Many Singaporeans were up in arms when their government announced plans to house a population of 6.9 million by 2030.
Architect Tan Cheng Siong was one of them.
But unlike his countrymen, Tan was also frustrated at how city planners were planning to accommodate the population increase – by reclaiming even more land from the sea. In just under five decades, Singapore had expanded by over a fifth from its original 587 square kilometres through land reclamation. It is a tried-and-tested plan that will generate land zoned into plots for singular uses like residential or commerce. However, Tan, who is also trained in urban planning, concludes that “this method of planning is wrong.”
Instead, he has a better solution: Reclaim land from the skies.
