Garden City Singapore
When I got on the elevator and reached the rooftop, I let out an exclamation. At the top of the 51-story, 280-meter-tall building, which overlooks the city at a glance, was an edible garden growing herbs and cucumbers. A chef was harvesting spinach, and bees and butterflies were fluttering around. There was also a sign saying that the rooftop restaurant would cook food using various crops grown in this garden. This was the CapitaSpring building in Singapore’s Central Business District that I visited earlier this month. The surprises didn’t stop there. From the 17th to the 20th floors of the building, there was a 35-meter-tall garden called the “Green Oasis.” Around the spiral walkway, 80,000 plants of 130 different species were planted, making it feel like walking through a forest.
● A building containing plants
![You are invited to a building picnic[김선미의 시크릿가든]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/08/24/126664385.2.jpg "You are invited to a building picnic[김선미의 시크릿가든]")
Singapore is a garden city where flora and fauna coexist. If you want to see trendy Singapore, I recommend visiting the Capita Spring Building, which was completed in 2021. It is the most notable high-rise building in Singapore these days and a representative example of ‘Skyrise Greenery’.
The reason Singapore has so many green buildings is because the Singapore government, looking for ways to survive on a narrow piece of land at the equator, launched the Skyrise Greenery project in 2009. It provides incentives of up to 50% of the installation cost to companies that create greenery on the walls and rooftops of buildings. Jewel Changi, a complex of Parkroyal Collection hotels and Changi Airport, also used this method to create greenery on its buildings.
Skyrise Greenery is a key pillar of Singapore’s 10-year, pan-national plan to enhance climate, ecological and social resilience, the Singapore Green Plan 2030. Singapore is committed to planting more trees in the city in line with its vision of a “City in Nature.” Green buildings are attractive and cool the city. The CapitaSpring building is an office building housing JP Morgan and others, but the green oasis and rooftop garden are open to the public. Anyone can tour the garden city by making a reservation.
I also visited the Bird Paradise, which opened last year in the Mandai Wildlife Conservation Area in northern Singapore, as it was selected as a representative example of this year’s Skyrise Greenery. It is the largest bird park in Asia (170,000 m²), home to 3,500 birds of 400 species, and was the previous location of the bird park in Jurong for 52 years. I was able to see penguins walking around, birds eating melons in an environment reminiscent of a wild forest with eco-friendly planting mats, and staff members helping disabled people in wheelchairs. All kinds of tropical bird sounds spread through my mind, along with a sense of happiness.
● ‘Green Daily Life’ in Singapore
I believe that travel begins when you choose your accommodation. I carefully chose a place where you can greet the green morning. It is a 3-star accommodation recommended by global trend magazines such as ‘Monocle’ and ‘Wallpaper’. There was a review on the accommodation reservation site that said, ‘The bathroom is connected to the outside, so there are bugs in the room’, but it seemed to have a distinct personality that was clearly different from a regular hotel.
Perhaps it was because the green leaves swaying by my bedside were soothing to my heart. I saw a tiny ant, but I was able to ignore it. I liked the quiet atmosphere of an oasis in the city. When I returned to my accommodation in a quiet residential area not far from Orchard Road after work, I felt like it was a local’s peaceful way home from work.
There was an important fact that I didn’t know when I was looking for a place to stay. The house where Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015), the first Prime Minister of Singapore, lived during his lifetime was less than 10 meters away. Every time I passed by that house, I thought of Lee Kuan Yew, who created the green Singapore we know today.
Fort Canning Park, located near the hotel, is a gem of an urban park with unique tropical plants and art. The park is also a place where weddings are held, and crowds gather from the morning to take pictures in the famous tree tunnel. It was also nice to go down to the riverside and take a leisurely stroll through the park around Robertson Quay.
On a rainy Sunday morning, I headed to Dempsey Hill near the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It was used as a British military camp in the 19th century, and now it is a forest village-like area with stylish cafes and galleries. As I entered PS Cafe, the trees, which had become even greener with rainwater, came into view through the large windows. I ordered a cappuccino coffee, and they brought me a leaf-shaped cup with milk. This commercial space, which has the philosophy of “bringing nature closer to customers,” presents lush indoor greenery through vertical greenery in several stores downtown.
● Mental health care through gardening
Singapore emphasizes the healing of gardens based on theory. Hort Park, a gardening-themed park, has Singapore’s first therapeutic garden, which opened in 2016. It is explained that it was created based on the ‘attention recovery theory’ that human attention can be restored in a natural environment and the ‘stress reduction theory’ that nature brings about psychological recovery.
As I entered the garden, I heard the sound of water trickling from somewhere. I was drawn to the sound and saw water dripping between the rocks. Pastel-colored flowers gave off a gentle fragrance. There was also a sign telling me to touch the leaves of various textures. ‘Take your time and admire the beautiful sculptures created by nature.’ Singapore’s healing gardens are not just pleasant gardens. They actively involve citizens in various gardening programs to help them recover their mind and body.
The ‘KPMG Wellness Garden’ in Singapore’s East Coast Park, which is similar to Hangang Park in Seoul, also created a healing garden three years ago. It is a garden in which the global accounting firm KPMG participated in terms of ESG (environment, society, governance). It was impressive that they operated a specialized program in collaboration with the National University Health System of Singapore (NUHS) and the Alzheimer’s Society. The Singapore government aims to increase the number of healing gardens from the current 13 to 30 by 2030 in order to protect the mental health of the people. It was nice to see people from children to the elderly spending peaceful time in the garden.
● Garden toward the future
The Singapore Botanic Gardens gave me the impression that they were the pride of the Singaporeans. Established in 1859, the Singapore Botanic Gardens are open from 5am to midnight and are visited by many citizens for jogging and picnicking. In 2015, it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the third botanic garden in the world, following Kew Gardens in England and the Botanical Gardens of the University of Coimbra in Portugal.
The Singapore Botanic Gardens has several themed gardens, but the best one is the National Orchid Garden, the world’s largest orchid display garden. I was captivated by the beauty of the various orchids here. The garden is famous for its VIP Orchid Program, which names orchids after famous visitors from around the world, including Queen Elizabeth.
If the Singapore Botanic Gardens are the foundation of Singapore’s gardens, the Gardens by the Bay, which opened in 2011, is a futuristic garden that reveals Singapore’s green vision. It is a brilliant move that allows you to enjoy the gardens from a cool indoor space regardless of the hot weather all year round. Inside, you can enjoy the joy of encountering works by renowned artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Bruno Catalano. The giant artificial trees called the Supertree Grove are cutting-edge scientific structures equipped with solar panels and rainwater collection systems.
While enjoying the night view of Marina Bay Sands from the rooftop ‘Lantern Bar’ of the Fullerton Bay Hotel, I suddenly realized that I had heard the three words ‘biodiversity’, ‘community’, and ‘future’ a lot during my stay in Singapore. These days, Singapore is putting in effort to create a community-participatory garden in its aging society. The thought of ‘what should our city look like’ has been on my mind lately. It must be a gift from my trip to Singapore.
Text and photos by Singapore = Reporter Kim Seon-mi [email protected]
2024-08-25 09:15:45