REINVENTING EDEN : INTEGRATING NATURE BACK INTO CITIES

Abstract

The pressing issues of climate change and the degeneration of our living environment today, are a direct consequence of urbanisation. Urbanisation causes deforestation, which removes our natural climate regulator, biodiversities and their life supporting services. Singapore, a highly urbanized tropical nation identifies herself with the construct of a “Garden City” image. Yet, despite her proactive investment in the greening of the city, Singapore suffers from declining biodiversity and increasing competition between nature and urbanisation. This describes the traditional perspective of urban development and its inverse relationship to nature, in which a building footprint replaces its original natural habitat. Given that urbanisation grows unimpeded according to this trend, it is impossible to achieve sustainability along with growth. Therefore, the question arises: Can cities be designed with nature? Can cities contribute back to biodiversity such that it is regenerative rather than degenerative? The design of man’s living environment is moving towards greater synergy with nature and displaying regenerative tendencies, as seen from the evolution of nature in the wild to parks and landscaping, and recently to natural waste-management and riparian systems. This paper hopes to explore the regenerative approach of urban development that integrates nature into man’s social and economic systems. The investigation is conducted through the analysis of historical man-nature relations and their influence in the built environment to establish the principles behind regenerative thinking. Subsequently, a framework is created to evaluate how such architecture and urban planning integrate nature back into our cities. Lastly, case studies such as Gardens by the Bay are analysed in relation to regenerative design so that an understanding of how Singapore’s construct of nature working towards the regenerative ideal can be achieved.