The Urban Wilds 73The experience of Singapore is preceded by a script that preempts and
prescribes forms of knowledge and emotional response. The Changi Airport
campsite and staged Rainforest Adventure, the vertical gardens, and Butterfly
House all help to prefigure the affective spaces that visitors will encounter. The
simulated campsite provides the means for the production of Singapore as a green
space, through the narrative address provided by the signage but also through
the anticipation of the embodied experience and the senses associated with it.
Tourists can be assured that while they will be entering a green space of a City in
a Garden, it will be sanitized, tamed, and contained in a micro-environment that
has been transformed into a comfort zone. The eco-cultural spaces of Terminal
3 and other terminals provide excitement for those locals on a family outing or
shopping trip; a prefiguring of Singapore as a green space for those entering the
country; and nostalgia for Singapore as a sensuous tropical paradise of eating and
shopping for those leaving.
Alan Bryman argues that more and more aspects of society are exhibiting the
characteristics of Disney theme parks (2004). “Theming” of specific environments
and spaces imparts an overarching narrative unity, creates distinctive features to
distinguish it from other products and services, and helps create affect for the
experience economy. Themed environments are entertaining environments;
theming also provides meaning and symbolism that transcends the original
purpose (Bryman 2004, pp. 16–18). The vertical green walls, the gorgeous
orchids, the Butterfly House, and the Changi Airport Campsite are all designed to
incite the imagination and stimulate the senses to establish a narrative unity that
constructs “green” as the “theme” of Singapore.
Figure 5.3 Terminal 3, Changi Airport