The housing problem in a modern city

Whenever national economy permits, whenever commerce and industry flourish, cities are
nowadays passing through a process of modernization. This is a world wide trend. In the 'older'
countries, this process is steady, almost gradual, except in Europe, where the inhabitants of
ermany, Italy and !rance, and "ritain to some extent, had to ta#e bold and swift measures to
reconstruct vast areas devastated by bombing. In the 'newer' cities, the process has been ever faster,
and of these, $ingapore, which we will examine later, is a typical example. "ut in all cities, the
tendency has been to convert city residential areas to other purposes, and the result has been the
proliferation of problems% housing shortage, and the resettlement of large groups of wor#ers to
suburban areas% the social changes involved in such moves, and so on. enerally, the residential
areas in the centre of cities have become neglected, giving rise to overcrowding and the creation of
slums, while the wealthier professional and managerial classes have steadily moved out to suburban
or country houses. $o, whether the changes have come about through government policy or were
made necessary by war&time destruction, they have been changes for the better.
If a modern city is to play any real part in the modern world, its central areas must exclude dwelling
places, except perhaps those which are preserved for historic and cultural reasons. The needs of
civilized life have to be met, and there simply isn't room unless 's#yscraper' bloc#s of flats are built
& and on the whole, these can be built in suburbs, when there is pressure on space, as in 'ong (ong.
$econdly, land values in the centre of cities are very great, and rents therefore, become uneconomic,
or have to be subsidized by the government. It is not difficult to see why these land values are so
great when the competition to build 'at the centre of things' is so great. The list of the various #inds
of public buildings, all competing for space, is enormous. To )uote but a few, space has to be found
for government buildings and offices, police and fire stations, hospitals, office bloc#s, shops,
sometimes factories, hotels, a wide variety of places of amusement, churches, car par#s and
garages, museums, schools, universities, art galleries, and a hundred others.
The result is that the government, or property speculators, buy land and housing property, demolish
the house, and erect some #ind of public or commercial building in their place. *n acre of land in
central +ondon can, for this reason, be worth more than million pounds sterling.
*t the same time, it is realized that you cannot run a large city, unless the wor#ers are there to run it.
or near enough to commute by bus, train, car or bicycle. $o the suburbs expand & either upwards or
outwards & and the position is reached that the city's ever&widening circumference has become a
mixture of older and larger houses, new industrial developments, and new bloc#s of flats, or re&
housing areas, built by the private speculator, built and subsidized by the government as council
houses. ,nless architecturally planned as 'satellite townships' such areas soon tend to become
depressing warrens of 'living units', utterly featureless and lac#ing even the 'character' of the old&
fashioned slums. "ut this is only of the problems attending on a re&housing area. -ew facilities in
the home mean changed ways of life. The lost 'community spirit' has to be re&created. .lubs,
churches, temples, shops and sporting facilities have to be introduced, if the new area is to have any
individuality, if the older people are to be saved from boredom and the younger people from
delin)uency. Internally, there are 'teething troubles' in the early days. It is not only the housing
shortage in a modern city, which is the problem & it is the featureless house in the featureless area.
The age&long housing problem in populous $ingapore has been solved by the overnment in recent
years. $ince /012 the overnment, through the 'ousing and 3evelopment "oard, has completed
thousands units of flats and shop&houses, for the lower income groups. *s an example of our
previous remar#s, it may also be noted that consultant engineers from the ,.$.*. have been
engaged to advise on transportation by monorail, dual rail or electric train. Traffic congestion has
always been a problem, but $ingapore is on the way to solving this by road&widening and double&
trac#ing pro4ects, and by building multi&storey car par#s.