With a population of almost 6 million, you wouldn't think that Singapore is one of the greenest cities in the world. With a focus on biodiversity and protection of endangered plant species, this garden is setting an example for urban spaces everywhere.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00If I came from the year 2058, I would travel back in time to see where it all began.
00:15Singapore has always been known to have greenery as part of its identity.
00:22So since the 1960s, we have already been cultivating that international identity of being a green country.
00:32The next step of challenge is for us to actually present these greening efforts into a state of urbanisation.
00:43Currently, we are here at the Flower Dome, which replicates the Mediterranean regions of the world.
00:49So in comparison to the outdoor conditions in Singapore, we are probably about 8 to 10 degrees cooler than the outside.
01:05We have got a series of chilled water pipes running through the ground itself.
01:10By doing this, we are then able to control the cooling zone.
01:15And in the conservatories, we cool to a level where it is no higher than a human's height.
01:25The glass that we use in the conservatories are actually spectrally selective.
01:31So they allow about 66% of light to enter, but cuts away about 33% of the heat.
01:38The second conservatory would be the Cloud Forest, which replicates the conditions of the tropical montane forest.
01:52Since completion of the gardens, we have seen an increase in biodiversity and wildlife that comes to our gardens itself.
02:02It was a time in which we lost 150 species on our planet every day.
02:10My grandparents would tell me this place looked alien to them, futuristic, especially the trees.
02:18There are 18 numbers of super trees, ranging from 25 metres to 50 metres tall.
02:24They mimic the actual gigantic trees of the rainforest.
02:30So the PV panels itself are actually collectors of solar power.
02:39What would life be like if your city was also a garden?