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URA opens competition to the public to reimagine future use of Paya Lebar Air Base

By Charlene Chin

/ EdgeProp Singapore |

January 31, 2020 4:09 PM SGT

SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - The Singapore public will be able to present ideas on the future use of Paya Lebar Air Base, which will be relocated from 2030, through a competition organised by the URA, it announced today.

The Paya Lebar Air Base spans 800ha, and there will be potential to redevelop the site and its surrounding industrial estates “into a highly liveable and sustainable new town with amenities for future residents, as well as a major employment node in the area”, states the URA.

Participants can submit proposals for one of three topics in the competition. For the first topic “Concept Master Plan”, participants are to develop overarching ideas on how the air base and its surrounding industrial areas can be redeveloped into a distinctive, highly liveable and sustainable community in the 2030s and beyond.

Under the second topic, “Transforming the Runway”, participants are to redesign the space as a multi-functional community space for people of all walks of age.

The third topic, “Rejuvenating Paya Lebar Airport”, requires participants to design a unique precinct with ideas to repurpose the former airport buildings – including the terminal, control tower and hangers – for new uses and activities.

“The future relocation of the Paya Lebar Air Base presents an exciting canvas of possibilities for us to create an attractive and sustainable township with inclusive public spaces in Singapore,” says Lim Eng Hwee, CEO of URA. “Through the ideas competition, we hope that members of the public can let their imagination take flight and join us in painting a new vision for this future space.”

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong first announced the plan to relocate the Paya Lebar Air Base during his National Day Rally speech in 2013.

In the 1950s, Singapore’s first international airport was built on the site. Operating between 1955 and 1981, the former Paya Lebar Airport bore witness to supersonic Concorde flights that flew between London and Singapore in the late 1970s. Many former airport buildings remain on site today. After the airport moved to Changi, the site was converted to the Paya Lebar Air Base.

The competition to reimagine the redevelopment potential of the air base is organised in collaboration with the Singapore Institute of Architects and the Singapore Institute of Planners.

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