A City in Blue and Green
Learn more about Singapore’s efforts to manage water resources, protect natural landscapes, and cultivate vegetation have been crucial elements underpinning the city’s liveability.
Last updated 1 March 2025
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Lecture details
Given the uncertainty regarding the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation, please be informed that the CLC Lecture: A City in Blue and Green originally scheduled on 21 Feb, is postponed until further notice.
Synopsis
Throughout its nation-building journey, Singapore’s efforts to manage water resources, protect natural landscapes, and cultivate vegetation have been crucial elements underpinning the city’s liveability. Ranging from infrastructure systems to social history, a new publication by Peter Rowe and Limin Hee, “A City in Blue and Green: the Singapore Story,” which will be launched at this lecture, explores the unique strategies and effective practices utilized across the decades, which have transformed the city into a “clean and green” powerhouse in the fields of sustainable environment and urban development.
About the Speakers
SPEAKER
Peter Rowe
Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and Distinguished Service Professor
Graduate School of Design
Harvard University
Peter Rowe is the Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University. He served as Dean of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard from 1992 to 2004, Chairman of the Urban Planning and Design Department from 1988 until 1992, and Director of Urban Design programs from 1985 until 1990. Prior to Harvard, he served as Director of the School of Architecture at Rice University. He has extensive research and consulting experience on subjects ranging from cultural interpretation and design, as well as the relationship of urban form to issues of economic development, historic conservation, housing provision and resource sustainability. He has also served as an advisor to a number of cities on matters of urban design and planning.
MODERATOR
Dr Limin Hee
Director
Centre for Liveable Cities
Dr Limin Hee is Director of Research at Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC), a nexus and knowledge centre for liveable and sustainable cities, where she focuses on research strategies, content development and international collaborations. CLC research is premised on deep understanding of urban systems and how to derive integrated solutions for cities. She played similar leading research roles at the National University of Singapore School of Design and Environment, as well as at the Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities and the Asia Research Institute.
MODERATOR
Kevin Hsu
Assistant Director
Centre for Liveable Cities
Kevin leads the Environmental Research Cluster at the Centre for Liveable Cities, covering topics such as sustainable districts, climate change, and urban resilience. As a research fellow at the Urban Redevelopment Authority, he supports URA’s efforts to utilize digital technologies to enhance urban planning and conservation.
A California native, Kevin taught Urban Studies and International Policy Studies at Stanford University, where he co-founded the Human Cities Initiative, and continues as a Lecturer in the d.school, the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. For several years, he was also a scientist with the Walt Disney Company. He has worked on projects on both sides of the Pacific, including Beijing, Shanghai, San Francisco and Hong Kong, to enhance vibrant public spaces, safeguard cultural continuity, and develop sustainable, low-carbon infrastructure.
Kevin holds a Master’s degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Stanford, as well as a B.S. in Earth Systems and B.A. in International Relations. He received training in Cultural Heritage Management from Johns Hopkins University.