Imagining a City in Nature

iyanadoyle
Mar 1
3 min read

Actually, you don't need to imagine it because it already exists in Singapore!

Vegetated pool area of the Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel in Singapore — Luxurious and lush, the vegetated pool area at Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel in Singapore offers a serene escape amidst the bustling cityscape with towering buildings and verdant greenery. Image source: https://www.archdaily.com/1008122/pan-pacific-orchard-hotel-woha

In most urban cities today, green spaces function as retreats from the dense concrete landscape of towers. These green spaces are separate and distinct from the rest of the city rather than integrated into it. Take Central Park for example, while vast and lush it is delineated from the rest of Manhattan by four straight edges which are streets. The City of Manhattan, like many cities, is built on a perfect grid that divides the city into blocks, most blocks are used for housing or office buildings and very few are used for gardens, as a retreat from the extensive and never-ending concrete. Singapore is an exciting case study because it flips this idea of the garden being in but still separate from urban cities, on its head. In Singapore, the city itself is built in nature instead of simply having a few outcrops of gardens sprinkled throughout. Singapore is built to be immersed in nature. This mantra of 'a city in nature' has fully integrated forest vegetation into Singapore's fabric. So for Singaporeans green spaces are not retreats that are separate and away from built structures, but rather it is the forest, integrated into their everyday lives.

So what enables Singapore to be a modern, urban forested city?

Arial view of the Kampung Admiralty showing the vegetated rooftop of trees. — Arial view of Kampung Admiralty showcasing its lush vegetated rooftop amidst an urban setting. Image source: https://www.archdaily.com/904646/kampung-admiralty-woha

Legislation like the Green Building Masterplan has enabled Singapore to be at the level of green integration thats it is today. When sustainable ways of designing and constructing are not optional but mandatory, it allows for its implementation to be rapid and widespread. In downtown Singapore for example, designers and builders must accommodate a 100% replacement of the greenery lost on the land area, on the building itself. Such legislation has been successful thus far in moving Singapore into the urban living-buildingscape it is today.

As of the end of 2022, close to 55% of Singapore’s buildings have been greened. The target is to have “at least 80% of buildings (by floor area) in Singapore to be green by 2030”.

Children playing in the rooftop playground at the Kampung Admiralty — Children enjoy climbing on a vibrant pink play structure amidst lush greenery in the rooftop playground at Kampung Admiralty. Image source: https://www.archdaily.com/904646/kampung-admiralty-woha

Aerial view of the Kampung Admiralty with a rooftop garden, surrounded greenery. Blue playground visible. Urban setting. — Arial view of Kampung Admiralty showcasing its lush green roof with trees, seamlessly integrating nature with urban architecture. Image source: https://www.archdaily.com/904646/kampung-admiralty-woha

In many cases, the phrase 'green building' means a building that is surpassing the norm for building performance, this is usually through better energy efficiency, its use of natural building materials like CLT and Glulam (mass timber), and its ability to generate its own power, for example through solar panels. So you see, a building can be considered green without having a literal green element like a vegetated roof. Many green buildings look no different from regularly constructed buildings because it is the hidden elements like the efficiency of HVAC and other system operations that allow the building to have less of a negative impact on the environment, allowing it to claim green building status.

High-rises that truly embody the 'city in nature' concept

Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel street view — View of the Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel surrounded by lush greenery and modern skyscrapers, with people crossing the street on a sunny day. Image source: https://www.archdaily.com/1008122/pan-pacific-orchard-hotel-woha?ad_medium=office_landing&ad_name=article

What's interesting about Singapore is that the phrase 'green building' is taken literally. Buildings like the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, the Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel and the Kampung Admiralty have a variety of trees and plants integrated into the building envelopes and throughout the floorplates.

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital surrounded by lush forest-like vegetation — Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, beautifully integrated with lush, forest-like vegetation, creating a serene and green healing environment. Image source: https://www.archdaily.com/904646/kampung-admiralty-woha

The perimeter of the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital is surrounded by lush forest-like vegetation with 700 species of plants, which improve the thermal confort of the area by providing shade and reducing heat absorbtion . It also has an artificial lake that helps to prevent flooding. The hospital's green plot ratio is 3.92, indicating that the combined horizontal and vertical green areas are nearly four times larger than the land area occupied by the hospital. Such aggressive reforestation has had positive impacts on patient health and recovery as their proximity to the vegetation reduces anxiety and improves mood and cognitive function, leading to speedy recoveries for many.

By re-wilding urban environments and incorporating fruit trees into the mix of plants used, birds, pollinators and other animals are attracted to the green balconies, terraces and courtyards of Singapores green buildings, futher reinforcing it as a 'city in nature'. Singapore's urban environment being able to support healhy lives for both humans and a wide range of animals is truly aspirational.