All news relative to the upcoming Concept Plan 2011 are welcome here!

At this stage this is still very... well... conceptual :D

Hoe Yeen Nie and Maggie Chong | ChannelNewsAsia (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/447442/1/.html) - 07 August 2009


The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Singapore has begun work on preparing the next Concept Plan. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan announced at his ministry's National Day Observance Ceremony on Friday. Concept Plan 2011 will be a major review of Singapore's long-term land use plans and strategies to cater to the changing needs of a growing economy and population.

Mr Mah said: "This is a very important exercise because from this concept plan we will derive some of the more detailed land use plans. We will determine what are the areas, in which areas will Singapore be concentrating on, how do we work, how do we play, how do we make this an even better Singapore." URA will seek the public's views to ensure that the plans are in sync with the evolving lifestyles and aspirations of Singaporeans.

Mr Mah said a key focus of Concept Plan 2011 is to plan for sustainable growth. The minister explained: "So that even as we grow economically, this has to be done in a way that is sustainable, that will make sure that our resources can be best used, not for just this generation but for the generations to come." He said the Sustainable Singapore blueprint, which was launched in April, provides a good foundation, and the concept plan will build upon that.

Mr Mah added that keeping public housing affordable is also a priority. "There's plenty of housing available. Old ones, resale ones, new ones under the BTO (Build-To-Order). It's like going to a supermarket, (there are) different types of housing available. Each one of them has its price, and you choose the one that you're able to afford," he said.

At the National Day Observance Ceremony, Mr Mah met some new citizens and he spoke of the need for them to make an effort to integrate. Some new citizens said they were drawn to Singapore because of its emphasis on ability. "It's because of the equal opportunities, and the system of meritocracy, and the open arms of the government for foreign talent. So long as you can contribute, I believe the Singapore government will welcome us," said Dr Wong Siew Heng, a new citizen who has lived in Singapore for 20 years.

By Jessica Cheam | Straits Times (http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_413744.html) - 7 Aug 09

SINGAPORE'S transformation over the past 50 years has been remarkable, but it will not stop here, said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan at the ministry's National Day observance ceremony on Friday.

The future of the country's physical landscape will continue to evolve under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's new 2011 Concept Plan and these ' new developments will not only transform our skyline, but will also create new jobs and opportunities for many,' he said. Public consultation on these plans will begin soon, to 'ensure that our plans are in sync with the evolving lifestyles and aspirations of Singaporeans', said Mr Mah. One key focus of the concept plan is to plan for sustainable growth, he added. 'Even as we continue to grow economically, we want to do so in a sustainable manner.'

The current economic downturn has not impeded the country's plans for growth: The new downtown at Marina Bay is taking shape fast, noted Mr Mah. The double helix bridge and the Art Park will be completed by year end, and next year, the new waterfront promenade, the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort, and the first phase of Marina Bay Financial Centre will be open its doors. 'These new developments will not only transform our skyline, but will also create new jobs and opportunities for many,' he said.

As Singapore celebrates its independence this weekend, 'it is important that all of us, all Singaporeans new and old, rally together as one united people', said Mr Mah.

The minister also presented a cheque of $40,000 which the MND organisation had raised for the President's Challenge.

The ministry on Friday set a new Singapore record for the 'largest national map made of wish cards' measuring 2.8m by 6.5m. Over 6,000 penned their well wishes and hopes for Singapore.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) today announced the launch of the Concept Plan 2011 (CP2011) Review Public Consultation exercise. Two focus groups have been formed to seek feedback from the public on how we can continue to provide a good quality of life for all including the elderly, grow in a sustainable way and retain our identity as we plan for the long-term development of Singapore.

Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development inaugurated the two focus groups, each comprising about 35 members, at a launch event this morning held at the URA Centre. Minister Mah also launched an online survey to seek feedback and ideas from the general public on shaping Singapore’s physical landscape.

Concept Plan Public Consultation

The Concept Plan maps out the long term directions for Singapore’s land use and transportation plans over the next 40 to 50 years. The review is carried out once every ten years and the present review is scheduled to be completed in 2011. The CP2011 will chart Singapore’s long term growth to achieve the following key objectives:

- Economic growth opportunities,

- Good quality living environment,

- An inclusive society where the needs of various sectors of the population are taken care of,

- A sustainable Singapore that balances growth with responsible environmental management, and

- An endearing home where people have a strong sense of belonging to Singapore.

To reach out to a wide spectrum of society and engage people from all walks of life in the review of the Concept Plan, the URA is adopting a two-prong strategy in its consultation efforts:

a. Conduct in-depth focus group discussions with representatives from a broad segment of the population including professional bodies, non-governmental organisations, community groups, businesses, academia, youths, etc; and

b. Offer a variety of platforms for the general public to give feedback and ideas, e.g. Lifestyle Survey, online survey, public forums and exhibition.
The public consultation exercise is part of URA’s continuing efforts to actively engage and involve Singaporeans and residents in our plans to shape Singapore into a great city to live, work and play in.

Focus Groups

Two focus groups have been formed to discuss four key issues identified for the current review of the Concept Plan. These are the issues that will shape our live, work and play environment in the coming years. The four issues are:

a. Quality of Life;
b. Ageing issues;
c. Sustainability; and
d. Identity.
Please see Annex 1 (http://www.ura.gov.sg/pr/graphics/2010/pr10-04a.pdf) for details of the four topics.

Mr Edmund Cheng, Chairman, National Arts Council and Prof Tan Chorh Chuan, President, National University of Singapore will co-chair a focus group which will look into Quality of Life and Ageing issues. The second group, co-chaired by Mr Lee Tzu Yang, Chairman, Shell Companies in Singapore and Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, Director, Institute of Policy Studies, will discuss issues on Sustainability and Identity.

The two focus groups collectively comprise a good balance of members, from professional organisations, NGOs, academics, community leaders, youths etc to represent a broad spectrum of our population. Please see Annex 2 (http://www.ura.gov.sg/pr/graphics/2010/pr10-04b.pdf) for the list of focus group members.

The focus group discussions will take place over about four months, scheduled to end in April. The two focus groups will then present their preliminary findings at two public forums in May to seek further feedback from the public. More details on the public forums will be announced later this year.

Online survey

The URA would also like to invite members of the public to give their feedback and ideas in shaping the future physical development of Singapore. The details of the four topics can be found on URA’s website at http://www.ura.gov.sg/conceptplan2011/ (http://www.ura.gov.sg/conceptplan2011). The public can also give their views via an online survey on the same website from 23 January to 21 February 2010. Findings from the online survey will be given to the two focus groups to facilitate their deliberations.

SPEECH BY MINISTER FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT MR MAH BOW TAN LAUNCH OF THE CONCEPT PLAN 2011 PUBLIC CONSULTATION URA CENTRE, 5th FLOOR, FUNCTION HALL 23 JANUARY 2010, 9.35AM

Concept Plan 2011 focus group reveals draft suggestions
By Mustafa Shafawi/Satish Cheney | Posted: 06 May 2010 2132 hrs

Concept Plan 2011 focus group reveals draft suggestions

SINGAPORE: Public transport, walking or cycling should be the default means to get around in Singapore.

The recommendation was part of a two-pronged strategy proposed by a focus group on the Concept Plan 2011 to make Singapore an endearing and green home for all.

To discourage private transport, it said carpark lots should be reduced and higher parking fees be levied in the city.

"The important thing about car parking is that it is a possible way of regulating the use of private cars, because if you have difficulty in parking a car in a certain part of the city, and there's a very good public transport system, you may just consider using public transport," said Ong Keng Yong, co-chairman of the focus group on "Sustainability and Identity" and director of the Institute of Policy Studies.

The focus group said the government should include sustainability building considerations as a criterion for the award of land tenders.

Programmes to promote a green mindset and raise public awareness about recycling and reducing wastes should be strengthened.

In making Singapore an endearing home, the focus group felt that a Heritage Charter be introduced.

"It's basically to try and build a consensus among all the stakeholders in a particular district as to how to cherish, safeguard the things we love in that district," said Lee Tzu Yang, co-chairman of focus group on "Sustainability and Identity" and chairman of Shell Singapore.

The charter should be jointly formulated by the public, private and people sectors.

To enrich the experience of Singapore's built and natural heritage, it recommends that more people have homes in the heritage districts.

The focus group also said there must be greater community involvement in shaping an endearing Singapore.

With this in mind, schools and non-government organisations need to work with local communities to strengthen the local identity.

The focus group is one of two groups appointed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

The recommendations are being put up for public comment, after which the focus group will fine-tune its recommendations before making its submission to the URA.

The submission will be taken into account in drawing up the Concept Plan 2011, which maps out the long term directions for Singapore's land use and transportation plans over the next 40 to 50 years.

Preliminary recommendations were presented to 200 people yesterday at a public feedback forum by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on its Concept Plan 2011, which sets out directions for land use and transport for the next 40 to 50 years.

http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu22/don_diego_2000/110510My_Singapore.png

LOL at cartoon in number 3 "In this neighbourhood, you will find Malay, Indian, Chinese and PR"

Any idea when Concept Plan 2011 will be released?

Not exactly the concept plan but somewhat related. It is regarding underground development.


MND to release details on underground space masterplan
By Hoe Yeen Nie | Posted: 01 January 2012 1919 hrs

SINGAPORE: In land-strapped Singapore, underground space has been named a strategic resource by the high-level Economic Strategies Committee.

A masterplan is in the works to map out possible uses and the Ministry of National Development said details will be released this year.

Underneath the bustling Chinatown lies a vast labyrinth of interconnected tunnels snaking across Singapore.

The Downtown railway line, which is being built entirely underground, is part of a decades-long push to go down under in search of space.

The result is a subterranean world teeming with activity.

At the basement level, there's a complex network of utility pipes, electrical grids and pedestrian linkways.

The Common Services Tunnel, which is located five to 10 metres deep, is a system of tunnels designed to house utility services in the Marina Bay area. Built in 2006, the facility allows for the maintenance and repair of utility, sewage and electrical pipes through specially-constructed access points, without having to disrupt traffic above ground.

And 15 to 20 metres deep are the MRT lines and the Marina Coastal Expressway.

Just below that, at the 20 metres to 60 metres level, the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System delivers waste water to an underground treatment plant in Changi.

Across at Jurong Island, the Jurong Rock Cavern is being built at about 150 metres below the island.

And somewhere in the deeper, darker depths, is the Ministry of Defence's ammunition facility located under Mandai quarry.

But not all of Singapore has rock that is solid enough for cavern developments.

Most of it is in the west and central parts of the island lying about 100 metres deep.

In the west, there is sedimentary rock while hard granite is found in the central Bukit Timah region.

Thus, the first step is to create a geology office to know where the good rock is located in Singapore.

The Singapore Geology Office, which is located within the Building and Construction Authority, was set up in April 2010. Its aim is to create a database of information on Singapore's geology, to facilitate future underground developments.

Most information on Singapore's geology derives from a national survey done in 1976 although the information was updated in 2009. Government agencies and developers looking to build underground either referred to these sources, or commissioned their own studies.

Building and Construction Authority's Geological Office assistant director, Kiefer Chiam, said: "The existing information is quite shallow because it's mainly targeted at infrastructure works like MRT, services or building basements. There isn't much information at deeper levels like 100 metres or more.

"In order to support the underground masterplan, we need to know where the good rocks are."

In the immediate term, the focus is on adding more basement-level services like shopping malls and linkways.

But as underground construction incurs huge costs, a masterplan is needed to coordinate future uses and integrate them with structures above ground.

Adele Tan, Deputy Director of Planning Policies at Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), said: "Those are things we have to sort out amongst the agencies. We work closely with each other on it. And where there are conflicts, we have to talk it through and see what are the most optimal alignment and the most cost-effective alignment.

"As we build more things underground, there will be more competing uses and more conflicts of space. Some of these uses that come later may find that they have to go even deeper to avoid some of the uses that are already there in the shallower surfaces."

The challenge of building undergound is not just a technical one. There is also the issue of land rights to consider. In cities like Helsinki for example, private ownership of subterranean land is limited to a certain depth. But in Singapore, the law gives private owners rights to the land stretching all the way down.

It is not a problem currently because the Rapid Transit Systems Act gives rail authorities the right to go through private land. But this may have to be reassessed along with other regulations such as safety codes and utility plans.
Ms Tan said URA is studying other cities for models it can adapt.

URA is also studying how other cities pay for underground developments. In Japan for instance, the government shares the cost with private developers. Unlike places like Hong Kong, Norway and Japan, Singapore's good rock is buried deep underground, and are much more expensive to access.

Ms Tan said: "As we have a better understanding of our space underground, we can then develop this underground space plan progressively. We can identify suitable uses to put underground and put them in the right places as well, so that we can save land."

Singapore's subterranean expansion is still in its early stages.

Urban planners are laying the ground for future development, a process that will take years.

And if they succeed, it will open up many more possibilities on how Singaporeans use the space above to live, work and play.

- CNA/fa


source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1174308/1/.html

I guess it's going to be Concept Plan 2012 now?

More updates on the underground city concept from CNA.


Govt studies possibility of underground science city
By Hoe Yeen Nie | Posted: 02 January 2012 1719 hrs

SINGAPORE: A study of an unprecedented scale is taking place beneath the Singapore Science Park, in the western part of the country. It is for a science complex, about 30 storeys below the surface at the 80 to 100 metre layer, to house research labs, offices and a data centre.

The area being studied lies between Science Parks 1 and 2, and the objective is to link the underground science city to facilities above. The feasibility study is expected to be completed by April 2012.

Developer JTC Corporation describes the project as an expensive experiment, but one that is perhaps inevitable, as land here becomes increasingly scarce.

David Tan, Assistant CEO of JTC Corporation, said: "By putting an underground science city between Science Parks 1 and 2, we could actually have two plots of land for development - one at the bottom, underground; the other one on top. The key is really to see how we can use a piece of land twice."

There are benefits to building underground. For instance, the stable climate allows for greater efficiency of facilities such as data centres. The enclosed environment also ensures a higher degree of safety for storing risky chemicals.

But such advantages come with a price. Mr Tan estimates that building underground will cost 50 per cent more than a similar facility above ground.

Lessons can be learnt from JTC Corporation's Jurong Rock Cavern, which is an underground oil bunker at Jurong Island. For instance, evacuation plans and ventilation points need to be mapped out in detail, as there are limited access points at such depths. There is also a smaller margin for error as space is constrained by the availability of solid rock.

Construction challenges are also more complex. When building underground, the size and the shape of the cavern are dependent on site conditions and the quality of rock, which may cause some inflexibility in the size of the facilities created within the space. For the Jurong Rock Caverns, each cavern is about 20 metres wide and 25 metres high.

In addition, engineers have to work around the problem of fault lines, and water seeping into the caverns.

Associate Professor (adjunct) Zhou Yingxin, from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, is a mining engineer who has worked on the Jurong Rock Cavern as well as the Defence Ministry's ammunition bunker.

He said: "The risks associated with underground construction is not so much that we don't know what to do with the problem, it's that very often we don't know what to expect."

"You have to build with the ground that's there, whether it's good rock or bad rock. Of course you can try to choose a good site. But even a good site, you wouldn't know the rock until you see it.

"So you must have a plan to deal with such uncertainties... That's why you must have very experienced people on site. When they see it, they know what's going to happen, and they know what to do."

While most people are used to going underground to get to carparks and shopping malls, there are various issues that architects and engineers have to consider to make underground developments truly liveable. For example, the kind of anxieties people might have with spending so many hours deep underground.

Natural light, greenery and fresh air are some of the things that make cities liveable, and will be as important in an underground space.

Andres Sevtsuki, Associate Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, said: "We're biological creatures. We like sunlight, we like environments, we like trees and nature, and we like seeing other people.

"When we build cities, when we build urban environments, I think we usually think beyond necessity, we think of ideal environments, because this is where we spend our lives."

Creating underground cities is still, in many ways, a theoretical fancy. But over the years, authorities have built increasingly taller buildings and added over a fifth of the country's land mass through reclamation alone. Going underground is simply the next frontier, in Singapore's never-ending search for space.

-CNA/ac


source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1174400/1/.html

Either the reporter is not asking the right question, or this prof is not answering it correctly. The issue is making use of underground space, not living/working/dwelling in an underground space. The idea of using large underground space for certain functions like Data Centre is valid, given that they house equipment, not people. And this is coupled with the fact that Singapore is increasingly becoming a Data Hub. Likewise, telecommunication exchanges, server rooms, and certain highly automated industries can make full use of the stable temperature and large spaces. In fact if you look at an business use (industrial, warehouse, IT and R&D), up to 80% of the functions within the buildings are not even suitable to have any openings to the exterior.

In Singapore where the land costs can be as much as 4x that of the construction costs in a business park, building underground is definitely the way to go. Building underground is "green" too, less energy is required for temperature control, and building more floor area in one place will mean more land freed up in another, which also includes less reliance on reclamation, which is devastating in marine life. The main drawback is that not all parts Singapore is suitable for underground construction due to high water table.

After the elections, all plans to be reviewed again

At this rate, the concept plan 2011 will probably come out together with the masterplan 2013.

Concept plan 2011 - neck long long long leh...