The Duxton Plain Design Competition marks a new milestone in the history and the design of public housing in Singapore. It is the first time Singapore has held an international architectural competition for public housing. We are also introducing the tallest high-rise public housing development in Singapore, right in the heart of the city.

Duxton Plain was chosen for the housing competition not only because of its prime location, but also because of its historical significance.

Tanjong Pagar was developed in the 19th century as a commercial and residential district to support the economic activities in the nearby Keppel Harbour. The Tanjong Pagar area, comprising Chinatown and Duxton Plain, later became a major residential quarter for many people until late 1950s.

Living conditions in the city were harsh in those early days. The city area was crowded with slums. Many people lived in small quarters and cubicles in shophouses and makeshift structures. Hygiene was poor and there was essentially no community facility beyond the basic shelter.

Shortly after independence, the newly-formed Government embarked on a massive public housing programme to address the chronic housing shortage and to provide a better living environment for its people. From the 1960s, families gradually moved out of their cramped living quarters, into high-rise public housing apartment blocks. Living conditions improved tremendously for the people as they moved out of the slums. This was a major milestone in Singapore’s public housing history.

The first public housing blocks built in the Tanjong Pagar area were in Duxton Plain, where the site for the Design Competition is. We have chosen this site again for another important experiment. This time the challenge is to meet our housing needs in the 21^st Century.

In the last 30 years, the planning focus for the city was on building it into a business and financial centre. In the new economy, it is people that drive the economy. The future of our city has to go beyond meeting the functional needs of the business community. We need to build vibrant quality places. Singaporeans today want a more attractive and liveable city, as confirmed from the feedback we received from the Focus Groups, which were set up for Concept Plan 2001.

A bustling city needs a large live-in population base. Today, there are 30,000 households living in the city. We intend to raise this number to 120,000 in the long term. This will help to build up a critical mass to sustain the activities of the city round the clock. We also want to introduce more variety of housing, including public housing, which would be affordable to a large number of Singaporeans.

The Duxton Plain Design Competition was conceived to meet these objectives. With more intensive redevelopment, the new Duxton Plain public housing will enable the injection of more families to rejuvenate this part of the city.

We wanted the new housing development at Duxton to be very special and attractive. Our aim in organising the competition is to find a winning design with fresh and innovative ideas and make high-density and high-rise living in the city an attractive option for Singaporeans.

After eight months of the competition and having looked at over 200 entries from around the world, we have selected the winning design.

The competition brief stated that we were looking to create a housing environment that facilitates the formation and bonding of close-knitted communities. There should be spaces within the development for people to interact and hold social functions, places where a sense of community could be forged.

We also wanted a housing design that is distinctive, liveable and would preserve the tranquillity and identity of Duxton Plain. It also has to be cost-effective and efficient in its design, be easy to build and to maintain.

The winning scheme was submitted by a small local architectural firm. It has these salient elements. It has provided for a variety of interesting communal spaces for interaction, at the communal garden, at mid-level sky parks and rooftop gardens. These skyrise parks would command panoramic views of the city.

The greenery of Duxton Plain would be preserved, and perhaps even enhanced, with these gardens and sky parks. A historical park in the communal garden will retain the structure and footprint of the existing blocks in the form of light tubes. This is certainly a novel and imaginative way to keep the historical memory of the old Duxton Plain alive for future generations.

The design of the blocks’ facades is elegant and simple. It gives a ‘residential character’ by using sun-shading screens and selectively placing balconies and planter boxes. This also provides greater choices to cater to resident’s preferences.

The internal layout of the units takes into consideration the residents’ needs and life style. For example, the units are laid out with the wet areas grouped together. This gives flexibility for the rest of the space to be reconfigured to respond to the changing needs of the occupants.

Overall, the scheme is simple, yet effective, incorporating new design ideas. It achieves an attractive high-rise, high-density environment with high efficiency, buildability and maintainability.

Many other fresh, new and innovative ideas for high-rise, high-density living also emerged from the competition.

There were proposals for communal spaces of different scale and character. Many proposals reinterpreted high-density living, challenging our views that it has to be all high-rise developments, or mega apartment blocks. You can see for yourselves as you tour the exhibition later on.

I am pleased that the competition generated much interest from foreign firms. Just over 50% of the competitors are from overseas. Some local firms also worked in partnership with foreign firms. The Duxton Plain Design Competition is certainly a good example of how Singapore will continue to benefit from friendly competition and by being open to new ideas. It will challenge us to improve and find innovative solutions to traditional issues.

Singapore thrived in the past on the hard work of migrants who came from afar to work in places such as Keppel Harbour. The city in turn, came alive because of these migrants who lived, worked and socialised in areas like Duxton.

Duxton will serve a different crowd in the future – a knowledge-based workforce fuelling Singapore’s economy. The new occupants will comprise existing residents from Duxton Plain and others from different parts of Singapore. It will be a different, rejuvenated Duxton Plain, when some 1,800 households move into this development in 2007.

The Duxton Plain public housing development is a milestone in more ways than one. We will be building homes, forming living communities in the city where people of different cultural backgrounds can live, work and interact within a new high rise and high intensity environment. The city neighbourhood that will be formed in Duxton Plain will flourish with more residents living in the area.

I want to congratulate the winners today for their excellent designs. To all participants of the competition, thank you for your efforts and the many interesting ideas and designs which you have shared with us.

Thank you.

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