reimagining singapore's future: from nation building to national reuse

Two decades ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong painted a vivid architectural picture of Singapore as a nation perpetually under construction (Lee, 2003).

- Erik L'Heureux (PhD) FAIA

This vision of continuous nation-building encapsulated 50 years where the island city-state was synonymous with rapid development and ongoing urban transformation. Today, amidst our climate catastrophe, as Lawrence Wong takes the helm as Singapore’s fourth Prime Minister, we stand on the possibility of a new chapter in Singapore’s transformational history. The transition from the 20th-century ethos of nation-building, as described by Lee, to national reuse represents a necessary and urgent shift in our collective imagination and approach to architecture, sustainability, and climate health in Singapore.

The first fifty years of Singapore’s independence were characterised by a developmentalist fervour that transformed the city into a model of urban modernity. Concrete, steel, glass, and fossil fuels were the engines of this transformation. From the towers of glass and aluminium powered by air conditioning in the CBD, to the massive developments of concrete in HDB flats, and the petrochemical refineries of Jurong Island, all stand as monuments to industrial ambition in an age of industrialisation, manufacturing, and fossil fuels, or as the Founding Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew claimed, “from 3rd world to 1st world in a single generation” (Lee, 1998).