What if... Singapore has no train networks? The international airport is not located at Changi? And everyone lives only in the north or south?
Behind the defining 1971 Concept Plan that has influenced the way we live, work and play today was the effort of close to 100 experts, professionals and government officers who thoroughly debated and explored a diverse range of ideas and plans between 1967 and 1969, with the help of the United Nations, to draw up the Concept Plan then.
This exercise about 50 years ago reflects the need for long-term planning and the value of partnerships over the years in exploring every possibility and idea in shaping and transforming Singapore’s landscape.
The planning journey is captured in the Singapore City Gallery; the only gallery that features Singapore’s planning efforts. Launched in January 1999, the gallery attracts more than 150,000 visitors in the recent years.
Ideas plans explored “what ifs” in imagining the city prior to finalising the 1971 Concept Plan. (Note: All diagrams are not to scale and are for illustrative purposes only.)
The 1971 Concept Plan is presented in “Mapping Singapore”, a permanent addition to the gallery that traces Singapore’s physical evolution over 100 years through maps, plans and models. As a long-term land-use plan that charts Singapore’s physical development over 40 to 50 years, it is reviewed regularly to keep pace with changing needs.
The 1971 Concept Plan guided the infrastructure that would facilitate economic growth and address the housing and basic social needs of the population. Key infrastructure planned and implemented included developing a new international airport at Changi, building up new towns around the Central Catchment and along the East-West corridor, developing the port, an expressway system and a mass rapid transit system.
The 1971 Concept Plan. From expressways to the location of the airport at Changi, the plan has significantly shaped Singapore’s cityscape today. (Note: All diagrams are not to scale and are for illustrative purposes only.)
On the significance of the plan, E.E. Peacock, the Senior Partner of Crooks, Mitchell, Peacock and Stewart, the United Nations consultant, commented in 1971: “It is human and it will always need careful updating, refining and management in order to keep it alive. But I do believe quite sincerely that it can be, if adopted and nurtured, the equal of any other administrative system of metropolitan planning in the world today.”
Revamped in March 2019, the Singapore City Gallery has 11 thematic areas with 40 dynamic exhibits, featuring interactive and immersive exhibits that help visitors better grasp the nation’s planning challenges and the innovative solutions found to tackle them. It also features the many hands that have helped shaped the city into what it is today.
More details of the Singapore City Gallery here.