People have always dreamt of another life like Disneyworld where they can get everything just in a second, of a scene in which everyone can go back home without being stuck in traffic jam for hours or, of a space where there is no pollution and diseases. However, despite the fact that such an ideal life has stayed in people’s mind, not too many people believe a real utopia exists. It is similar to when audiences watch a romantic movie with a perfect ending and tell themselves this can only happen on the screen where all the lines have been written and edited carefully. Without any hope for any possible alternatives, eventually, no one would strive to create a peaceful and fantasy world according to their dream. However, there is a country that is making the dream of a lot of people come true. In a recent decade, Singapore has been moving towards the idea of improving their social and economic problems through constructing the modern building projects. Needless to say, their significant achievement in economic social development has brought them opportunities to become one of the most stable economies in the world regardless of a limited space and sacred natural resources. Singapore is among the countries that has the lowest rate of unemployment, highest adequate living conditions and social pension, and fastest economic growth in Asia. Furthermore, it is also well known for the green environment and energy efficiency. Although Singapore is believed to be a clear example of how a utopian plan has improved human development, there are critics argue that its government is directing people in an oppressive setting through a so called utopia and that there is lack of innovation in a too stable economic organization. The rigid of the government system has resulted in the lack of social justice about which people do not have choices and opportunities for self-development. Therefore, even though Singapore has been close to the real utopia where people would be happy to live in, the strive for more liberal yet organized social setting at all-time has driven people to look for a more inclusive dialogic model which responds to different demands and recognizes dynamic voices.

Being a highly urbanized city state, with a total land area of about 700 km2, Singapore faces the constant challenge of keeping pace with the fast-changing needs of Singapore-based businesses, as well as the growth of population. Its challenges have always been to optimize land resources to meet social current needs, to safeguard land for future development, and to maintain the best quality of life at each stage of growth. The question on how did Singapore overcome the challenges of its limit in space has been asked overtime, and the answer lies on the spatial resolution which focuses of the vertical instead of horizontal development. The very first revolution in Singapore after its independence in the late 1960s was the introduction of high rise slab blocks that would systematically rehouse slum dwellers and solve the problem of housing shortage. The construction of such building is called the Housing Development Board (HDB) scheme and has been awarded for outstanding contribution towards human resettlement. Shortly after the plan was established, about 80 percent of the population settled in the new system of public housing as it became more affordable to everyone due to the lower cost of real estate (Seng, 2005). This spatial plan has also contributed to the efficient consumption of energy because of the need of using heater will be reduced, water provision and sewage system will be easier to manage and use fewer tools and machine to process. Although this model resembles the historical power centered utopian setting of Ledoux’s Saltwork as people can clearly see what are other people behaving and residences are controlled and watched under the surveillance of building managers (Gruson, 2004), HDB can be seen as an early modern utopia where not only do people maximize their economic profit but also utilize their spiritual satisfaction. HDB scheme has brought a sense of community by giving people common space to share certain beliefs and create their social enclaves through ethnic ceremonies, religious and cultural practices that go beyond technological capability (Seng, 2005). Whereas reorganizing spatial order by building up public housing blocks seemed to be very reasonable resolution for modernization, it still contains some limitations. Height restrictions imposed on areas around air bases and airports have prevented developers from building taller projects. Additionally, housing resettlement is not so relevant to the solutions of economic activities or road construction issues that relate to overpopulation and over modernization (Yang, 2013). Much has changed in Singapore's urban landscape in the four decades since Independence. In the 1960s, Singapore was beset by high unemployment, an overcrowded city centre, and a shortage of proper housing and adequate infrastructure. Today, the city centre is. Good quality homes are readily available, in self-sufficient new towns and in the heart of the city. The island is served by an efficient transport system and high-quality infrastructure. According to Calvin Yang, an increase in population to 6.9 million people, with a bustling business and financial hub and a vibrant market of retail and entertainment activities for both residents and visitors have force Singapore government and architectural planners to utilize the underground space (2013). Not only does this new solution solve the problems of space in Singapore, it can also improve road constructions, resolve issues from traffic jam and promote national as well as international trade. It is quite amazing how Singapore architects could make use of the underground space to build an effective subway system, waste management system, power network, oil storage and even a network that connects mega port to facilitate movement of goods within a country without affecting the traffic conditions. A novel solution in building underground to create an extensive, interconnected city, with shopping malls, transportation hubs, public spaces, pedestrian links and even cycling lanes has helped this country overcome the challenge of limited space. Eventually, regardless of the limited space, Singapore has become the market and global capitalism by reframing the spatial order and change the way society operates.
In the era of “utopic degeneration”, technology has played an essential role in turning Singapore into an “ideal space of free exchange and consumer satisfaction, running smoothly with flows of money and commercialized desire” (Pinder, 2002). Although the new idea of living harmoniously with the nature and creating an ecofriendly city environment has been put into consideration, it does not mean that modern utopia is growing away from the technological infrastructure, but rather present utopian achievement has a significant contribution of advanced technology. (West) Not only can technological development can enhance citizen’s standard of livings, especially in terms of intellectual, but it will also solve the problem of the limitation in space. Before 1960, utopia was often known as a place with skyscrapers and personal flying machines in a city. After the late 1960s, with the current real and rapid urbanization, the authorities has invested in urban forestation, or “city in a garden” (Seng, 2005), instead of focusing on unstable and degrading road construction, to make Singapore a more inhabitable place. Yang argues that most of the green land has been replaced by residential and commercial activities (Yang, 2013). Thus, the idea of rooftop garden has been introduced to handle the problems of deteriorating environment due to heavy industrial pollution as well to solve the problem of misused land vertical growing plan. With the help of technology, Singapore government turns almost every public building into a small utopia where everyone will be happy once they get inside because they can find everything they need, from shopping mall, train station, universities, to the place where intense activities and global communications occur every day like Changi airport (Seng, 2005). All the manual guidance that has been shifted to automatic tools has made it easier to find a machine to get direction than to find a person working in a mall to ask. As a result, a large proportion of the Singapore society tends to stay in those mini utopias for hours in order to look for the convenience, fulfillment and comfort that cannot be found elsewhere. More importantly, technological advance has also given Singaporean opportunities to interact and integrate a diversity source of information from the global gateway of knowledge worldwide (Lehrer, 2010). Technological advance would be one of the urban planning that can minimize social distress and maximize people’s interactions. Hence, the modern utopia is symbolizing the “promise of technological progress and social transformation” (Pinder, 2002).
In spite of the fact that utopian planning in Singapore is mostly capable of maximizing people’s utilities and gratification, it seems not to be the case in real life since are still struggling every day to find an even more impeccable space than this form of urban utopia because technology cannot bring them spiritual wellness. According to Pinder, the central issue of the re-conceptualized utopian urbanism is desire, the desire for “a better way of being and living” (Pinder, 2002). Thus, they will keep being unsatisfied until they meet a pure place where people can live harmoniously with Mother Nature like in Pulau Ubin (Surana, 2004). Even though this small isolated island is just a few miles away from the urbanized motherland Singapore, it is developing in a totally different direction, with less than fifty people, no running water, no electricity and the main source of living is from the nature (Surana, 2004). Ultimately, as Pulau Ubin brings practical benefits in mental therapy, people from all ages come here either to escape from daily stress and pressure in a supposed realistic utopia, or to experience the wild and free worried life that seems to be forgotten in present busy cities. However, although Singapore government has worked hard to enhance the social justice so that both local residents and migrants can take the advantages of this alternating ideal place, politicians doubted if its population is sustainable enough for a dynamic Singapore and whether it is feasible, practical and sustainable to live in such an isolated utopia where the social interactions and technological approach rarely exist. Additionally, there is criticism saying that Singapore and Pulau Ubin, are another form of Disneyland, which has re-characterized the definition of utopia that has been supposed to be a definitive place.
As a part of this critique about human freedom in utopian plan, there is another opposed opinion claiming that despite of Singapore government’s aim to move the country towards a democratic society, the nation itself is actually becoming more authoritarian (Lacy, 2010). Additionally, regardless of an increase in the amount of migrants due to an open economic policy, a more democratic society, where people from various races and ethnics should have given equal voices, has not been progressed (Lacy, 2010; Seng, 2015). Proofs have been given that the government system is trying to improving the national security by controlling the citizens’ behaviors and their daily activities. According to Lacy, CCTVs have been set all over the places, everywhere on the street, shopping areas, schools, as well as commercial, industrial and residential buildings. Undoubtedly, this solid security system along with a rigid administration have turned Singapore into top 10 safest countries with the most effective police system in the world, yet it is also among those countries that have the heaviest authoritarian reach. However, while it is hard to find any corner of chaos in Singapore, it is also hard to realize any further significant innovations and revolutions in this “easy, clean and staunchly non-corrupt” (Lacy, 2010) state. In a culture in which people are “too tied to obedience”, it is inevitable that Singapore’s highly practical policies regarding population planning and moral enhancement have been done successfully. On the other hand, the tendency that everyone is reluctant to change and eventually most of them will want to do the exact same pattern of jobs such as banker and accountant over generations. This can be seen as the utopia’s traditional inability to deal with questions of “difference without collapsing them into the same” (cited in Pinder, 2002). It is worth mentioning in the article “Singapore: Why Innovate in utopia?” Lacy suggests that “countries in chaos tend to have greater need and greater market holes to exploit” because “chaos and problems solving go hand in hand” (2010). A country needs to learn how inefficiency can turn into efficiency. While it is right to follow all of the regulations, waiting for the government to decide what kind of job can individuals do might not help create a organized yet vibrant market place. According to Lehrer, as out life style has become so “expensive” to maintain due to the cities’ increase in “the pace in which life changes”, “the cycle of innovation” must be accelerated to accommodate (2010). Therefore, utopia is not just about how well people can obey the rules, it is also about how much opportunities it can provide people to be creative and to be different. As it is mentioned in Pinder’s article that it is essential to learn about desiring in ways that “open beyond those that have taken form under existing conditions”, the movement towards cosmopolitan stimulates demands for political practice and encourage society to “ living together in difference” (Pinder, 2002).
Modernization was a very popular concept and an ideology that are in connection with the old colonial powers and with the anticommunist effect, however, the authoritarian society tend to induce people to believe that a workable set of alternative principles for the organization of the developed societies does not exist. As capitals are the modern face of their respective societies that dominate the rest of the country economically, socially and culturally, the modernization of cities, characterized by their advanced technological and organizational capabilities for capital accumulation, easily leads to the evolution of the colonial political system. For some utopian thinkers, the urban model is homogenizing and is clearly a good thing as it seems that many utopias lack heterogeneity and that diversity is a potential cause of conflict. Thus, authoritarian countries think of modernity as a spreading civilization that reinforces and close the gaps in knowledge regarding the government practice Moreover, according to Wright, the idea of a “direct democracy” in which citizens participate in making decisions within a political system seems hopelessly impractical for a complex modern society (2011). It can partly explain why the political authoritarian orientation in Singapore discourages citizens from directly influencing political and economic decision-making. Political participation, therefore, is mainly through contacting political leaders or joining activities that are allowed by the government. According to Wright, efforts to create more equality just mean increased government coercion, reductions in freedom, and “more democracy is likely to lead to a tyranny of the majority” (Wright, 2011). Under such conditions, no wonder why people did not even bother thinking about alternative economies and alternative societies. However, as waiting for the government to regulate a solution for social and economic crisis does not seem to have great impact on national development, it is essential to have movements in the social reform which resist the constant restriction of imperious economic activities under the adequacy of health and safety or political correctness. However, the speed of innovation often depends their social-economical dimensions. Pinder points out that creating a free flow of creative thinking and alterations, rather than hierarchical power and structure, something which utopias tend to favor, will be able to dissolve the homogenized urban landscape theoretically and practically. Not only do alternatives “open up new spaces for egalitarian, democratic social interaction and “reflect utopian aspirations for transformed conditions for human flourishing”, they also seek ways to embody those aspirations in real institutions (Wright, 2011). Thus, in case of Singapore where economic activities are threatened by the lack of dynamic and innovation, a democratic communication system, including the free flow of information and the open exchange of opinions, should be considered in order to give people the freedom and authoritarian orientation diversity of opportunities to get engaged in Political and interpersonal communications. In the article “A physicist solves the city”, Geoffrey West also mentions about the possibility that often comes from impossibility, creativity that comes from hopelessness. He believes that when all the resources are exhausted, people will eventually be forced to exploit new sources or think of an innovation that can make use of redundant or ineffective resources efficiently (Lehrer, 2010). It can be implied through Pinder’s and West’s perspectives that the dynamics, “disruptive and transgressive qualities” (Pinder, 2002) between political system, individual orientation, interpersonal communication are intertwined and must be taken in consideration simultaneously, and that innovation can only come through a more open environment.
In conclusion, although the idea of utopia seems to be unrealistic and impossible to reach, it still can be found in some places in the world where the economic growth and human development keep extending. On the other hand, while people living in those real utopias are supposed to have such a good life in a justice society, they still think that there are still possible alternatives that can make their daily life even better and easier. In other words, Singapore can be an ideal place for a lot of people in a less developed countries, but it might not be the case for Singaporeans. The ideal utopia is defined by how individuals observe their lives and how satisfied they are with the society they are part of. We can also see this idea in Pinder’s argument stating that a utopian perspective is not necessarily about “projecting representations of a ‘perfect’ city”, but rather about the prospects for different processes of urbanization and more importantly “what sort of city for what sort of society”(Pinder, 2002).

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