SEMINAR: Asian Studies Seminar

This paper examines the origins of urban renewal in Singapore through a transnational history lens. It focuses on the role in particular of two United Nations led teams of experts one headed by Erik Lorange and the other by Charles Abrams in the early 1960s and the impact these had on how urban renewal proceeded in Singapore’s central city area. This approach broadens the focus to encompass more than just the role played by Singapore’s Housing and Development Board and Urban Renewal Authority which dominates much of the existing scholarship. In doing so it finds that there was much more agreement between these international experts and their visions of a modern city and that of the Singaporean agencies and individuals tasked with implementing renewal. The paper finds that both the foreign experts and local authorities perceived urban renewal of Singapore’s central area (and more broadly) as a key stone in the state’s plans for national development.