Nature: how to get some when your greatest and primary triumph is the conquest of the inhospitable jungle you have tamed (not to say devastated and replaced with concrete); when in the oppressive conditions of your climate your chief battle always remains against the prevailing forces of heat, humidity, flooding and water scarcity? (For understandable and forgivable reasons, the former PM nation-builder, Emeritus Senior Minister hovering-in-the-wings still, Mr. Lee Kwan Yew, identified air-con as the pinnacle of human ingenuity.)
Like everywhere else in the first world, nature was missing in the state of Singapore. Here the clawing back of some modest portion arrives with an ambitious government project whose first phase alone has cost a billion dollars.
In the opening paragraph of the chief story on page one this morning the Straits Times blows fanfare for the government initiative:
"Curtains go up on the first phase of Gardens by the Bay..."
The follow-up detailing on page 8 with larger graphic was headed: Oh, what an oasis.
Further swelling pitch follows:
"... (the Gardens are) expected to pull in five million visitors a year — (and) will debut with two cooled conservatories among its highlights..."
"... the Gardens complex will add lustre to the menu of attractions in Marina Bay" (where a huge, two year old casino complex that is already out-stripping the whole of Macau is the outstanding landmark).
"Entry will be free, but admission fees will apply at... the 128m aerial walkway that wends through the Supertree Grove."
A bucolic paradise in the making that promised to be far superior to the steamy original.
The gardens were being constructed in stages on reclaimed land near the artificial bay that was created as part of the casino development a few years earlier, the chief features the cool-houses and the twelve "..."Supertrees", concrete-and-metal structures resembling trees".
In the graphic the small forest of Supertrees stand in the form of marbled champagne flutes with the hint of pink bubbly within.
The tallest of the structures, at fifty metres, would house within the branches "a casual dining space at the top (that) can seat 450 people" — a kind of tree-house eyrie from which real arboreal canopy below could be viewed; and on the other side the Marina Bay Sands straddled by the Skypool. (Architecture has been let fly in Singapore well and truly, caution and humility to the winds. Dan Liebeskind was responsible for some snaky, optically leaning condo towers out at Sentosa, behind Marina Bay, that would split opinion along the Dali-Gaudi-absurdity faultline.)
Super-nature no holds barred. Within the two cooled conservatories, named the Flower Dome and Cloud Forestrespectively, botanical specimens from other, more fortunate locales and climates cultivated and displayed. This was presented as the conservation part of the project.
Beside tourist spin-offs, recreation, conservation and education for the locals from the new park, the government included in its ambitions the hope that the younger generation might be weaned from their screens and games by the establishment of such a reserve. Nature full-bodied, in contrast to the false colours and graphics of software engineers.
One recalled here mention of the 200 year old trees from various parts of the world that Sir Stamford Raffles himself planted up at Fort Canning Park. Possibly these trees do not stretch fully fifty metres and it would be only invisible bird nests housed. Impressive and spectacular giants by all reports nonetheless. In the interests of full and frank disclosure, this writer has not paid his respects as yet. The trees themselves are not alone the draw at Fort Canning. Fort Canning is situated on a little rise not far from Raffles Hotel, in the heart of the city. It seems the rise cannot be an artificial mound created by excavation fill. Rather, the elevation at Fort Canning seems to be a true and genuine hillock. In order to make the viewing of the famous old fort and the trees less arduous and taxing for both locals and tourists something like a thirty metre escalator has been built into the mound at Fort Canning.
The first time word of this was received there was a suspicion of leg-pull. Not the case.
A pass on Sir Stam’s specimens perhaps, but this implant at least cried out for investigation. Photographs online suggested quite something.
Google Escalator @ Fort Canning Park. Gleaming stainless steel well maintained, riding a hill of luscious green. Two pairs of Victorian street lamps light the passage for nocturnal visitation. (The argument at the Mr. Teh Tarik tables has been made for elderly and disabled access. Well, if it wasn’t for the shopping mall echoes, maybe.)
Only a hop, step and jump from the library.
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