The Singapore City Gallery, the only gallery that showcases the story of Singapore’s physical planning efforts, was officially reopened yesterday. Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State for National Development, led the opening event.
Now revamped with richer content and greater interactivity, the gallery features 10 thematic sections and over 50 audiovisual and interactive exhibits spanning three floors and an area of 2,400 sq m.
Among the key highlights of the newly restored gallery are a 270-degree panoramic sights and sounds show in 24-hours Singapore, an interactive design-your-own-memorable-skyline feature and a dynamic eight-player game to plan a city, balancing needs and managing tradeoffs.
Launched in January 1999, the gallery has been attracting nearly 200,000 visitors each year.
It was revamped to offer the public a better understanding and appreciation of the constraints and challenges Singapore faces in land use planning.
“Good physical planning has helped shape our living environment to what it is today and will continue to chart our future. With increasing demands and needs on our limited land, we will need closer collaboration with the community to balance competing needs and manage trade-offs,” said Ng Lang, Chief Executive Officer, URA.
“The gallery can help facilitate greater dialogue and discourse for new ideas and solutions, to help take Singapore into our next phase of development.”
Besides the launch of the gallery, the awards ceremony for the Challenge for the Urban & Built Environment (CUBE) also took place.
Mr. Lee awarded three winning prizes and three merit awards for the best ideas for the city.
Some of the winning concepts include Hwa Chong Institution’s proposal to turn Queen and Waterloo Streets into pedestrian-only areas during after-work hours and on weekends for more artwork activities.
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