THE EFFECTS OF DESIGNED LANDSCAPES ON USERS: A CASE STUDY OF BISHAN - ANG MO KIO PARK

Abstract

The vision of a ‘Garden City’ has evolved over the years, but policies have nonetheless, been developmental and anthropocentric at the crux. Singapore is an environmental possibilistic nation, with high technological resolution to the challenges posed by the country’s limited land and natural resources. The utilitarian canal is one of the many, engineered solution. It is a disconnected entity in the landscape. Not only does it disguise the natural ecological function of the ground, users’ have low affiliation to the concretized waterway. Nassauer (2011) writes that care evokes an immediate aesthetic response that will provoke behavior to change, maintain and protect landscape appearance. Care may help to advance further stewardship by prompting curiosity or sense of responsibility for ecosystem processes that are only partly understood. The paper posits that Bishan - Ang Mo Kio Park has qualities that exemplifies care. With the park as the case study for this dissertation, the paper seeks to understand if the redesigned landscape has cues and qualities that are legible to users. The visibility leads to acknowledging a consequent value of the place and may subsequently reshape users’ perception and behavior on site. The dissertation employs a series of user surveys and interviews to attempt to ‘measure’ affiliation users have with the former canal-in-the-park and to the present river-in-the-park. Data are organized and presented in tables in the paper.