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CAP Lecture Series: Shin Bin Tan
CAP Lecture and Exhibition Series | Fall 2026
Shin Bin Tan
From Policies to Realities: Living (in) an Urban Planner’s Dream
About the Lecture
Singapore is a high-density, multicultural, cosmopolitan city of approximately 6 million, located in South East Asia. With its modern infrastructure, spotless streets, lush greenery and well-coordinated state-led urban planning apparatus, it has earned a reputation as ‘an urban planner’s dream’. However, Singapore is not a dream, but a real city grappling with wicked problems and deep contradictions. Drawing from my on-going research and past work experience as a planner in Singapore, this lecture examines Singapore’s efforts at tackling familiar planning challenges, like residential ethnic segregation, housing affordability, and urban redevelopment, and unpacks their impacts on population health and social equity.
About Shin Bin Tan
Shin Bin is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Her research lies at the intersection between health and urban planning, and in particular on how built environment interventions and public policy can improve social equity and reduce health disparities. Previously, she worked as an urban planner at the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore. She obtained her PhD and Master in City Planning from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
