Govt studies possibility of underground science
city
SINGAPORE: A study of an unprecedented scale is
taking place beneath the Singapore Science Park, in the western
part of the country. It is for a science complex, about 30 storeys
below the surface at the 80 to 100 metre layer, to house research
labs, offices and a data centre.
The area being studied lies between Science Parks 1
and 2, and the objective is to link the underground science city to
facilities above. The feasibility study is expected to be completed
by April 2012.
Developer JTC Corporation describes the project as
an expensive experiment, but one that is perhaps inevitable, as
land here becomes increasingly scarce.
David Tan, Assistant CEO of JTC Corporation, said: "By putting an
underground science city between Science Parks 1 and 2, we could
actually have two plots of land for development - one at the
bottom, underground; the other one on top. The key is really to see
how we can use a piece of land twice."
There are benefits to building underground. For instance, the
stable climate allows for greater efficiency of facilities such as
data centres. The enclosed environment also ensures a higher degree
of safety for storing risky chemicals.
But such advantages come with a price. Mr Tan estimates that
building underground will cost 50 per cent more than a similar
facility above ground.
Lessons can be learnt from JTC Corporation's Jurong Rock Cavern,
which is an underground oil bunker at Jurong Island. For instance,
evacuation plans and ventilation points need to be mapped out in
detail, as there are limited access points at such depths. There is
also a smaller margin for error as space is constrained by the
availability of solid rock.
Construction challenges are also more complex. When building
underground, the size and the shape of the cavern are dependent on
site conditions and the quality of rock, which may cause some
inflexibility in the size of the facilities created within the
space. For the Jurong Rock Caverns, each cavern is about 20 metres
wide and 25 metres high.
In addition, engineers have to work around the problem of fault
lines, and water seeping into the caverns.
Associate Professor (adjunct) Zhou Yingxin, from the School of
Civil and Environmental Engineering at Nanyang Technological
University, is a mining engineer who has worked on the Jurong Rock
Cavern as well as the Defence Ministry's ammunition bunker.
He said: "The risks associated with underground construction is not
so much that we don't know what to do with the problem, it's that
very often we don't know what to expect."
"You have to build with the ground that's there, whether it's good
rock or bad rock. Of course you can try to choose a good site. But
even a good site, you wouldn't know the rock until you see
it.
"So you must have a plan to deal with such uncertainties... That's
why you must have very experienced people on site. When they see
it, they know what's going to happen, and they know what to
do."
While most people are used to going underground to get to carparks
and shopping malls, there are various issues that architects and
engineers have to consider to make underground developments truly
liveable. For example, the kind of anxieties people might have with
spending so many hours deep underground.
Natural light, greenery and fresh air are some of the things that
make cities liveable, and will be as important in an underground
space.
Andres Sevtsuki, Associate Professor of Architecture and
Sustainable Design at the Singapore University of Technology and
Design, said: "We're biological creatures. We like sunlight, we
like environments, we like trees and nature, and we like seeing
other people.
"When we build cities, when we build urban environments, I think we
usually think beyond necessity, we think of ideal environments,
because this is where we spend our lives."
Creating underground cities is still, in many ways, a theoretical
fancy. But over the years, authorities have built increasingly
taller buildings and added over a fifth of the country's land mass
through reclamation alone. Going underground is simply the next
frontier, in Singapore's never-ending search for space.
-CNA/ac
