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Systems Thinking and Resilience: How Buildings Can Create Self-Sufficient Cities


As a design studio exercise in a postgraduate programme, professors from the School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, collaborated with the principals of WOHA to test ideas on urban resilience21


. The


students—some 60 architects, engineers, landscape designers and planners— examined several systems in Singapore. Half the group redesigned existing buildings to engage these systems. The others did the same for infrastructure networks, such as train lines, roads, parks, etc. These acts of reimagination— bound to their original brief and capacity—altered form, adding new layers, surfaces or technologies. The performance of the city was gauged from the performance of its parts. To estimate this, the performance of each category of building and infrastructure was multiplied by the total number of buildings and size of networks. Explained here are the results for three systems: energy, water and food.


ENERGY


Singapore receives enough energy from the sun to meet its needs some 22.6 times over. Solar technologies in 2018, however, produced only 2 per cent of total demand22 gas and waste23


. The balance was generated mostly by burning imported natural


. The first group of students estimated that if every building in existence today reduced its consumption by 35 per cent and each roof was covered with solar photovoltaics (PV) panels, the demand for fossil fuel-based power would halve to about 23.4 TWh/yr24


. As the building stock is replaced over time—with newer, more energy-efficient buildings, bigger roofs and more 8 Singapore: extent of solar installations, after redesign


PV panels—this could fall to 13 TWh/yr. The infrastructure group, meanwhile, proposed PV canopies over major elements (airport, sea ports, train depots) and transportation lines (69.5 kilometres of elevated train lines and 342.2 kilometres of arterial roads and highways). Adding to this, new floating solar farms off the Singapore coast would, over time, bring the deficit to zero, assuming there are advances in energy storage solutions and improved yields of solar technologies25


.


WATER Presently, Singapore consumes close to 2 million cubic metres a day: homes account for some 45 per cent, the non-domestic sector takes up the rest26


.


Some 40 per cent of the water supplied is recycled black water, while 25 per cent is desalinated sea water27


sourced locally from local water catchments28


. The remainder is imported from Malaysia, or . Interestingly, the quantum of rain


falling on the island is enough to satisfy demand 1.7 times over. The first group found that most buildings could easily meet all of their non-potable demand with on-site recycling of greywater, if this was augmented with rainwater collection. The infrastructure group proposed a network of underground reservoirs to increase storage capacity and reduce evaporative losses. If the open reservoirs were to lessen losses with, say, floating PV panels, Singapore could become self-sufficient. Reducing demand and losses would additionally minimise the need for desalination and recycling plants.


Road network: typology of arterial roads


Road network: extent of expressways


Tuas container terminal; integration of solar canopies


8 38 FUTURARC


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