Shaping future of work should consider all aspects of life

From flexibility to multi-functionality, Dr Harvey Neo, Professorial Research Fellow, Singapore University of Technology and Design, believes shaping the future of working environments needs to go beyond work to cater for all aspects of living the good life.

What is one fundamental shift you have observed in the way we are working?

Harvey: A key shift I observe is about people wanting greater flexibility in where and how they work. While the change may seem quite sudden, our perceptions and notions of work have already been evolving. The Covid-19 pandemic merely accelerated this shift. 

Fundamentally, as humans, we have always desired for greater flexibility in our work. It is not just about being able to work from home, but it is more about how we view work in relation to our entire lifestyle. People increasingly do not see their work as the ultimate end goal. It is now more a means to achieving other goals in life. 

Some of the key ideas shared by over 15,000 Singaporeans in reflecting their aspirations and wishes for the future of workplaces as part of the 2021 Long Term Plan Review engagement exercise.

I am seeing more and more of the younger generation, even in the academic field, negotiating for greater flexibility in working arrangements and not salaries. This is unheard of in the past, but it is becoming more common. 

How is our changing view of work influencing our decentralisation strategy of locating more workplaces closer to homes in regional centres such as the Tampines Regional Centre and Jurong Lake District? What should we pay closer attention to?

Harvey: An immediate benefit of decentralisation and polycentricity is savings in people’s time and cost due to shorter commuting distance. If we want to better plan for and shape the future of our regional centres, we need to delve deeper into understanding people’s behaviours. For something as simple as travelling, there are many insights we can glean which can influence the way we look at our polycentres. For example, what are people’s motivations for travelling? What we found in our research is that people’s willingness to travel is often moderated by comfort as well. 

Established since 1992, the Tampines Regional Centre is the first regional centre developed, providing jobs closer to home. It is anchored by Our Tampines Hub, Singapore’s largest integrated lifestyle and community hub.

Comfort may mean how many changes people have to make in their train journeys. Does it involve a bus trip as well? How frequent are travels going to occur? This idea of frequency will moderate how far you are willing to travel. There are of course exceptions where you may be motivated to travel further and more frequently if it is to see someone or to go to a place you love. 

Because our notion of work is changing to redefine work within our larger lifestyle needs, we should think about our regional centres as more than just workplaces. It is about how we want to live and have a good life. We thus need to pay closer attention to how our polycentres can accommodate all aspects of life in more holistic ways to make it even more convenient for people and to further reduce their commuting time. This also means we need to explore how we can strengthen the identity and offerings within each regional centre.

Over the years, many regional centres and sub-regional hubs have been developed across Singapore to provide jobs closer to homes.

Why is it important to strengthen the identity of our regional centres?

Harvey: Beyond fulfilling our desires and needs for life, it is about how our regional centres and neighbourhoods make us feel. A place with a stronger identity will keep us feeling more engaged and rooted. If you live in Tampines for example, it should give you everything that you need but there are always exceptions like going to a Taylor Swift concert that you will travel further for. 

So, if you enhance the identity of a regional centre, then people begin to identify that is where they are from and will likely be perfectly happy to do whatever they can within that area. 

To support new live-work trends and sustain vibrancy, more housing, workplaces and community facilities will be introduced in the Tampines Regional Centre. Connectivity to adjacent areas will be further enhanced, with more community streets and an additional public space.

Besides our regional centres, planners are also finding new ways to link up business parks, educational and research hubs to encourage a greater exchange of ideas and collaborations. What makes such synergistic ecosystems thrive? 

Harvey: A key aspect is in locating the right mix of companies and institutions in the right location. The planners have done well in this aspect. Our university, the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), is a good example of such an ecosystem. Because of our proximity to Changi General Hospital and the Changi Business Park, we have found it quite natural and easy to explore joint research projects with the hospital and businesses within the park. To site SUTD where the commercial and business activities are located is certainly more preferrable than having it in a largely residential area.  

The Changi Business Park supports the eastern gateway ecosystem. Future plans to rejuvenate it further could complement Changi Airport and encourage continued collaborations between stakeholders in the business park and nearby institutions such as SUTD.

The physical environments and infrastructure to support such ecosystems are also important. These should be well-established and well-functioning for people to feel comfortable and connected within the physical spaces. 

Within the spaces, it then depends on the atmosphere and vibe created that makes people feel inspired. For ecosystems to succeed, it is about bringing together a diverse mix of companies from complementary sectors to build a more resilient ecosystem. We then need to let things evolve gradually over time and be open to make changes to the company mix or adapt physical spaces in response to changing aspirations and needs. 

Even with our changing notions of work and working arrangements, our Central Business District (CBD) remains important as a key business and financial hub. How do you see the role of our CBD evolving and what more would you like to see in our downtown?

Harvey: We are heading in the right direction in moving from single use to more multi-uses for the buildings in the CBD to bring more life into the area. Introducing more housing also helps to enliven the city core. In addition to these efforts, we need to think about what kinds of leisure-related and entertainment uses and attractions we can bring into our downtown. 

The distinctive downtown skyline that has shaped our work and play experiences in the city. 

We need to also think about how else we can make our downtown even more multi-functional. If you look at some of the key cities with global appeal like London and New York City, these are very multi-functional and have a lot to offer around the clock. Some areas of London never sleep because of the many theatre and entertainment options. 

How can we plan for our future workplaces?

Harvey: As we cannot fully anticipate and predict the future, we should ultimately plan for the greatest amount of flexibility as much as possible. Whatever we plan for, we should ensure that our workspaces and environments can be readapted and repurposed, to ensure that we have sufficient liberty and ease to accommodate future changes as much as possible. 

About Dr Harvey Neo
At SUTD’s Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Dr Neo leads the Southeast Asian focused "Cities and Urban Science" programme which looks at how citizen-centric urban science can be practised and sustained in tandem with “big data”. His research focuses on urban futures, citizen urban science and policymaking as well as nature-society interactions. He is the author of the book, “The City Rebooted: Networks, Connectivity and Place Identities in Singapore (2024)”, together with Professor Chan Heng Chee.