Our Harvard alumni community recently had the privilege of an exclusive walking tour of the newly opened Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) campus and Punggol Digital District. The visit was led by our alumni, Associate Professor Jawn Lim, HGSD PhD’12, who played a pivotal role in the campus’s development, from urban planning and architect selection to stakeholder engagement and requirements gathering.
Jawn shared unique insights into how foresight and architecture converged to bring this ambitious project from concept to reality. Participants also gained an appreciation for his wide-ranging expertise, spanning traditional architectural practice, science fiction design studies, business management, and teaching.
Our attendees explored SIT’s modern facilities, including its library, innovation labs, and industry-linked research centers, while gaining insights into the university’s distinctive pedagogy that blends academic excellence with real-world experience.
And they also discovered these interesting facts regarding SIT:
– The inaugural Chancellor of SIT is former Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, who was the Harvard Club of Singapore’s very first Harvard Prize Book recipient when he was a top Economics student during his pre-university studies.
– It’s the only university in Singapore with a waterfront-facing location and overlooking Coney Island.
– Only SIT offers a Singapore government-funded Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy degree.
– There are currently 12k students, of which 99.95% are Singaporeans and PRs.
– 70% of SIT’s students are from median to below median income families and consist of mainly polytechnic graduates.
– SIT offers 43 undergraduate degree programs, and only has 30 postgraduate students, who focused on research and must be sponsored by corporates.
– Singapore’s first full-size public zoo, Punggol Zoo, established in 1928, used to be quite close to SIT’s campus grounds.
– Its campus achieves a 100% landscape replacement area (LRA) through extensive sky gardens, green roofs, ecological ponds, and communal planters.
Last but not least, the tour certainly highlighted both the innovative design process and the broader vision of SIT as a hub for learning and technology, and also showcased how a smart, sustainable living lab integrated seamlessly with industry and the surrounding Punggol Digital District (PDD) community.
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