PERFORMANCE OF TWO SELECTED TOWN CENTRES

Abstract

The concept of a Town Centre can be perceived from different viewpoints. It can be as big as a regional town centre whereby it is an equivalent to a city or the capital of a country. This study deals with town centres in public housing estates in Singapore (i.e. Housing & Development Board New Town). Our local town centres can be described as the 'nerve' centres of the new towns. They play important roles in providing social, commercial, recreational and transportational functions. In this paper, a comparative study is carried out to evaluate the performance of two selected town centres, namely Clementi Town Centre and Toa Payoh Town Centre. The comparsion will be done with respect to three aspects of planning requirements: (i) location and accessibility; (ii) degree of compactness; and (iii) the internal layout for pedestrian environment and vehicular movement. In addition, a survey with residents/users is carried out to examine and understand the actual performance of the TCs under study.