Ensuring S’pore remains highly liveable in 2030

SINGAPORE — Even if Singapore’s population size does grow to 6.9 million by 2030, the Republic can still be a highly liveable place — provided efforts to explore ways to “take the stress out of the system” are stepped up — according to urban sustainability experts.

The “stress” Professors Ralph Eichler and Gerhard Schmitt refer to include the pollution, heat and noise from the roads and energy wastage caused by poor building designs, among others. Possible improvements include building more mixed-use developments so that commuting is minimised and switching to appropriate materials and designs that, will make buildings become “power plants”, they said.

Dr Eichler is the President of leading European university ETH Zurich, which collaborated with the National Research Foundation to set up the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC), a research institute where Dr Schmitt is the Director, and that studies the challenges of global environmental sustainability.

Housing similar to the Pinnacle@Duxton, for instance, could be considered in new towns such as Punggol and the Jurong Lake District, they said, because the development already resembles a “little village”, where people live, play, enjoy green havens and work nearby.

Said Dr Schmitt: “It takes away the transportation problem because it allows people to live where they work. And every person who doesn’t have to make business travels a day is one problem less.”

Buildings can also generate instead of consume energy by topping off roofs with photovoltaic panels, or choosing building designs that are “optimally-suited for our climate” — such as orientating it to minimise exposure to sunlight, and building forms that capture wind flow.

This allows the buildings to remain cool, reducing the need for air-conditioners.

Referring to the worst-case scenario of a population size of 6.9 million by 2030, mentioned in the Population White Paper, Dr Schmitt said: “It’s actually a chance to do ... innovative things because it’s one of the boldest growth patterns a country of this density has ... so you really have to make some fundamental reconsiderations of transportation and of energy distribution in the city.”

He added: “It could work if, congruent to the population growth, stress is taken out of the system.”