URA -Singapore City Gallery
History of URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority)
URA set up in 1974, is the statutory board under the Ministry of National Development. It is national urban planning authority that is of critical importance in land scarce Singapore, ensuring the most efficient and judicious allocation of land, as well as improving the city's overall quality of living and standards. Restrictions such as water catchment areas which
make up some 40 per cent of Singapore's land area, as well as height restrictions on buildings near areas such as airports make it an interesting challenge for the planners at URA to find solutions that will meet the needs of Singaporeans at the same time.
URA Singapore City Gallery has a large gallery showing their efforts with several 3-D scale models of Singapore that are very impressive. One shows the island as a whole, including major developments and features. The old one shows the city area with buildings accurately represented. A third is just the downtown area at a larger scale with the buildings more accurate as to their architectural appearance.
The first two floors of the URA Building are home to the Singapore City Gallery, a regular and ever updated public urban planning exhibition. Everything you need to know about how Singapore was transformed into a vibrant metropolis for 4.1 million people and yet has space for greenery, built heritage and gracious living is here.
The Singapore City Gallery offers you an amazing bird's eye view of Singapore's central area, and a fascinating 11 by 11 metre architectural model, the only one of its kind in the world, gives you a three-dimensional and multimedia overview of the development of Singapore as a city.
What can you find in the Gallery?
First scene that I saw was the handsome picture of Gurmit Singh, a very prominent comedian and actor in the local scenes, such as Phuah Chu Kang. You may want to test yourself how well you know about Singapore's land use, heritage, nature reserves and other intriguing facts in a fun, interactive quiz show hosted by Gurmit Singh. You can also put on the urban planner's hat and decide how you would solve the dilemmas in balancing the different land use needs. Try your hand at the various planning tools for urban design at the Planners' Table.
So it’s a summary of the entire Singapore and how the Land and Transport Authority handles things and questions to allow us to know Singapore’s minute but important details. On the stand right in front of the screen, there are some stands that have the buttons A, B and C on top of it. During the questionnaires, we would have to press the button that will show our answer that we have chosen.
Next,“The integrated transport system, a well oiled machine"is the entire transport system found in Singapore, including our Mass Rapid Transit, by car or even by escalator.It shows our very efficient transport system in Singapore, fast and up to standards, with the MRT train going so fast that in the blink of an eye, the MRT train in the image was gone. It really emphasizes on how fast the transport system is in Singapore, with different modes of transport all around Singapore. With the pace of living and moving around so fast, it is really hard to imagine what we would be able to do without our well-planned and well-oiled transport system around Singapore.
The Singapore City Gallery also offers you an amazing bird's eye view of Singapore's central area, and a fascinating 11 by 11 metre architectural model, the only one of its kind in the world, gives you a three-dimensional and multimedia overview of the development of Singapore as a city.
We can see that in fact Singapore’s land usage is being maximised by a lot. As compared to the last model of Singapore, it has grown by leaps and bounds. This is where our history come into place, where the explanation of why there is so much sea around us and why we have so much reclaimed land in Singapore. I explained to our Australian guests from Hutchins, “Well, this is because in the past, before World War I happened, Singapore was called Temasek and it was still a fishing village instead of the nice, expensive metropolitan city that it is as of now. Then Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, came to Temasek and developed it into a sea port, where sailors from all around the world would come here to barter trade, and without the payment of taxes. This was how Singapore thrived with a growing economy that allowed it to become what it is today, although with some hardships and difficulties in between, like during the Japanese Occupation.”
Reflection-
After the visit to the Singapore City Gallery at URA, I believed that I had known more about Singapore and I believed that the Hutchins students have also improved in terms of their knowledge of our Singaporean culture and of our history. When we were viewing the miniature version of the map of Singapore, I also knew more about the location of each road is and where can I find bus stops and MRT stations and also a few other prominent buildings that were asked by the exchange students. I have also known more about the history of Singapore by a hands-on experience just below the boards of our history. Our history is also shown to be rich and fulfilling, in which there are much areas to be covered in our textbook. There are much more knowledge at the Gallery than in the textbook. We should also learn about the history of Singapore and the growth of Singapore, rather than stammering and stuttering out your answer when someone asks you a question.
As Singapore,I feel ashamed of ourselves when someone asks us a question,but we are unable to answer.We should know our history of Singapore because without the past and present,there would be no future,life would just go on the way it is.When we know about our history,then we would understand the true meaning of being a Singaporean.
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