Singapore, Republic of Singapore
Thomas Schroepfer in collaboration with Singapore-ETH Centre Future Cities Laboratory has conducted research and investigation into emerging models of integrated urban development for dense and green cities.
The Dense and Green Cities’ sustainable concept recently won a 2022 Green Good Design Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
For the past six years, the Dense and Green Cities design research project at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), the Singapore University of Technology and Design, and the Singapore-ETH Centre Future Cities Laboratory has explored good urban developments throughout the world that demonstrate possible interactions between “green” buildings and the city as ecological systems and the many designs, environmental, social, and economic benefits the resulting dense and green cities offer.
This research has captured important aspects of the urban planning and design, architectural, social, environmental, economic, and governance systems performance of sustainable integrated districts systematically through work packages led by an interdisciplinary team of architects, engineers, and scientists and close collaboration with competent stakeholders from government agencies and industry.
Contemporary urban planning and design practice is increasingly exploring the development of sustainable integrated districts (SIDs) as a model for high-density high-liveability future cities.
SIDs aims to fully realize the potential of urban innovations and systems solutions by deploying and integrating them at the district scale. Density and sustainability in SIDs are seen as mutually dependent and synergistic.
In addition, SIDs often serve as a test bed for examining a place-based approach to governance arrangements. The place-based approach focuses on strengthening local human capacity—through collaboration and mutual learning—among the diverse stakeholders that are involved in planning and implementing the SIDs.
This research module investigates and evaluates currently ongoing and planned examples of such developments through case studies in Europe and Asia.
These include Altstetten-Albisrieden, Zurich, Switzerland; and one-north, Singapore as main case studies as well as Jurong Lake District and Punggol Town/Digital District, Singapore; Zuidas, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and King’s Cross Central, London, UK as possible additional case studies.
This research captures important aspects of the urban planning and design, architectural, social, environmental, economic, and governance systems performance of the selected cases systematically through work packages led by an interdisciplinary team of architects, engineers, and scientists and close collaboration with competent stakeholders from government agencies and industry.
It will further allow for the evaluation, comparison, and mutual learning regarding how SIDs are planned and realized in different settlement systems (with a focus on Concentrated Settlement Systems) and different climate zones.
The emphasis of the research has been on Zurich and Singapore: two cities that are both ranked highly on liveability indexes and that are both characterized by a world-class vibrant urban research and design culture yet resulting from different governance approaches.
Building on the results of the previous two FCL phases, the research will expand the knowledge on SIDs as an effective model for future urban development and transformation.
In addition to identifying the factors for the successful implementation of SIDs, this module will also examine planning instruments and governance arrangements that enable such developments in different socio-spatial contexts.
Project: Dense and Green Cities
Architects: Singapore-ETH Centre Future Cities Laboratory
Lead Architect: Thomas Schroepfer
Participating Institutions: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), the Singapore University of Technology and Design, and the Singapore-ETH Centre Future Cities Laboratory
