Where Will You Live & Work In The Future

Proposed blueprints for a ‘city of the future’ have just been through a rough and unexpected test. While some will be returning to the drawing board to recalibrate their visions, those who got it right on the first attempt can go ahead with confidence

- Marc Almagro

The COVID-19 pandemic which required extended citywide lockdowns brought to the fore emergent trends within a highly compressed period. I’m paraphrasing what Hsing Yao Cheng sent to me in an email a full month after we sat down for an interview to talk about the upcoming mega-development from GuocoLand Limited. Cheng, the Group Managing Director of GuocoLand Singapore, walked me through the development that everyone is anticipating to transform the Beach Road district — a development comprising the office tower Guoco Midtown, unveiled in 2019 and planned for completion in 2022, and the residential tower Midtown Bay, the offshoot of the acquisition of a prime site on Tan Quee Lan Street, which straddles the Bugis and Beach Road areas. And, of course, the planned public facilities and spaces in between.

While Guoco Midtown will “introduce new concepts that support new work and lifestyle trends” — according to the official communique — the 33-storey, residential tower Midtown Bay, will be “plugged into the vibrancy, convenience, and abundant facilities” of the former.

Yes, it seems no one builds straight-up office towers and residential towers anymore. Instead, there is now a new behemoth, an amalgam of high concepts, projected functions, and adjectives. For all intents and purposes, the Beach Road “transformer” will propose a blueprint for the future, one that will satisfy — nay, anticipate — the needs of residents and users in decades to come. It would be a ‘city of the future’.