use of smart technology can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions or not, involving residents in their own consumption could cause behavioral change, said Perrine Hamel, an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Asian School of the Environment. This, she added, is a critical part of Singapore’s goal of reaching peak emissions by 2030 and reducing them thereafter.

“Thinking about food consumption and thinking about the way people use air conditioning are all part of (achieving climate goals),” she said. “Behavioral change will become an integral part of it and of course urban design is the first way to influence and change behavior.”

By calling the project a “forest town”, planners try to preserve some of the site’s natural greenery. Credit: Thanks to The Housing & Development Board

Connecting with nature

For Hamel, the integration of nature and residential areas – creating “more opportunities for people to interact with nature” – is where Tengah’s plan excels. In addition to the aforementioned forest corridor, the residents of the city will have access to community farming in the so-called Plantation District.

In addition to promoting and protecting biodiversity, preserving the wildlife on the site could lead to further behavioral change, Hamel said.

“There are many examples from around the world showing that changing our relationship with nature through everyday encounters helps people to take environmental action,” she said. “In that respect, I think the biophilic design and (Tengah’s) master plan is doing a really good job.”

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

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

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

But even Tengah’s critics have generally welcomed the eco-city, with the NSS rounding out its environmental scrutiny by stating that it is still “bolstered by this bold plan”.

What these urban planning initiatives mean for the rest of Singapore remains to be seen. When Tengah was first unveiled in 2016, it was the first new city to be announced by the Singapore government in two decades, meaning every other neighborhood was designed long before the era of autonomous vehicles and internet services. Chong readily admitted that “it’s not that easy” to retrofit underground road networks and pneumatic trash cans in existing cities.

Nevertheless, he stood out positively when asked what Tengah’s model offers future housing projects.

“We try to bring out all the lessons – whenever we can and to the best of our ability,” he said. “You look at Tengah and, in a nutshell, you see the future of what the (government) is trying to build: the future of cities.”

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