Chinese New Year (CNY) is now only two weeks away. CNY decorations are all up by now everywhere across streets and in malls. The most famous of all in Singapore would be the huge dragon display (in conjunction with the upcoming Year of the Dragon) at Chinatown which many had previously shared and mocked on social medias for very much resembling the guy from the 2016 viral hits ‘Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen’.
I saw this famous display finally when I was in Chinatown just now. It actually looks good though and way better in the evening when it is beautifully illuminated. By the way, the whole Chinatown area is so crowded especially along the main pedestrian streets where the market stalls are. Besides than the usual souvenir stalls, there are way more stalls set up now that sell CNY goodies, biscuits, decorations, etc. I joined the crowd just to feel the very happening CNY atmosphere at the scene.
Before going to Chinatown, I actually went to the nearby URA Centre to visit the Singapore City Gallery earlier today. It is an urban planning museum of 3-storeys that charts Singapore’s urban transformation and future plans. There are various exhibits of design sketches, physical models, technical drawings and interactive displays in there, perfect for architecture enthusiasts like me.
It demonstrates how far Singapore has come to in terms of its development in master-planning, architecture and built environment and further shows its strategic plans for the future. The highlight of the gallery would be a huge physical Central Area model. It is an 11 metre by 10 metre architectural model of Central Singapore scaled in 1:400. You can see the Central Business District (CBD), Marina Bay, Stadium, Chinatown and even Orchard Road from the model. It is very detailed.
The model is frequently updated and is used by Urban Redevelopment Authority architects as a working model of the area to simulate new growth areas and discuss options between community, developers and government. In addition to showing currently existing buildings in the area, the model also models plans for as-yet-unbuilt buildings. On top of this model display on Level 2, there is also another slightly smaller model of the entire Singapore on Level 1. The former is still the most fascinating one out of the two. I spent about two hours checking out the exhibits in this gallery. By the way, this gallery is free for all.