The Heartland Garden
Singapore has lost many of its freshwater swamp forests to development – including those in Jurong, which disappeared in the early 1960s. The Lakeside Garden transformation project was an effort to bring back the nature unique to the area and allow for th
Since 2008, the Jurong Lake District has been earmarked as part of the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s decentralisation efforts to create a second central business district. Spanning an extensive area of 360 hectares, the staged development is slowly taking shape. Lakeside Garden (formerly known as Jurong Lake Gardens West), the first phase of the Jurong Lake Gardens precinct, was completed earlier this year.
Lakeside Garden was a collaborative effort by CPG Consultants (the overall project lead covering aspects from the built structures to the environmental engineering) and Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl (RSD, the project lead for the landscape architecture, water engineering and playground design). Ryan Shubin, landscape architect and Associate Director of RSD, shares that Lakeside Garden was planned as the third national garden in Singapore, after the Botanic Gardens and Gardens by the Bay. However, it is the first national garden in the ‘heartlands’, which meant its program had to be planned differently. Lead Architect Colin Wu from CPG explains that the client, the National Parks Board (NParks), “envisaged this to be a major regional park that would be people-centric and accessible to the entire demographic spectrum.”
Based on the existing infrastructure, vehicular and pedestrian access routes, the overarching plan was to make the northern portion more ‘active’ while the southern portion would focus more on nature. The result is a careful orchestration of programs to cater for the whole community – themed playgrounds; large lawns for community events and activities; a ‘Passion Wave’ building that provides lifestyle programming and water sports; allotment gardens for community farming; experiential ecological paths and landscapes; and even water management systems that also add visual richness across the 53 hectare garden.
Shubin recounts how the inspiration for the project came from an archival image showing the old Jurong Lake as an expanse of mangroves extending out to sea. The team was mindful, however, not to “recreate a swamp, but to deconstruct the swamp and showcase different aspects of it throughout the garden itself, all in a very curated way.” Building upon this, Wu says that the architectural team took a very contextual approach, from pavilion supports that were “reminiscent of the aerial roots of the banyan tree” to the car parks that were “configured in a non-rectilinear layout to effectively conceal the cars from the garden.”
Providing the opportunity for learning through play was a big driver for the playground. Moving away from water jets and active play equipment, Clusia Cove was planned as a series of ponds and ‘beaches’ that allow children to experience water movements that mimic the tidal pattern, surface ripples and directional currents similar to coastal shores, while also acting as cleansing biotopes.
As a counterpoint to Clusia Cove, Forest Ramble is a biophilic play space that takes inspiration from the original animal inhabitants of the freshwater swamp, creating a built microenvironment where children can mimic various animal actions and motions through play. With nine stations offering a range of stimulating activities like ‘frog-jumping’, ‘snake-slithering’ and ‘squirrel-balancing’ to name a few, it is not uncommon for families to spend their time at the Forest Ramble without visiting Clusia Cove, and vice versa.
While the team took a very curated approach, they were mindful to work with the existing landscape and environmental conditions. Alstonia Island (within a shallow inlet) pays homage to the natural history of the area. Greatly influenced by changes in the water level of Jurong Lake, the island is filled with Alstonia trees and other flora and fauna that are unique to freshwater swamp environments.
Bringing visitors close to the shoreline is Rasau Walk, a meandering boardwalk that winds along and around the shore.
The mid-section of the boardwalk commands stunning views of the grasslands that appear almost surreal by virtue of their extensive coverage. Aware that grasslands are not prevalent in the tropics in an environment that inherently tends towards rainforests, the design team was keen to offer a landscape that while not naturally occurring, was still well suited to the climate.
Existing traces from the original park were also kept, for instance the steel rebars in the pavement that were salvaged to form a dramatic sculptural tree in the middle of the grasslands; and a mound of tree stumps from felled trees that that visitors can climb over.
Beyond the creation of a visually stimulating garden that is community focused and embraces sustainable and conservation ideologies, Shubin notes that the other big goal the team had was for “all urban water collected at site to go through a swale or stream before hitting the lake.” Besides the filtration lakes, three concrete drains running through the original site were transformed into completely naturalised streams, one of which is the Neram Streams, a series of braided waterways intertwining around islands of trees.
As a firm that has consistently pushed for innovative approaches to dealing with urban rainwater and a more holistic approach toward landscape architecture over and above plants and pavilions, it is exciting to hear that RSD will have continuing presence in various projects both within and outside of the Jurong Lake District.