In recent years, Singapore has earned the title of “City in Nature” because of a strong acknowledgment that green spaces in highly urban cities matter a lot.
Urban planners and architects in Singapore both have taken conscious decisions in their designs so that nature can be seen throughout the city as it develops. The city incorporates all kinds of plant life in its building designs, from vertical gardens and green roofs to verdant walls.
In this short article, we’re going to look at the developments that Singaporeans have made in making their city a greener and more sustainable place to live. Other cities and countries can follow these examples so that all of us can reach the goal of a zero-carbon future.
Landscape architects such as Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl, in collaboration with National Parks Board, and the Singaporean government statutory board are widely credited for creating the city in nature that Singapore is today.
On top of those figures, research coming out of Yun Hye Hwang’s Future Cities Lab and the National University of Singapore is currently exploring methods of making a sustainable city and settlement system using science.
Singapore’s design is widely praised for efficiently tackling environmental issues that huge urban cities typically experience such as sustainable water supplies, surrounding urban heat, and biodiversity. Multiple projects have also been started to deal with these issues and also provide sustainable designs to make the green city even greener.
A great example of a green project improving the cities’ eco-friendliness is the upgrade to Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. The park is one of Singapore’s most popular parks and it needed an upgrade. The project improved the capacity of the Kallang channel that ran along the park by transforming the concrete channel into a natural river. This resulted in more spaces where the community can enjoy nature.
This project was part of the ABC Waters Program, Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters. This is a long-term project by the city’s Public Utilities Board that aims to transform bodies of water across the country to not only serve as a water supply and drainage but also to become new nature spaces where citizens can enjoy and bond together.
The folks at Future Cities Lab are also continuing their research on the eco-friendly performance of green buildings, methods to improve urban climate, effective cooling methods to combat overheating, and even the positive impact of green projects on the city’s biodiversity.