A City in Blue and Green

161 Pages·2019·43.279 MB·English

by  Peter G. Rowe, Limin Hee

A City
The Singapore Story
in Blue
and
Green
Peter G. Rowe
Limin Hee
A City
in Blue
and
Green
PETER G. ROWE
Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design
Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
LIMIN HEE
Director of Research
Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC)
Singapore
ISBN 978-981-13-9596-3
ISBN 978-981-13-9597-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9597-0
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To the old and new pioneers of Singapore.
01
TABLE OF
I N T R O D U C T I O N
CONTENTS 01
i. PREFA CE 3 a. Aspects of ‘Blue’ and Green’
ii LIS T OF ILLUST RAT IONS 4 b. Singaporean Significance of ‘Blue and Green’
7 c. Organization of the Book
04 05
W A T E R G A R D E N S , P A R K S
58 82
R E S O U R C E S A N D A N D G R E E N
S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y R E S E R V E S
60 a. Singapore’s Constraints and Opportunities 84 a. Botanic and Horticultural Gardens
in Water Resources 92 b. Nature Reserves
63 b. Singapore’s Four National Taps 96 c. The Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters Programme
69 c. Singapore’s Closed Loop System 100 d. Park and Other Connectors
72 d. Stock-Flow Depictions 103 e. Themes and Management Considerations
76 e. Sustainability, Dependencies and Vulnerabilities 110 f. Towards a Biophilic Outcome
02 03
E A R L Y D A Y S V I S I O N S O F
10 36
C L E A N A N D
13 a. Geographic Setting and Control
18 b. Transformation and Deforestation
G R E E N
21 c. Securing Prosperity
25 d. Interwar Interlude
27 e. Post-Colonial Developments
38 a. Onset and Rise of ‘Clean and Green’
41 b. From ‘Garden City’ to ‘City in Nature’
46 c. Metaphorical Perspectives
52 d. Singapore’s Changing Metaphoric Landscape
06
W A Y S F O R W A R D L I S T O F I N T E R V I E W S
114 130
I M A G E C R E D I T S
132
116 a. Successful Ingredients
119 b. Public Participation 136 B I B L I O G R A P H Y
120 c. Future Challenges
126 d. Dealing With Uncertainty
G L O S S A R Y
143
Botanic and Horticultural Gardens
I N D E X
147
Nature Reserves
The Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters Programme
Park and Other Connectors 151 A U T H O R S N O T E
Themes and Management Considerations
Towards a Biophilic Outcome
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T
152
P R E F A C E
Peter Rowe and I have known each other for a integral use of blue and green infrastructure as
long time. We collaborated through design studios part of our recent history of planning in a book.
between the Singapore Urban Redevelopment He expressed a keenness to write about our success
Authority and the Harvard Graduate School of in greening the city and water management as
Design as early as the 1990s. Limin, now director he felt there are applicable lessons there for other
of research at my centre, was also his doctoral cities. Such a book would also help to present the
student at Harvard. Peter often fondly recalls his model of Singapore’s planning, which has great
childhood in Hong Kong, and his frequent visits potentials beyond that of a city in a garden, to
to Singapore. It is of no surprise that he continues an international audience of practitioners and
to be a keen observer of developments in Asia, researchers.
having many former students in the region, and
especially in China, where he is also Visiting Peter then very kindly took up the invitation
Professor at Tsinghua University. to write this book in collaboration with our
researchers at the Centre, and in the process,
When we invited Peter to our Centre as a Visiting engaging with many of Singapore’s urban pioneers,
Fellow back in 2015, he noted with admiration practitioners in both our public and private sectors,
Singapore’s transformation over the years, as well as visiting several projects to gain insights
especially in how we have developed but retained into how we have created a city in blue and green.
a green mantle as a distinctive part and parcel
of our cityscape. I also shared with him some I would like to thank Peter for putting this book
of our programmes to beautify our waterways, together, having devoted much of his precious time
notably, the Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters and energy on this collaboration. And to thank
Programme. In our conversation, Peter saw an the many who have shared their experiences and
opportunity to capture the subject of Singapore’s thoughts with Peter.
Khoo Teng Chye
Centre for Liveable Cities, 2019
i
L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S
Satellite Image of Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew Planting a Tree,
1. p2 24. p33
The Green and Blue Plan arising from the 1991 Concept Housing and Development Board Housing Estates in the
2. 25.
Plan, Context of Urbanization c.2015,
p4 p37

Population of Singapore, 1826-2017, Tree Planting in Singapore,
3A. p5 26. p38
Singapore’s Total and Non-Resident Population, The Greening of Pedestrian Bridges and Traffic Islands,
3B. p5 27. p40
Economic Intensity Among Selected Cities in 2013, Howard’s ‘Garden City of Tomorrow’,
4. p6 28. p41
Outcrops at Keppel Harbor, Letcworth in the U.K.,
5. p12 29A. p42
Plan of Temasek, Welwyn in the U.K.,
6. p14 29B. p42
Harbour and Town of Singapore, Singapore’s strategic long -term land use and transportation
7. p14 30.
plans,
p43
A Malayan Style Kampong,
8. p15
The 1910 Berlin Plan,
31. p44
Lt. Jackson’s Plan of Singapore in Context,
9. p16
Möhring, Eberstadt and Peterson et al’s Diagrams of the
32.
Partial Schematic of Lt. Jackson’s Plan for Singapore, Berlin Metropolis,
10. p17 p45

Depiction of Fort Canning and its Environs, Visions of a City in Nature,
11. p18 33. p46
A Gambier-Pepper Plantation, American Pastoralism: Richmond from the Hill Above the
12. p`19 34.
Waterworks,
p47
Map of Sea Routes to Singapore,
13. p20
A Motif of the Modern Technical Temperament,
35. p48
Singapore in 1911,
14. p22
Complex Pastoralism in the Lackawana Valley,
36. p49
Trolley Car on Geylang Road,
15. p22
Forest in the City – City in the Forest,
37. p49
Maps of Singapore’s Primeval Forests,
16. p24
Haussmann’s Boulevards in Paris,
38. p50
A Deforested Plantation in 19th Century Singapore,
17. p24
The Allegory of the Effect of Good Government on City
39.
Japanese Occupation of Singapore, and Country,
18. p25 p51

Squatter Settlements in Singapore, Garbatella, Rome,
19. p28 40. p52
Map of Singapore’s Squatter Settlements, Singapore’s Early Countrified Landscape,
20. p29 41. p53
Night Carts in Operation, The Uncanny Intimacy and Strangeness of Hyperobjects,
21. p30 42. p55
A Turnkey Factory in the Jurong Industrial Park, Singapore’s Domestic Household Water Consumption,
22. p31 43. p59
The Koenigsberger Ring Concept Plan of 1963, which was Maps Pertaining to Singapore’s Catchment and Drainage
23. 44.
later incorporated into the 1971 Concept Plan, System,
p31 p61

ii
Proportions of Total and Segmented Water Use, 2060 The Treetop Walk and Suspension Bridge
45. 70.
Projection, in the Central Reserve Nature Reserve,
p62 p94

Singapore’s Four National Taps, The Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve,
46. p65 71. p95
NEWater Diagram, Labrador Nature Reserve,
47. p65 72. p95
Desalination Diagram, Map of ABC Water Programme Projects,
48. p66 73. p96
Microfiltration Schemes at Work, Kallang River at Bishan-Ang Mo Koi Park - Before and
49. p66 74.
After,
p97
Diagrams of Electrodialysis-Electrodeionization,
50. p68
Alexandra Canal,
75. p98
The Tuas Water Treatment Plant Membrane Technology at
51.
Work, MacRitchie Reservoir,
p69 76. p99

Singapore’s Water Closed Loop System, Nature Way along Pasir Ris Drive 3,
52. p71 77. p100
Map of the Deep Tunnel Swerage System, The Green Parkway Corridor Plan,
53. p72 78. p101
Section of the Deep Tunnel Swerage System, The Railway Corridor Project,
54. p72 79A p102
Sankey Diagram of an Early Steam Engine, Sundaland,
55. p74 79B. p102
Singapore’s Electricity, Water and Land Use by Sectors Endemism within Sundaland,
56. 80. p103, 104
(2017),
p75
Species Extinctions by Taxonomic Group,
81. p105
Singapore’s Water Demand and Supply Strategy, 2015 and
57.
2030, Carbon Sequestration Process,
p76, 77 82. p105

Singapore’s Virtual Water Use, Green Walls from the Singapore Institute of Technical
58 p78 83.
Education,
p107
The Singapore Botanic Gardens,
59. p84
Parkroyal on Pickering Hotel by WOHA,
84. p108
Plan of the Singapore Botanic Gardens,
60. p85
Oasia Hotel by WOHA,
85. p109
The Singapore Botanic Gardens,
61. p86
Diagram of the Landscape Replacement Policy,
86. p111
Plan of Gardens by the Bay,
62. p87
The Green and Blue Plan arising from the 1991 Concept
87.
The Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay, Plan,
63. p88 p116

The Cloud Forest at Gardens by the Bay, From a ‘Garden City’ to a ‘City in Nature’,
64. p89 88. p117
The Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay, Global and Singapore Climate Change Scenarios
65. p89 89.
(RCP8.5 and RCP4.5),
p121
General Views of Gardens by the Bay,
66. p90
Land Reclamation Over Time in Singapore,
90. p123
Marina South Study 1983, by Kenzo Tange (left)
67.
and I.M. Pei (right), Economic Costs and Benefits of Sea Level Rise in
p91 91.
Singapore,
p124
The Central Catchment and Bukit Timah,
68. p92
Haze Over Singapore,
92. p125
The Eco-Link@ Bukit Timah Expressway,
69. p93
iii
chapter
01
I N T R O D U C T I O N
© The Author(s) 2019
P. G. Rowe and L. Hee, A City in Blue and Green,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9597-0_1