Publication, Singapore, 2021
I collaborated with Singapore’s Housing and Development Board and ONG&ONG’s Andrew Lee to create a book on climate adaptive urban design and housing for Singapore: ‘A City in the Water.’
The book features an introduction by HDB’s Group Director Dr Chong Fook Loong, and includes masterplanning work by ONG&ONG’s Andrew Lee.
” In coordination with HDB’s 60th anniversary in 2020, SUTD’s Architecture and Sustainable Design students explored the future of housing on a polder island. Sea-level rise will be a challenge for Singapore in the coming decades. Sea walls and other coastal defenses will limit flooding and will also present the opportunity to create new land including areas of reclaimed sea-bed or ‘polders’. Our students have imagined how a polder island might one day become home to sustainable neighbourhoods.
For our students, the design challenge of the polder neighbourhood was an opportunity to tackle fundamental questions of how densely and how sustainably we can build. Taking inspiration from HDB’s public housing models, our students have pushed the cutting-edge of residential design, exploring new sustainable construction methods, new means of transport like air taxis and drones, and new ways of living like co-working and multi-generational homes.
Author: Peter Ortner
Co-Authors: Andrew Lee, Christine Yogiaman, Jackson Tan, Dr Chong Fook Loong
Layout & Editing: Tan Gee Yang
Illustrations: Caleb See De Kai, Lester Lim Hai Heng, Teo Shao Tian
Photography: Benjamin Chong
Partners at HDB: Dr Chong Fook Loong, Beryl Tare
Partners at ONG&ONG: Andrew Lee & AiR Team
with the wonderful work of the 2020 Core 3 students.
