I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. Singapore is known the world over for how well-designed it is and how well-run it is. That is thanks in large part to the work of today's speaker, Lou Tai Kerr, who is the former master planner of Singapore. In his TEDx Singapore talk from 2021,

he explains how putting human needs first

can result in beautifully designed public spaces.

A lot of people say,

why didn't you continue with your father's career as a painter?

My answer to them is very simple.

I'm also a painter.

The only difference is that my father's painting is only a few square meter in size.

My painting is a few thousands kilometers in size.

That's the only difference. Singapore, when the British left us, say in 1960, three out of the four people lived in squatter areas.

You probably don't even know what is a squatter area, but in those days, it's just all over town.

So the government of Singapore decided that if we want to have a sustainable city

compatible with all the other larger countries, we must achieve excellence.

And one of the signs of removing backwardness is to remove the squatters

and house everybody in housing.

And to do so, since the people in those states were very poor, we then introduced public housing

to build subsidized housing, good quality housing, but subsidized with affordable rental

and affordable selling price. That is a very important key to the transformation of Singapore.

So within 25 years, between 1960 and 1985,

we actually got rid of all the squatters.

We housed every Singaporean into public housing,

as well as, of course, private housing.

...