The city as showroom: Singapore and the rise of the “urban solutions” industry

This article uses the concept of the “city as showroom” to describe an emergent logic shaping urban development that stems from the growing importance of “urban solutions” as an industry. Focusing primarily on Singapore, the article examines how certain urban districts and high-profile sites are conceptualized as “showrooms” for the infrastructure and urban technologies they aim to export around the world. The idea of the “city as showroom” combines aspects of the curation of a city’s image through showcase districts, as well as “testbed urbanism” seen in certain smart-city projects. Singapore's need to reproduce itself as a model of urban solutions has led to a phenomenon I characterize in this article as the “city as showroom”–whereby the planning and design of entire districts is increasingly informed by a need to embed and display urban solutions technologies in situ within specific areas of the city. The case studies are used to explore and examine an emergent urban development logic in the age of urban solutions. The discussion examines potential implications of Singapore's approach, both advantages and risks.