Gardens By The Bay

October 5, 2009 10:29 AM

The Gardens will put in place a pervasive garden ambience and quality living environment from which Singapore's downtown will rise, and steer Singapore to the forefront of the world's leading global cities. (via)
posted by Joe Beese (10 comments total)

Isn't Singapore a fairly warm place to start with? Why do they need to put a park inside a greenhouse?
posted by doctor_negative at 10:41 AM on October 5, 2009

To cool it I'd guess.
posted by Keith Talent at 10:42 AM on October 5, 2009

Well, at least in this case, leaks would be good for its inhabitants.
posted by R. Mutt at 10:55 AM on October 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

If they can keep it from falling down. That disaster looks like it was a simple, albeit major, engineering mistake. There have been others, though my google-fu is failing to avoid the clutter from some tv-movie made about the New World hotel, where the engineering was sound, but the shifting sands of the island caused failures for much larger projects. They pile-drive down to what sounds like the center of the earth, and it's still not enough.
posted by nomisxid at 11:31 AM on October 5, 2009

nomixsid - the Hotel New World collapse happened more than 20 years ago, and building standards and technology have vastly improved since then. Besides, the hotel was not even built on reclaimed land (as far as I know). Singapore's land area has increased markedly due to land reclamation, and plenty of skyscrapers and high-rise residences are built on reclaimed land, without any major issues so far. In recent memory, civil/structural engineering problems are results of tunnelling (for subway or other construction). If a large part of the airport can be built on reclaimed land, I think the new gardens by the bay should not be a problem.

What's amazing about the gardens is that the government decided to reclaim this huge piece of land from the sea, right next to the commercial and financial district, create a new coastline with potential for expensive residential developments - but set aside a major chunk of such prime land as a park for public recreation.
posted by hellopanda at 12:27 PM on October 5, 2009

Direct link to the via, for posterity. Not much more than a series of links, but there you go.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:46 PM on October 5, 2009

The New World collapse had nothing to do with technology or building standards being deficient, it was a failing of the engineer to include the dead weight of the building in his calculations. No building standard could overcome that kind of miscalculation.

The collapse I'm thinking of, happened in the retail core, and also had nothing to do with reclaimed land. They rebuilt a large tower, called Tangs Plaza, still on the site currently, so who knows what was wrong with the previous building.

I haven't lived in Singapore in 20 years, the past is all I know.
posted by nomisxid at 1:12 PM on October 5, 2009

Another cool development next to the Gardens is the creation of the Marina Reservoir, by damming up the Singapore River with the Marina Barrage. This reservoir sits in the heart of the downtown city area, surrounded by the financial district, the shopping and nightlife districts, and the heritage areas.

I think its important for people to get closer to their natural resources, and enjoy and respect them instead of just taking them for granted. Its pretty cool to look out at the water beside you while you're hanging out in town, and know that its where the water you're drinking comes from.

Perhaps not so cool when you see some drunk along Boat Quay puking into the new reservoir.
posted by destrius at 8:08 PM on October 5, 2009

I'm a big fan of the parks in Singapore, particularly the Southern Ridges, a gorgeous trail connecting nearby parks into one massive contagious walking circuit. The views are massive, and the sheer diversity of flora that you get there is jaw-dropping; there are carnivorous pitcher plants, rubber trees and other plants. It's like having a tropical equatorial secondary forest in your backyard; the cool sea-breeze in the morning, along with the sight of the rising sun in the Straits and the sweet smell of morning dew are some of the ways in which life can be made invigorating in a metropolis that is only one degree away from the Equator.

This, however, makes me cringe:

The centrepiece of this infrastructure is the cluster of Cooled Conservatories along the edge of Marina Bay. The Cool Dry and the Cool Moist Conservatories showcase Mediterranean, tropical montane and temperate annual plants and flowering species

This basically is a Suntec with global botanical aspirations. Do not want.
posted by the cydonian at 8:53 PM on October 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

Singapore's land area has increased markedly due to land reclamation, and plenty of skyscrapers and high-rise residences are built on reclaimed land

Many Singaporeans don't often appreciate the scale here, but the 20% of the current land-mass is reclaimed. Or, to put it in more stark terms: even Fullerton was built on reclaimed land. The original coastline started somewhere near the UOB towers, I guess, which would be _north_ of most of the skyscrapers.

These plans will almost _double_ the current amount of reclaimed land.
posted by the cydonian at 9:27 PM on October 5, 2009