Green in Future: Media Partner for Cities of Love Awards (COLA)
The Cities of Love Award (COLA) is a national movement dedicated to recognise and honour the sustainability efforts of individuals, businesses, and communities. For more information, please contact Ms. Candy Tan at candy-tan@inception.city or call 97459830 to find out how you can participate. Website to Register www.inception.city/citiesoflove-12/
Be recognized for loving your city.
If you’re helping to make your world a more sustainable place, we want to acknowledge your hard work and perseverance.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a small homegrown project or a large scale corporate scheme – if you’re contributing to social, economic or environmental sustainability, we’d love to hear from you.
We’re looking for: actions that create a sustainable and friendly environment, or help to protect or maintain an existing one.
We’re looking for: business models or actions that balanced growth with contributions to the local economy and the welfare of the workforce who helped achieve it
We’re looking for: initiatives, actions or organization that will sustain their social group or community in the long-term.
Venue: Marina Bay Sands, Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Singapore
Organiser: Reed Exhibitions Singapore
About BEX Asia
Build Eco Xpo (BEX) Asia is Southeast Asia’s leading trade exhibition for the green building market to source, network, learn and grow at a single, convenient platform. A must-attend annual event in Singapore that brings together the regional building community and the best and latest green building solutions from around the globe for a transformative experience that will propel you and your business to the forefront of the market.
BEX Asia stands as the anchor trade platform for the Singapore Green Building Week, held alongside other key events like Mostra Convegno Expocomfort (MCE) Asia, and the International Green Building Conference (IGBC). Visit us at www.bex-asia.com
Tell us briefly about your career as an Environmental Design Educator? Currently, I teach for the ‘Diploma in Environment Design’ programme, a course that integrates architecture, landscape architecture and urban design at Temasek Polytechnic School of Design. I help to front the landscape architecture and sustainability side of the programme for the team. The journey has been great so far as I know I am playing my part in moulding future landscape architects and architects who care for the environment.
Tell us about your current role as the president of SILA and your future plans and goals? Being the president of SILA, I fill a multitude of roles. Firstly being a representative for the Landscape Architecture profession in Singapore and as the national delegate to the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA). I chair the Landscape Architects Accreditation Advisory Committee and am also a member of the Future Economy Council (FEC) Built Environment (BE) Cluster Sub- committee. In my capacity as an educator, I also chair SILA’s Education and Research Strategic Thrust. The other thrusts, Business Development and Professional Development, are chaired by my Vice-Presidents respectively. In Photo: Sustainable landscape architecture
SILA is currently consolidating our growth in preparation for the IFLA World Congress that will be organized on our shores in 2018. This will be the major event in SILA’s calendar where we welcome fellow practitioners, academics and friends from all over the world to the island for a unique Singapore experience and hearty discussion. I also envision the continued growth of LA Future. It is our youth arm independently run by our young graduates and students. They regularly conduct programmes such as networking sessions, talks by senior landscape architects and they now organize the international SILA Student Design Awards too. This is the group to watch out for as they will form the future core of the profession.
How do you perceive the emerging new technologies and its impact on the Sustainable landscape design?
It is definitely exciting looking forward to how emerging technologies will influence, how things work in the industry. Take for example, while BIM is quite established for architecture, there is still much more scope for growth and exploration of it in landscape architecture applications. Remote sensing is another tool on the horizon to help in surveys and our understanding of how the broader landscape works.
In Photo: City in a Garden
Do you think that, the upcoming years has the most potential for landscape architecture?
I think we will still see continued growth in PUB’s ABC Waters projects and the proliferation of skyrise greenery where landscape architects’ skills and expertise will be tapped onto take the country further towards the City in a Garden vision.
Service buyers such as government agencies and developers are now calling for a more integrated design approach with other disciplines and a need for landscape architecture to be incorporated early in the design process. This will allow for Design for Safety & Maintenance, Health and Safety, appropriate plant selection and soil depth etc., to be designed and incorporated early into any development project.
There are also opportunities apart from just that of aesthetical and anthropocentric design, but also in terms of designing for ecosystem services. In trying to achieve permeability of urban spaces and our natural environment, it is imperative
to conserve biodiversity and seek to provide environmental education opportunities.
Share your views on sustainability and landscape design?
Someone once commented that landscape architects are primarily tree-huggers who can draw. We are intrinsically already in the business of making the world a better and sustainable place. But there is more that we can do. As mentioned earlier, we should not just be churning out aesthetically pleasing works for ourselves but also to bear in mind the other small little creatures we share the environment with.
Tell us briefly about one of your favorite projects and why?
More recently it has to be the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ Learning Forest. Not just because I was previously part of the consultant team, but more so because I can see a genuine appreciation for the place by all stakeholders and public alike. Despite all the challenges on the project, it was exhilarating when the project was finally completed and opened by PM Lee. The Learning Forest now provides an education and research centric western buffer to the World Heritage Site and complements the rest of the historic gardens by adding an enjoyable universally accessible public space for all.
In Photo:Singapore Botanic Gardens’ Learning Forest
What will be your advice to the aspiring environmental design students ?
Learn to love learning. One aspect of the profession I appreciate is the opportunity and scope to learn new things all the time. The discipline is broad, encompassing ecology, horticulture, architecture, urban design, user experience etc. Deepen and hone your core set of skills and knowledge but broaden your know-how to other fields as well.
Eco Action Day focuses on ways to conserve energy and resources within the office and beyond. To date, more than 700 organisations, including multinational corporations, government agencies, private companies and tertiary institutions have participated in Eco Action Day. More details at http://ecoaction.sg/
Plant selection for green roofs is both an art and a science.
Designers often have to divide their attention between functional and aesthetic requirements. While there are literally hundreds of plants to choose from, the average landscape design palette probably only consists of up to 20 plants that are commonly found in our urban landscape. These plants are there for a reason; they are cost-effective, can be procured with ease, not too difficult to maintain and possess certain rudimentary aesthetic attributes. Think Yellow Creeping Daisy(Sphagneticola trilobata) for ground coverage with the occasional yellow flowers and Heliconia ‘American Dwarf’ for its fuller volume and ornamental potential.
Choosing the right plant comes with experience. Practitioners learn to pick them through a tried-andtested combination of apprenticeship and experiment. Those in the know might recall a certain Zephyranthes rosea, the Rain Lily with its pink flowers blooming after a heavy rain. Introduced as a green roof plant with much enthusiasm, interest in this plant faded quickly after it was found to be exceptionally susceptible to weeds. Plants such as Cyanotiscristata are also particularly vulnerable before they become well-established.
Special attention has to be paid to plants used for rooftop greenery, as the green roof system directly influences plant choice. While most extensive green roof systems are able to accommodate a large variety of plant types, novel systems such as roll-on mat green roofs are designed specifically for succulents. Such systems provide ease of maintenance through low irrigation requirements and are light enough to be installed onto metal roof deckings, but are handicapped by their limited plant palette.
Recent studies in Urban Heat Island (UHI) mitigation techniques have shown that greenery can improve both the indoor and outdoor environment. Green roofs can drastically lower direct exposure to solar radiation andreduce surface temperature by close to 50%. However, not all plants carry the same temperature reduction potential. In this light, it is important that the plant selection process includes consideration of temperature reduction potential for improved thermal comfort. Specific functional attributes such as evapotranspiration rate and albedo provide valuable insight into the thermal performance of plants. In addition to beautifying the urban landscape, plants serve as delivery agents of water, moving it from the soil to the atmosphere through its leaves and in the process improving the thermal environment.
Plants such as Phyllanthusmyrtifolius and Sphagneticolatrilobata do so in a rather adequate manner. Picking plants for their temperature reduction potential can help improve the urban environment, but is seldom practiced in the industry. To do so would require a paradigm shift in the current landscape design ethos that goes beyond basic requirements of aesthetics and maintainability. This space remains largely untrodden but is an important step to improving the urban microclimate.
Tell us briefly about your career as an Environmental Design Educator?
IGRIP 2017 – 3 Day Conference Delegates and Master class Attendee
Mr. Digby White, CEO
Mr Ken Yeang, Eco Architect Principal TR
IPRS-WUP Asia Pacific Congress in Singapore representing 10 countries
Mr. Ken Yeang with Green in Future team, Dr.Paru and Anchana
Over 200 Conference delegates and Masterclass participants made the event a BIG success
MOU signing off World Urban Parks WUP and Parks and Leisure Australia PLA
Successful #igrip2017 IPRS-WUP Asia pacific congress
Designers often have to divide their attention between functional and aesthetic requirements. While there are literally hundreds of plants to choose from, the average landscape design palette probably only consists of up to 20 plants that are commonly found in our urban landscape. These plants are there for a reason; they are cost-effective, can be procured with ease, not too difficult to maintain and possess certain rudimentary aesthetic attributes. Think Yellow Creeping Daisy (Sphagneticola trilobata) for ground coverage with the occasional yellow flowers and Heliconia ‘American Dwarf’ for its fuller volume and ornamental potential.
Recent studies in Urban Heat Island (UHI) mitigation techniques have shown that greenery can improve both the indoor and outdoor environment. Green roofs can drastically lower direct exposure to solar radiation andreduce surface temperature by close to 50%. However, not all plants carry the same temperature reduction potential. In this light, it is important that the plant selection process includes consideration of temperature reduction potential for improved thermal comfort. Specific functional attributes such as evapotranspiration rate and albedo provide valuable insight into the thermal performance of plants. In addition to beautifying the urban landscape, plants serve as delivery agents of water, moving it from the soil to the atmosphere through its leaves and in the process improving the thermal environment.
