23/7/2015 Planners are building a 3d computer model of the whole of Singapore | CityMetric

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A screenshot from Virtual Singapore.

Singapore is often an early adopter of the latest urban technologies: you try accommodating 5m people in acrowded space in humid climate without them.

Now it’s at it again: the city government is teaming up with French software firm Dassault Systèmes, a 3d designspecialist, to come up with some proprietary software that’ll help it plan for its growing population.

Launched in December 2014, “Virtual Singapore” combines visualisation techniques with a huge pile of data.Using Dassault Systèmes’s “3DExperienceCity” software, it’ll produce a dynamic, 3D digital model of the entirecity state, which its planners and other municipal staff can then experiment upon. The whole thing should be upand running by 2018.

Here’s how it works. “Virtual Singapore” begins by collating real time data – demographic, geospatial,topological, and so forth – from a multitude of public agencies into a single model: transport data showing howpeople move about the city; landscape data from the Singapore Land Authority, collected using laser-scanningtechnology from low-flying planes; that sort of thing.

All these stakeholders will then be able to access the resulting 3D computer model, and analyse the city at will:everything from the size of a building to the number of cars a car park can hold.

Once the model is complete, users will be able to try out particular interventions, to see what’s likely to happen.They’ll be able to test what impact a new skyscraper would have on travel patterns or the local microclimate;what redirecting a bus route would do for local traffic; how a property development will change the way peoplemove around the city.

In other words, they’ll be able to test how effective their plans will be, without all the bother of spending millionsof dollars to watch things fail. If it works as well as its creators claim, Virtual Singapore will allow the city to makemore educated decisions with regards to everything from environmental management, to security, toinfrastructure.

Planners are building a 3d computer model of the whole of SingaporeBy Kat Houston

23/7/2015 Planners are building a 3d computer model of the whole of Singapore | CityMetric

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A number of other places are alreadyusing variants of this technology. Oneproject conducted by Matthew Claudel, aresearcher at MIT SENSEable City Lab,was a “trash tag”, in which researcherstagged garbage in one location, thenwatched how it spread around the US.Alarmingly it didn’t stop moving for thenext two months, travelling as far asCalifornia to Chicago and back, or over toFlorida.

Here’s a video of Virtual Singapore inaction:

Kat Houston is web editor at Design Curial.

Related

Tehran's murals tell the story ofIran's political history

23/7/2015 Planners are building a 3d computer model of the whole of Singapore | CityMetric

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"Folded walls", an optical illusion mural by artist Medhi Ghadyanloo. Image: Mehdi Ghadyanloo, used with permission.

Over the past 50 years, Iran has weathered both a revolution and the Iran-Iraq war, one of the longest conflictsof the 20th century. Both, of course, made their imprints on Tehran, the country's capital – but perhaps thesimplest way to track the changing city and its politics is by looking to its walls. 

Murals have long been a part of Tehran's urban framework, but their contents – even their positioning – havechanged dramatically over time. Traditionally, blank walls were a canvas for governments to blazon theirmessages. The government controlled public life, and it followed that it controlled public art, too. 

Making smart cities work for people.No 2. the social network building asharing economy in Singapore

Drought in a megacity: Sao Paulo iswithering after a dry "wet season"

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HORIZONS  TEHRAN  Tehran's murals tell the story of Iran's political historyBy Barbara Speed

1 hour ago

23/7/2015 Planners are building a 3d computer model of the whole of Singapore | CityMetric

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But during the 1979 revolution, things got messy. Both the sitting Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and therevolutionaries attempting to topple him used murals to spread their messages. As Pamela Karimi notes inher paper “Tehran’s Post Iran-Iraq War Murals and their legacy”, these were placed at eye level, as themessages battled for attention. Some activists, she says, would even "write their messages in blood" after facingfire from the Shah's army.

After the revolution, under the direction of the new prime minister, murals migrated upwards to the top ofbuildings again: they went back to being a government mouthpiece, despite the overthrow of the monarchy.During the Iran-Iraq war, new murals depicted heroic battle scenes to justify the war, or traditional Islamicimagery. 

Since 2004, though, the city's walls have taken a new direction. Under the direction of the Bureau ofBeautification, a non-governmental municipal body dedicated to, well, beautifying the city, 800 murals have beencommissioned, over 100 of which were all painted by the same person. 

Medhi Ghadyanloo was not even a mural painter, but nonetheless responded to a call for artists by the bureau.His 100 murals embody the tone of post-2004 art in the city: it’s abstract, and, most importantly, non-political.Ghadyanloo specialises in witty, joyful paintings, many of which contain optical illusions, like this "FoldedBuilding":

Many of the paintings offer a kind of utopic vision of the city, like this vista of flying cars:

23/7/2015 Planners are building a 3d computer model of the whole of Singapore | CityMetric

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Another running theme is the insertion of sky into buildings, so the urban landscape feels airier and more open:

The laws of gravity are often bent, or ignored entirely:

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(Luckily for Londoners, Ghadyanloo has completedseveral projects here, too.)

Commenting on the post-war penchant for wit and optical illusions on murals, Pamela Karimi notes that theseartworks are "new expressions of public taste in an urban environment, a realm previously claimed only by thegovernment”.

Meanwhile, a recent survey showed that only 5 per cent of Tehranians now approve of propaganda in murals.Over half, in fact, felt that their sole purpose is to "beautify the city". 

 All images: Mehdi Ghadyanloo, used with permission. 

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Drought in a megacity: Sao Paulo iswithering after a dry "wet season"

The University of Michigan hascreated this creepy fake city so itcan test out driverless cars

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HORIZONS  TEHRAN  Tehran's murals tell the story of Iran's political historyBy Barbara Speed

2 hours ago

23/7/2015 Planners are building a 3d computer model of the whole of Singapore | CityMetric

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"Folded walls", an optical illusion mural by artist Medhi Ghadyanloo. Image: Mehdi Ghadyanloo, used with permission.

Over the past 50 years, Iran has weathered both a revolution and the Iran-Iraq war, one of the longest conflictsof the 20th century. Both, of course, made their imprints on Tehran, the country's capital – but perhaps thesimplest way to track the changing city and its politics is by looking to its walls. 

Murals have long been a part of Tehran's urban framework, but their contents – even their positioning – havechanged dramatically over time. Traditionally, blank walls were a canvas for governments to blazon theirmessages. The government controlled public life, and it followed that it controlled public art, too. 

But during the 1979 revolution, things got messy. Both the sitting Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and therevolutionaries attempting to topple him used murals to spread their messages. As Pamela Karimi notes inher paper “Tehran’s Post Iran-Iraq War Murals and their legacy”, these were placed at eye level, as themessages battled for attention. Some activists, she says, would even "write their messages in blood" after facingfire from the Shah's army.

After the revolution, under the direction of the new prime minister, murals migrated upwards to the top ofbuildings again: they went back to being a government mouthpiece, despite the overthrow of the monarchy.During the Iran-Iraq war, new murals depicted heroic battle scenes to justify the war, or traditional Islamicimagery. 

Since 2004, though, the city's walls have taken a new direction. Under the direction of the Bureau ofBeautification, a non-governmental municipal body dedicated to, well, beautifying the city, 800 murals have beencommissioned, over 100 of which were all painted by the same person. 

Medhi Ghadyanloo was not even a mural painter, but nonetheless responded to a call for artists by the bureau.His 100 murals embody the tone of post-2004 art in the city: it’s abstract, and, most importantly, non-political.Ghadyanloo specialises in witty, joyful paintings, many of which contain optical illusions, like this "FoldedBuilding":

23/7/2015 Planners are building a 3d computer model of the whole of Singapore | CityMetric

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Many of the paintings offer a kind of utopic vision of the city, like this vista of flying cars:

Another running theme is the insertion of sky into buildings, so the urban landscape feels airier and more open:

23/7/2015 Planners are building a 3d computer model of the whole of Singapore | CityMetric

data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20id%3D%22block-system-main%22%20class%3D%22block%20block-system%22%20style%3D%22box-sizing%3A… 10/12

The laws of gravity are often bent, or ignored entirely:

23/7/2015 Planners are building a 3d computer model of the whole of Singapore | CityMetric

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(Luckily for Londoners, Ghadyanloo has completedseveral projects here, too.)

Commenting on the post-war penchant for wit and optical illusions on murals, Pamela Karimi notes that theseartworks are "new expressions of public taste in an urban environment, a realm previously claimed only by thegovernment”.

Meanwhile, a recent survey showed that only 5 per cent of Tehranians now approve of propaganda in murals.Over half, in fact, felt that their sole purpose is to "beautify the city".