Gardens by the Bay: Where a Colossal Nature Park Gives New Lease of Life to Urban Singapore

Supertree Grove in the Gardens by the Bay. (Jan / Flickr)

Singapore is an island nation in Southeast Asia, which largely depends on tourism for its economy. It is a global entertainment and tourism hub, where people from all across the globe visit each year to unwind. And the country too offers various destinations where tourists can rejuvenate themselves from their daily, fast-paced life. One such destination in Singapore, which is a must on every traveller’s itinerary, is the Supertree Grove in the Gardens by the Bay. The Gardens by the Bay is not just a botanical garden but also the biggest glass greenhouse, spread over a sprawling 250 acres of land, with Supertree Grove as one of its main attractions.

Aerial photo of Gardens by the Bay. (Hari Krishna / Flickr)

In 2005, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (who is also the current PM) announced that a garden destination be planned in their country, which would raise the standard of living of the locals and quality of living of foreign visitors. This spacious park, planned adjacent to the Marina Reservoir, would double up as a nature park, where people could visit for outdoor recreation and also get an unhindered view of the vast city skyline.

Work on building a city inside a garden began in 2007 and by November 2011, visitors were let in to soak in the scenic beauty and the fresh, clean air in an experimental tour. From the year 2012, the Gardens by the Bay became fully functional, with as many as 6.5 million tourists visiting the place in 2014 alone.

Gardens by the Bay, Singapore

Botanist Dr. Kiat W. Tan came up with the idea of the design of the world-class garden on reclaimed land, which has now become home to a million plants and trees from all parts of the world, excluding Antarctica. With diligent and consistent men at work, a dream to build a nature park materialized and a barren, sandy piece of land magically transformed into a stunning, lush green space called the Gardens by the Bay.

The two main attractions of these huge funnel-shaped glass awnings are the conservatories called Cloud Forest and Supertree Grove. The Gardens by the Bay are made up of tall column-less, steel branch-like structures and glazed glass panels that trap sunlight for the cultivation of plants and trees from foreign lands. Temperatures maintained in the domes range between 23 and 25 degrees centigrade, making it easier for plants like cherry blossoms, tulips and dahlias to bloom inside comfortably in their ‘close-to-natural’ surroundings.

Cloud forest, Gardens by the Bay. (Allie_Caulfield / Flickr)

The Supertree Grove

The main tourist attraction to visit inside the Gardens by the Bay is the Supertree Grove. It is an artificial, solar-powered mechanical jungle, with as many as eighteen supertrees that generate solar power and also act as a vertical garden. These man-made trees operate as venting ducts to eliminate harmful gases from inside, collect rainwater and also convert sunlight into energy, providing for the conservatories below, while also acting as sheltered walks for visitors underneath. Rising to scaling heights of 25 to 50 metres (80 to 150 feet), the larger-than-life tree-like structures have tropical flowers, trees, ferns and vines, climbing upwards on steel frames, which also double up as natural canopies.

Supertree Grove at night. (Romain Pontida / Flickr)

Inspired partly by nature and partly by fiction, this climate-controlled Supertree Grove has a 128-metre-long interconnecting bridge high above at 22 feet, known as the OCBC Skyway that links the tree structures together. These skywalks offer visitors a panoramic view of the gardens below, while also helping ease movement of thousands of tourists that visit at once. This interconnecting aerial walkway also presents photo opportunities to visitors as they get to see the Supertree structures with rare flora and fauna from up close.

The super-tall vertical gardens, which are home to exotic flowers like orchids, are fitted with photovoltaic cells to harness solar energy, mimicking plants’ own process of photosynthesis. This energy is then used to light up Supertree structures and also provide for the coordinated light and sound music show that brings this gigantic complex alive in the night time. Every month the theme of the music show changes for more added effect. Food stalls atop the Supertree help tourists refuel after a long day’s tiring sightseeing session. The Supertree Grove also forms a part of pop culture, making its appearance in several movies and video games. The Flower Dome inside the stunning Gardens by the Bay has earned a prestigious place in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2015 for being the largest glass greenhouse in the world.

A horticultural marvel, the Supertree Grove not just provides respite from the tropical Singaporean heat to people but it is also an engineering wonder that gives the island nation a new rank in the list of developed countries, with an eco-tourism destination to boast of. The multi-million dollar project stands true to the government’s strategy of building a city inside a garden, fulfilling the promise of a greener standard of living.

Enjoyed this article? Also, check out “Amazon Spheres: An Unexpected Rainforest in the Amazon HQ at Seattle“.

Fact Analysis:
STSTW Media strives to deliver accurate information through careful research. However, things can go wrong. If you find the above article inaccurate or biased, please let us know at [email protected]

• Biosphere
• Cloud Forest
• Gardens by the Bay
• Singapore Tourism
• Supertree Grove