Southeast Asia Building – May-June 2018

Interview with Dr Liu Thai Ker ARCHITECT’S CORNER

MAY-JUNE 2018 SEAB 105

Q

Your body of work in urban planning
is unique in the world. Is this
applicable to other parts of the world?
A: You may say that by working in
Singapore government for 24 years, I
have been given a precious opportunity
to develop a body of planning theory
and skills which seem to have served
Singapore well. Since leaving the
Singapore government, for the past 25
years, I have done about 50 cities outside
Singapore. Can the Singapore experience
be applicable to other cities anywhere
in the World? My answer is Yes. To help
you understand this, a set of sound urban
planning principles is like the grammar
of a language. Regardless of what stories
you are telling, and where in the world you
are telling, if you use the correct grammar,
people understand your stories. Urban
planning is the same. If you have the right
set of planning principles, it can be used
anywhere for any city of any size. It is like
the knowledge on human anatomy. It is

universal. Looking at the symptoms of

a sick city is like examining the body of a

patient. In both cases, you have to diagnose

its problems, and then prescribe the well-

established cures to them.

Of course, an urban planner would

have to consider the context of local

climate, custom, cultural value, etc. in

much the same way I imagine a doctor

would have to take into account of the

particulars of the patients’ age, gender

and temperament, etc.

Q

A few years ago, you said that urban

planners in Singapore should plan

for a population of 10 million. How did

you come to this 10 million figure and in

your opinion, How can this be achieved

given the tight land constraint?

A: When I was doing the 1991 concept plan,

Singapore had a population of 3.2 million.

One of the characteristics of being a good

Singaporean is being kiasu, afraid of losing.

I am kiasu also. So, I felt that I had to plan for

100 years to make sure that we didn’t make

any serious mistake of miscalculating the

population size and ended up running out

of land for development. Because I realised

that if we ran out of land, there would not

be anywhere else to go.

So, that was why I planned for 100 years

from 1991 to 2091 for 5.5 million people.

Fortunately for Singapore, its economy has

been doing so well that this 5.5 million for

2091 was reached in 2016, only about 75

years early. What is the lesson? The lesson

is that when you plan a city, first you must

plan long term. Second, it is better for you

to over-project than under-project the

population size. For if you under-project

the population size, then every time it is

exceeded, you have to revise the plan and

all your infrastructure have to be enlarged.

For example, in many cities, you find their

airports in the middle of the cities because

they planned for a smaller population over a

smaller land area. Fortunately, in Singapore,

our political leaders had the foresight to

NAFA Campus 1 Extension

GFA: 7,500 square metres

Completion: 2017