"Tropical Garden City" Singapore (Singapore)
Aside from being insipidity, I was impressed with the abundance of open spaces when walking around the city of Singapore.
In the main street, big trees make a canopy. Those interrupt the strong sunshine in the tropical zone and produce cool on a road. Unexpectedly miscellaneous townscape is also hidden by those. so I was not very conscious of it. I realized the effect of green landscape to improve the townscape over again by the green with volume so that it has become townscape oneself.
In the boulevards like Orchard in the downtown, a wall on the ground floor sets back and the set-back part is opened to public as a garden with greenery or a corridor with a roof. The spacious space which became integrated with the public sidewalk is the atmosphere of a green road park.
If you think that the greenery derives from the original rainforest or a tree must be big according to a fine climate as soon as it is planted, that was a big misunderstanding. Even though some of those go back to the colonial era, substantially it is also the result of Lee Kuan Yew's vision.
In 1967, he settled the tropical garden city plan to position tourism as an important industry and to raise the brand power of the city.
What he did to realize it was to collect plants from the tropical regions in the world.
Although they were brought from the tropical zone, they could not necessarily grow up vigorously. Even in the same Southeast Asia, Myanmar plants with dry season and rainy season seem to have not grown well in Singapore without a rainy season. 2000 kinds of plants, which aptitude was confirmed after the cultivation tests of 8000 kinds, are decorating streets.
I imagined that the greened pedestrian bridge was the result that volunteers put flowers in. In reality, it was also realized by greening policy. It is Lee Kuan Yew style to do everything thoroughly rather than Singaporean style. I admired that but got a bit scandalized at that.
The plan extends not only to the public space but also to the private property.
At the time of development, a developer has to consult with the government office and get agreement about the securing of open space, the method of greening and the kind of plants to obtain permission accroding to the ordinance. The permission may be not obtained unless continuity with neighboring open spaces and balance of tree species are considered.
That way, the green of the town had been improved for half a century from 1960. The result is present Singapore full of green. Now, it is difficult to imagine that, in the beginning, people pulled out the plants, brought them back home and trod on. Half a century of time was also a time to mature public morality.
Now, Singapore's greening rate is about 1/3 of the national land area. Compared with the starting time of 1967, the park area has increased more than eight times. Converting per citizen, it is about 6.7 square meters, more than twice of Tokyo. However, the increase of high-rise buildings to expand the park area accelerates insipidity, and the planned greening brought about the destruction of the existing tropical flora and fauna.
Branding of the city is not be solved in a short time. Nevertheless, if administrative backups continue for a long time without blurring, a common city sometimes turns out to be an outstanding city.
Even if the town has subjects, one of such overwhelming cases would not be Singapore that sublimated the planning of the tropical garden city to the name of reality after the accumulation of half a century ?
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References
リー・クアンユー回顧録（日本経済新聞社、2000）
シンガポールの緑化政策の概要（自治体国際化協会）
もっと知りたいシンガポール（綾部恒雄、石井米雄、弘文堂、1994）
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2010.02 Photos in English version, and photos and text in Japanese version
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2010.04, 2010.06 Change of photos
2018.01 Change of photos and text in English version and photos in Japanese version
