Singapore’s Green Infrastructure and Biophilic Urbanism

Abstract

Fragmentation of native habitats, regimentation of watercourses and waterbodies, and the rejection of the colonial green belt accounted for the lack of environmental sustainability of the park system. Improvements of urban ecology were achieved through the development of a network of park connectors made of greenways and waterbodies restored with bioengineering techniques. The principle of ‘land-optimization’ was adopted — green architecture as a means to extend the greening-policy of the island from two-dimentional (parks and gardens) into three-dimentional (green roofs and green walls). As in the western debate, Singapore’s green infrastructure evolves into a multipurpose organizing structure -- from a linear landscape (greenway) to embrace wide ranging uses and forms. By multiplying and diversifying functions on the same land, planners manage to augment the ecosystem-services. The resulting new set of narratives and technical solutions of the ‘vertical garden city’ address the challenges of high-rise urban development, while the promotion of biodiversity design is used as a propaganda for new ecological aesthetics, centred on the creation of the experience of the ‘tropics’, which suits socio-political and tourism-marketing goals.