Uploaded on 2015-12-14 by aimeewen

Singapore is a well planned city with clarity between each zoning area, between the financial district, industrial park, entertainment district and residential area, for example. This clear division of zoning has its own advantages and disadvantages. I will take the example of Singapore downtown area, the financial district. The dominant land use for this area is offices. It's lacking of residential and entertainment space. It is very crowded during weekdays but went very quite on weekends (Saturday and Sundays) and feels like "dead zone" where you can see almost no people. The idea is to improve the downtown core. Shall we keep it the way it is, crowded on the weekdays only or shall we maximize the land use in this area during weekends too and inviting more people and creating more activities. And how should we do it. - A thorough research from many disciplines from city planning, sociology, economy, political point of view about the existing situations and conditions to provide public with better understandings of the area and the issues within - Creating a platform for public to voice their ideas, thinking, suggestions. By creating focus group, interviews, surveys, online platforms, etc - Ensuring the citizens from all segments and different age group are well represented - Collecting data and analyzing it. A group of experts come out with proposal and concrete ideas - The proposal is presented to public - Public are invited to examine the proposal and give their point of views, ideas, suggestions, rejections, etc - Revision might be needed before implementation, adapting to public needs and wants I believe city planners should take a lead in city design projects. Public participation is mandatory since the end users are the public. However, the public participation will result in more abstracts and fragmented ideas and solutions which needs further refinement and actions. It is a bottom up approach that gives more freedom to public in making significant decisions and influencing the planners about city planning and urban design. [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14501120716776337.jpg