In the words of URA Executive Planner Wu Jia Min, one “cannot plan a city without first understanding the various social, political, environmental, and cultural threads that shape it.” During her four years in the Strategic Planning department of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Jia Min has led various projects looking into Singapore’s future town planning and housing developments. Her work focuses on aligning these developments with Singapore’s evolving demographics, boosting town resilience, and enhancing the vibrancy of our neighbourhoods.
From her academic journey to various pivotal roles, the scholar now drives innovation at URA’s Design & Planning Lab, spearheading the development of the Data Hub to advance data-driven planning. Explore Jia Min’s impactful contributions and her vision for tomorrow’s urban landscapes.
Journeying Into The Foreign
One of my favourite books in junior college was Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. A quote from it reads, “the more one was lost in unfamiliar quarters of distant cities, the more one understood the other cities he had crossed to arrive there.” At the age of eighteen, with an overseas scholarship opportunity offered by the URA, I remember eagerly setting off for America, in search of the unfamiliar and the foreign, hoping to return with a stronger sense of the city I had come from.
Gaining a Multi-Disciplinary Education
Embarking on my university education at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, the liberal arts undergraduate degree I received was highly multi-disciplinary. Besides the sociology classes that I needed for my major, I also took classes in political science, film, literature, evolutionary psychology, and game theory. As part of my master’s programme, I continued to study the relationship between cities and the various systems (be it fresh water, sanitation, or the flows of capital) that support the city’s existence. Some of the key highlights of my time abroad included working at the Poughkeepsie Urban Farm, where I got to ride a tractor for the first time and receiving a grant to research hiking as a response to our increasingly urbanised modern lifestyle.
Returning With New Perspectives of Cities & Planning
I returned to Singapore a strong believer in the idea that cities cannot and should not be understood in isolation. We cannot hope to plan a city without first understanding the various social, political, environmental, and cultural threads that shape it. By extension, urban planning is an interdisciplinary pursuit, and an urban planner must be able to wear many hats: synthesising skills and knowledge from different fields to develop comprehensive proposals and plans.
Strategic Planning & Future Housing Typologies
My first posting in URA was to the Strategic Planning department. I was part of the Long-Term Plan Review, which happens every 10 years, helming a project on future town typologies, which developed urban planning strategies to better integrate housing and non-residential uses, enhance town resilience and flexibility (in the aftermath of COVID-19), and bolster the walkability and vibrancy of our neighbourhoods. As part of the overarching town typology study, I analysed and proposed solutions to address the issues, challenges, and potential trends impacting Singapore’s future town planning and housing policies.
I also contributed to a joint team exploring the future redevelopment of housing towns by authoring a think-piece on future housing typologies aimed at better meeting the needs and aspirations of our changing demographics, such as young singles, dual-income couples with no children, and a growing number of empty nesters.
Data-Driven & Collaborative Planning
After four years in the Strategic Planning department, I was transferred to the Design & Planning Lab, where I am currently involved in developing the Planning Sectoral Data Hub. As effective urban planning requires data and inputs from multiple government agencies and stakeholders, the Data Hub is designed to gather useful datasets from these agencies and enhance data collection and integration through automation—to support the development of new data products and applications addressing different planning challenges and needs. This project is part of a larger push to better leverage
technology and innovative digital solutions (e.g. artificial intelligence, geospatial information system, 3D-modelling, etc.) to facilitate collaborative urban planning processes among agencies and other stakeholders.
In a world where data-driven planning and governance have become so important, I am grateful for the opportunity to pick up highly relevant skills in technology, data management, and business analytics. Positioned at the cutting edge of Singapore’s digital planning fields, the Design & Planning Lab is certainly an exciting place to be in the coming years!
Join the Future of Urban Planning @ URA
At the end of the day, one of the things I love most about working at URA is the dedication to continuous experimentation and innovation, as well as the multi-disciplinary and forward-looking nature of the work. If you value these aspects in your future career and are passionate about making a difference in urban planning, consider joining URA and becoming part of the team shaping Singapore’s future.
WU JIA MIN
URA Overseas Scholarship
Bachelor of Liberal Arts (Sociology), Vassar College, New York, United States
Master of Science (Environmental Governance, School of Geography and the Environment), University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Now: Executive Planner, Design & Planning Lab, Urban Redevelopment Authority