The changing role of the central business district in the digital era: the future of Singapore's new financial district

Abstract

The functions of conventional central business districts are being deconstructed and restructured in content and role to meet the challenges of the digital era and era of globalizing trade relations. As a consequence of the dynamics and influence of great technological progress, urban economic spaces are becoming increasingly flexible spaces in the post-Fordist era marked by flexible specialization and knowledge-based production systems. Arguments on the future of urban morphology range from a speculated centreless urban form to one of centrality, in which headquarters are necessary for corporate command and control functions. In a state of rising uncertainty, spatial evolution in the highly institutionalized financial districts is rigidly market-sensitive and is characteristically reflected in the knowledge-based talents of human resources and high cost-structure processes (zone of highest land values), and investment in infrastructure. This article investigates the case of Singapore, and raises two fundamental questions: Will an extended CBD of Singapore, an emerging global city, be needed to cater for future financial district expansion? Or, is physical expansion of the CBD superfluous in an era of intensifying ICT usage? Because of the uneven and highly selective nature of multinational corporation investments worldwide, the success or failure of CBDs hinges on their attractiveness and quality of services as geographic centres. A strong CBD for Singapore will be represented by a ‘jump-space’ integration with the most advanced global economies, whereas a weak CBD will be an alternative route of retreat from the global front towards stronger regional integration.