Growing up as a young boy in Singapore in the 1940s, Mr Liu Thai Ker wondered why British colonial officials lived in such different housing from the locals.
The scenes from his childhood are a far cry from the gleaming Singapore skyline today. The man, known as the architect of modern Singapore, now runs his own firm in the prime Orchard Road area. After obtaining his master's in city planning from Yale University in 1965, and spending some time in renowned institutions, such as with architect I.M. Pei in New York, he returned to Singapore to lead the Housing Board's design and research section.
"If they did not have public housing policies, I could not have built HDB flats. If they did not have the Land Acquisition Act, I could not have got land from the private sector or squatters to build those flats." IMPACT OF COVID-19 The URA has said that with more people working from home due to Covid-19, there will be changes to their commuting, retail consumption and lifestyle patterns.
The URA has said that the Central Business District could have a larger residential population and more mixed uses. The CBD Incentive Scheme announced last year will incentivise the development of older parts of the district into residences, hotels and creative lifestyle areas. During the general election, the Singapore Democratic Party claimed that this figure was taken from a Straits Times report on remarks made by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat at a dialogue last year.
"Let's say next year, we have 5.8 million. The increase since 1960 is 4.2 million. If you add this to 5.8 million, you get 10 million." "Don't we want our children and grandchildren to stay here for the next few hundred, thousand years? So, if anything at all, is not excessive." The Government also made a conscious decision not to allow non-citizens to buy newly built flats, only second-hand ones, he says, adding that this ensures resale flats have market value.PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE The 82-year-old Liu shows no sign of slowing down. Before the pandemic, he was in the office nearly every day. These days, he is more likely to be conducting a Zoom meeting, something that he admits is not his cup of tea.