Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father, had a vision for a city-state in the 1960s. The idea was to create a garden city that was densely populated, yet lush and livable.
These decades of planning have created one of the world’s greenest metropolises, making Singapore a leader in sustainable architectural design.
Whether it’s a vertical jungle in front of a building or 18 futuristic supertrees with more than 160,000 plants growing on metal scaffolding, Singapore is an eco-innovator taking the environment to the next level.
Further action is planned in the form of the highly ambitious goal of transforming Garden City into a city within a garden, as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated in 2012.
“This is a play on words (…). It means connecting our communities with our places and spaces through the greenery of parks, gardens, cityscapes and skyscrapers.”
The authorities are now going further, with the Green Plan 2030 setting out how to achieve the transformation into a “city in nature” by the end of the decade.
“Singaporeans live in confined spaces, with most people living in apartments without their own gardens,” says Gee Hsu, who works as a city guide for Hello!. Singapore tour.
PARKROYAL on Pickering Hotel is a vertical green project that includes a sky garden, a wall of hanging plants, and a reflecting pool of water flowing through the building.
“I say to them, ‘Guys, the whole city is my garden!'”
No matter which window I look out of, I can always see green.
Kerstin Wies, a German who moved to Singapore 11 years ago, also praises the benefits compared to the concrete jungles of other parts of Asia like Bangkok and Jakarta.
“Sometimes it feels like you’re in a rainforest in the middle of the city, like MacRitchie Reservoir Park, which has a great treetop walk up in the trees.”
Chua Yen Lin of the National Parks Board (NParks) said, “Green regulations are being incorporated into urban development plans so that urban greening occurs in parallel with urbanization.”
The government agency is responsible for improving and managing urban ecosystems and is the lead agency for green space and biodiversity conservation. It stipulates that when roads are built, space must be set aside for planting trees, and that sufficient land must be set aside everywhere for parks and gardens.
In addition, one million new trees will be planted by 2030, with a particular focus on heat-affected areas on the mainland and offshore islands, Lin says. Trees provide the necessary shade.
Visitors admire orchids at the National Orchid Garden of Singapore, home to the world’s largest collection of orchids.
But most of all, in the future, no citizen should live more than a 10-minute walk from a park. Hundreds of kilometers of routes connect various green areas directly with each other.
From the airport you can get a sense of the direction of the city. The Jewel was built at Changi Airport in his 2019 year. The circular glass building houses 280 restaurants and shops, and a 40-meter round indoor waterfall cascades from the glass ceiling.
The sight is surrounded by a hanging terraced garden filled with palm trees, ferns and orchids. The water comes from a tank that collects rainwater.
As a sustainable side effect, the cold water provides water to the plants.
“It’s like coming from another planet,” says one visitor in a hushed voice.
The orchid is Singapore’s national flower and has its own record-breaking oasis. The National Orchid Garden has the world’s largest collection and is a leader in hybrid cultivation techniques.
When monarchs, ministers and heads of state visit Singapore, the government regularly names new orchid species after them. This is a special honour, as no plant is more representative of Singapore than these exotic plants.
Targets of Singapore’s Dutch diplomacy include Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan, singers Elton John and Ricky Martin, tenor Andrea Bocelli, South Korean actors Kwon Sang-woo and Bae Yong-jun, and fashion designer Bae Yong-jun. Including Michael Kors.
There’s Dendrobium Joe and Jill Biden, Dendrobium Memoria Princess Diana, and even Dendrobium Frank Walter Steinmeier for the President of Germany. Dendrobium is a type of orchid.
These plants grow more easily in hot, humid climates near the equator than in arid regions, and the key to cultivating and propagating them so they can transform cities is key.
PARKROYAL on Pickering Hotel features vertical plant displays including sky gardens, hanging plant walls, and reflective pools throughout the building.
The 15,000 square meter site is home to approximately 50 species, including monstera, alocasia, and calathea.
Nowhere is Singapore’s innovative greening technology best showcased at Gardens by the Bay Park. Alongside the world-famous Supertree, the main attraction is two giant greenhouses.
At Cloud Forest, visitors wander through a cool cloud forest featuring a 35-meter-high mountain with an indoor waterfall covered in bromeliads and ferns.
Then there’s the 1.28-hectare Flower Dome, where tens of thousands of flowers bloom in a warm climate. This wonder has been in the Guinness Book of World Records since 2015 as the world’s largest glass greenhouse.
Everything is built around cycles.
“When they do trimming such as cutting dry leaves and branches, they collect them and send them to the biomass incinerator,” says city guide Gee Hsu.
“The energy produced is more than enough for air conditioning within the two domes.”
Rain is also collected here, removed from aquatic plants and used for irrigation.
The eco-friendly ethos can also be seen in the city’s neighborhoods, with many homes now equipped with solar-powered smart bins that automatically notify waste collection services when the bins are full. It also functions as a WiFi hotspot.
The city also ensures that public transportation is not only efficient, but also affordable. It will not cost you more than S$2.10 (RM7.30) to help ease traffic congestion.
Despite praising the growing environmental awareness, human rights activists also criticize the growth of dictatorship and many repressive laws. A single political party, the People’s Action Party, has been in power since the end of the colonial era.
“But why should we change the winning team?” asked Gies, adding that many people support the government’s ideas, especially the Green Revolution.
An interactive gallery in the Urban Redevelopment Authority Center, a public space, allows citizens to see what the authority is planning for the future and what it has already achieved. School classes gather here in the morning, and the curriculum includes nature conservation and greening education, including for young children.
As night falls and the Supertree comes to life in a garden rhapsody, it is clear that this city-state has brought technology, sustainability and nature together.
They form a symbiotic relationship within the city, and thanks to their numerous solar cells, the supertrees generate electricity for a spectacular light show in which the giant trees appear to be dancing to music. Masu. –dpa