There was this image of Singapore as a stiff and sanitized place – and then there was Crazy Rich Asians … That’s pretty much what I thought about Singapore for most of my life: a playground for the elites, full of arcane rules for the rest of us. Having absorbed all the clichéd warnings about the tropical city-state – can’t chew gum, fined if you jaywalk, no playing musical instruments in public – I figured it just wasn’t my cuppa. I preferred messy, chaotic places where people didn’t take bylaws too seriously. So, when the opportunity to visit Singapore came my way – three days to report on a conference, three days to myself – I felt none of my characteristic excitement.
“Don’t do anything reckless,” my law-abiding husband warned on the drive to the airport. “I don’t want to have to fly over and get you out of jail.” I nodded but promised nothing.
One day and two long flights later I landed in Singapore Changi Airport, a tour de force by Israeli Canadian architect Moshe Safdie that has charmed the world with its 40-metre-high waterfall, butterfly garden and rock-climbing wall. Over the next six days I learned, not for the first time in my life, that the truth is more nuanced than any set of clichés. For one thing, the rules aren’t as immovable as advertised: After noticing a few people jaywalking – people who looked like residents, rather than tourists – I tried it myself, when the occasion called for it. My husband did not have to fetch me from jail. I also saw a few people snacking on the street, which on paper is a no-no.
The Rain Vortex at Singapore’s Changi Airport. The world’s tallest indoor waterfall, it recirculates and collects rainwater for cooling and airflow. Photo: BarrySeah/Getty Images
One thinks of Asian urban hubs as overflowing with buildings and people, but what struck me above all, on my meandering walks through town, was the greenery: lining the road dividers, spilling out from terraces, even climbing up the façades of high-rise buildings. The city planners have been working to turn Singapore into “a city in a garden” and it shows. Amid the space-age constructions you’ll find lush patches of native Sea Almond and Rain Trees; and the One Million Trees movement, which aims to plant a million extra trees in the city by 2030, is more than halfway there. Known as biophilic design, it’s a philosophy that seeks to bridge the gap between the natural and urbanized worlds, capitalizing on nature’s proven ability to reduce stress and boost creativity.
The Supertrees, built on a former parking lot, are vertical gardens that also provide shade, generate solar power and collect rainwater. Photo: Fraser Hall/Getty Images
Nowhere do nature and high-tech come together more astonishingly than in the Gardens by the Bay park, where the human-made Supertrees – tree-like structures shaped like inverted umbrellas – convert sunlight into energy and support gardens of flowering plants. If this oddly pleasing mélange of foliage and steel represents the city of the future, I won’t complain.
