The Rewilder
How deeply could reconciliation ecology improve Singapore’s urban environment and our experience of it? Landscape architect and NUS Associate Professor Yun Hye Hwang is providing proof of concept for rewilding as a beneficial strategy in dense cities such as ours.
If you’re ready to take a walk on the wild side, Yun Hye Hwang wants to hear from you. Building on a decade of research she describes as “ecological design and management strategies that respond to emerging demands in fast-growing, high-density Asian cities,” Hwang, a Korean-born and Singapore-based landscape architect, now seeks to “transfer knowledge about urban ecology from academia to practice through active interdisciplinary collaborations” with design firms, landscape industry professionals and plant nurseries. Put simply: to apply the concept of rewilding as a landscape design strategy “in the real world” of cities.
The real world and its inhabitants have much to gain from the approach, with benefits ranging from improved quality of soil and water, mitigation of the urban heat island effect, the psychological respite provided by ‘biophilic’ environments, and reduced maintenance costs. And of course: increased biodiversity of both animal and plant species.
“In a post-wild world where pristine habitat is dwindling, Yun
Hye shows another avenue for reconciliation ecology,” namely “to encourage biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes,” observes Benjamin P. Y-H. Lee, who worked with Hwang in his former capacity as Director of the National Parks Board’s (NParks’) Centre for
Urban Greenery and Ecology (CUGE). Several years ago, as a CUGE research fellow, I had the privilege of watching one of Hwang’s projects progressively transform a barren patch of turf behind our office into an idyllic meadow frequented by birds and butterflies. This was one of various ongoing research collaborations between Hwang and NParks, studying rewilded and low-maintenance landscapes, and using social science techniques to probe people’s preferences regarding ‘wilder’ landscapes.
Raised in Seoul, and earning her post-professional MLA from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design on top of two Korean degrees, Hwang worked designing landscapes in Korean public housing estates before moving to Singapore in 2009. A decade on, she directs the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS’s) School of Design and Environment, where she is an Associate Professor.
Hwang is quick to observe that her chief area of interest – urban rewilding – isn’t novel. The concept has been explored – most thoroughly in Europe and the United States – under a range of alternative names, including habitat restoration, naturalistic planting and spontaneous planting. She cites Boston’s Urban Wilds Initiative (originating in the 1970s) and the Alnarp Landscape Laboratory in Sweden (active since the 1980s) among many international inspirations.
So what’s different about rewilding in Singapore? For one, the equatorial location allows for quicker continuous plant growth than in temperate zones. And the island nation remains remarkably species-rich despite its legacy of colonial deforestation, and subsequent industrialisation and development. As Hwang noted in a recent journal article, only 0.16 per cent of Singapore’s total land cover is primary rainforest, and open lawns and simple vegetation still dominate the landscape.
The rapid economic transformation of Singapore from kampung to global city has included a strong greening component. This began in the 1960s when Lee Kuan Yew started his ‘Garden City’ treeplanting campaign as a way to improve quality of life for residents and visually impress foreign visitors and potential investors. Today, the ‘City in a Garden’ is perhaps best known internationally for its spectacularly engineered urban greenery – from WOHA’s vineand award-laden towers to Hollywood-worthy Gardens by the Bay. Unlike natural habitats, however, these verdant beauties don’t build or maintain themselves; that task falls largely to a large force of lowpaid migrant workers.
In this highly manicured tropical context, Hwang sees much potential for generating socio-ecological benefits by applying practices of rewilding to urban greening protocols. Her ‘forest garden’ pilot project on the NUS campus provides compelling proof of concept. Starting in 2010, with the support of sustainable campus initiatives, Hwang’s team transformed a 2,500-square-metre patch of lawn into an appealing refuge for many diverse species, including researchers and students studying related topics.
During the project’s first two years, the lawn was simply left to grow without mowing. Subsequent years saw selective interventions to remove overzealous species and allow slower-growing plants, particularly those bearing fruit and flowers for animals to eat.
In the nine years of its development, the number of plant species has more than doubled, while the number of animal species has more than quadrupled; some of the spontaneously planted trees now exceed ten metres in height. To encourage community engagement and demonstrate stewardship, Hwang has been careful to include design elements that she calls “cues to care”, including a curving 70-metre boardwalk. The garden has become a test bed for research, an outdoor lab for class modules, and a showcase for sustainable management practices for landscape professionals and policy makers.
Hwang is optimistic about future developments, citing ongoing discussions about how her research findings can be implemented into the sustainable maintenance of the university campus and NParks portfolio. Some challenges remain, including the difficulties of the general public’s concerns about “mosquitoes, snakes, messy appearance and safety,” she notes, “but things are slowly moving in a positive way. My hope is that landscape industries adopt such approaches when implementing urban greening across Singapore.” The ‘City in a Rewilded Garden’ may be coming soon to a lawn near you.
Far from a complacent approach, rewilding is the result of “strategic and intended design actions, careful manipulation and selective maintenance intervention.”
Yun Hye Hwang