The Gardens by the Bay

Since officially opening its doors in 2012, we look back at the engineering, architectural and horticultural feat that is Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay.There is a reason why olive trees are not found in the tropics. The native Mediterranean species thrives in bright sunshine, but requires chillier temperatures to bear flowers and fruit. Hence, when an olive tree in equatorial Singapore, estimated to be over 1000 years old, successfully blossomed and subsequently fruited in 2015, it was a testament to the engineering and horticultural achievement that is Gardens by the Bay, the 101-hectare park located in the urban downtown of the city-state.

First conceived by Dr Kiat W. Tan, botanist and former chief executive of Gardens by the Bay, the idea of constructing a world-class garden in the tropics, on reclaimed land, south of Singapore’s financial centre, seemed completely outrageous at the time.

It is hard to imagine that this horticultural destination was once sea, then sand and soggy soil. Yet, in a relatively short five years up to its official opening in 2012, an inter-disciplinary team of international and local architects, engineers, and landscape specialists successfully transformed a barren site bereft of roads, drains and electricity into a lush green space where over 1 million plants reside. Plants, trees and flowers from every continent, except for Antarctica, can be found in the Gardens.

Then there are the larger-than-life structures: the Supertrees, towering man-made trees measuring up to 16 storeys tall; and the two cooled conservatories, Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. Beyond being superlative attractions designed to capture the imagination of the public, most structures were inventively constructed to be energy efficient in their use of water and energy.

Now more than 50 million people have visited from around world, we look back at the marvellous thinking that has gone into Gardens by the Bay.

 

A Singapore Icon

The first sight that greets every visitor at Gardens by the Bay is the funnel-shaped canopies of wintry, steel branches set atop towering steel and concrete trunks measuring between 25 to 50 metres in height. Mysterious and fantastic, the Supertree Grove invariably evokes comment, speculation and a sense of wonder and awe.

The character and scale of the grove was inspired by nature – and fiction. Appointed landscape architects, Grant Associates, took cues from the mighty Karri trees of southwestern Australia, a species known to grow up to 80 metres tall, as well as the magical forest in the anime film ‘Princess Mononoke’ by Japanese film studio, Studio Ghibli.

The Supertrees play vital functions in the Garden. One acts as an air exhaust (similar to the ecological functions of real trees) for the two conservatories; 11 have solar photovoltaic cells embedded into their canopies for the harvesting of solar energy. Over time, the trees have become thriving ‘vertical gardens’ in which approximately 159,000 epiphytes – orchids, ferns, bromeliads and flowering vines – grow on panels installed on their trunks.

Unknown to most visitors is a Supertree that acts as a chimney stack. It expels non-toxic fumes from a biomass boiler where plant waste from Gardens by the Bay and other parts of Singapore is burnt and converted into fuel. The burnt waste powers a steam turbine, which subsequently produces part of the energy needed to chill the two cooled conservatories, reducing energy used from external sources.

Lit up in the evenings, the diligent trees continue multi-tasking with their very own light and sound show using colourful sequential lighting and music, illuminating the darkness and providing much visual enjoyment from an aerial perspective.

A fusion of nature, art and technology, it’s no surprise that the Supertrees have become landmarks of Singapore instantaneously recognisable to all.

Under the domes

It was the Roman emperor, Tiberius, who pioneered the world's first greenhouse in 30 AD. Made of stone and mica, it was heated by fires outside the structure, creating the ideal conditions to grow his crop of choice: cucumbers. The modern glass-clad greenhouse, or conservatory, does not rely on such heat sources. Instead, it traps solar energy to create a warm, temperature-controlled environment; perfect for plants that wouldn’t otherwise thrive in the cold outdoors.  

In the tropics, the converse applies. Cooled conservatories were part of Dr Tan’s original vision for Gardens by the Bay to showcase plants alien to the tropics. However, these would be no ordinary conservatories, but two supersized glass domes. In fact, Flower Dome was recognised as the largest glass greenhouse in the world by the 2015 Guinness World Records.