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How did you get involved with the Gardens by the Bay project? We'd worked with the landscape archi- tect Andrew Grant of Grant Associates for many years on various projects, including the Alpine House at Kew Gardens (a small, cooled Alpine plant conservatory). He was contacted by the National Parks Board of Singapore and he phoned us and said, 'There's this mad competition for a fantastic park in Singapore. Do you fancy joining us?' We teamed up with structural engi-


neers Atelier One and environmental design consultants Atelier Ten, and put a lot of energy into the competition. From our work on the Alpine House


at Kew, we understood that the plants determine the brief and that to make a particular type of plant grow well, you need a certain range of circum- stances. There's no point working on a monster visitor attraction where the plants look shrivelled up and unhappy.


What was the brief? To design two different environments of a very significant scale; one for Mediterranean plants and one for tropical but high altitude plants.


How did the idea for the biomes develop? We hit on the idea quite early on that we'd like to put a mountain inside the Cloud Forest Dome, because you don't get the opportunity to do that very often! We then liked the idea of cre- ating the opposite – a kind of valley


ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013


n Gardens by the Bay is a key part of the government's vision to create a 'city in a garden'


We hit on the idea


quite early on that we'd like to put a mountain inside the Cloud Forest Dome, because that's not something you do very often!


– inside the Mediterranean dome. We quickly understood that we


weren't conditioning the total volume of air inside the biomes, because that would be insane. The idea of layering the heat or cool became logical. In the Mediterranean biome, the valley shape works really well for cooling. The cool air comes around the perimeter and kind of tumbles down the valley, then sits at the lowest point. In the Cloud Forest dome, we made the mountain itself a machine to supply air – it has lots of holes in it and the air tumbles down, cooling the plants.


How did the solar supertrees come about? They were Andrew Grant's brain- child. There was a danger that a newly planted landscape on reclaimed land would be a bit flat and wouldn't have enough draw. Andrew was keen to create some height and interest.


We had a biomass boiler, and we


knew that we didn't want to expel hot air at ground level. It became clear that a few chimneys were needed, and we realised we could dress them with the supertrees. It all fitted together. Because Singapore is so humid, plants sit quite happily on trees and other structures, so we could have plants clinging to a frame on the super- trees. The client and Andrew were keen to demonstrate really creative horticul- ture; to be really out there and exciting and make it different. We designed a bar with panoramic


views in one of the highest supertrees. They took on a life of their own.


What was the aim of the Gardens by the Bay project? The Singapore government has done a lot to promote leisure on Sentosa Island, with the introduction of big resorts and casinos. The Gardens by the Bay project was part of a plan to balance that with a more cultural story. The idea was to build on the suc- cess of Singapore's Botanic Garden and create a new pleasure garden. The park is open and free, and gives some- thing back to everyone in Singapore, while also maximising the value of the land around the site.


Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital 31


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