03
Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park in
Singapore, designed by
Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl.
Photo: Ramboll Studio
Dreiseitl
04
The Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park
renaturalizes a concrete
channel into an ecologically
rich waterway. Photos:
Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl05
Vanke Cloud City Phase 2
MiCool Display Area in
Guangzhou, China by D+H.
Photo: D+HNational Parks Board) and universities, and
the rise of internationally acclaimed
regional design practices such as WOHA.
Damian Tang, the president of IFLA Asia-
Pacific Region at the time of writing,
returned to Singapore a decade ago, after
completing a double degree in architecture
and landscape architecture at the University
of Melbourne. He took a summer job at the
National Parks Board in Singapore with the
intention of later returning to Australia, but
opportunity led him to stay. He observes
that Singapore has been far better served by
international designers than many other
Asian contexts due to the opening of local
Singapore offices. This long-term
commitment by practices such as Grant
Associates and Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl has
positively contributed to the profile and
development of landscape architecture in
Singapore. In contrast, the more common
“fly-in fly-out and advise from abroad”
approach of international designers leaves
the local firms to deal with all the difficult
issues. He nominates the Bishan-Ang Mo
Kio Park designed by Ramboll Studio
Dreiseitl as one of the best examples by an
international firm, observing that it is far
more challenging to work within the
existing urban fabric of Singapore than the
tabu la ra sa recla imed la nd of Ma r ina Bay.
Singapore seems now to be in the position to
reflect on its achievements and capitalize
on the lessons learnt from the wide range of
design and planning projects delivered over
the past years. The enormous capacity of the
Singapore government, which features
strong intergovernmental department
relationships, offers a sound platform to
continue to refine approaches and
st rateg ies. Ta ng believes it is t ime to
consolidate the extensive portfolio of
completed projects by supporting the
local population to actively engage and
take ownership of these considerable
investments. This act will raise the value
of these projects and contribute new layersof meaning to the city. Looking to the
broader Asian region, he sees Singapore’s
influence on many countries, particularly
China in the last two decades. He comments
that while Chinese landscape architecture
is embracing ecologically ambitious
infrastructure, he feels that certain Chinese
design approaches are still “missing the
soul/heart of people.”T ur ning to China, la ng ua ge issues ma ke it
extremely challenging for those outside the
country to comprehend contemporary
landscape architecture practice. For more
than twenty years Kongjian Yu and his firm
Turenscape have been “the Chinese voice”
of contemporary design to the west – for
instance, he was one of the two invited
Asian speakers at the LAF summit. But what
of the next generation of Chinese designers?On graduation, many young Chinese
landscape architects find work with the
extensive number of developers delivering
large-scale residential schemes across
China. Eileen Zhang, who graduated from
Beijing Forestry University in
2010, began her working life
with Pubang, China (PBCN),
a leading investment and
development company
founded in 2003. She
comments that the rapid rate
of delivery and the need to regulate quality
and costs encouraged design approaches
ref lect ive of pa r t icu la r st yles such a s
“European” or “South-East Asian,”
reproducible as a branded product.
However, she observes that with the
slowing of the residential market over the
past three years, emphasis has moved to
investing in public projects such as03 04It is time to turn the tables on European
and North American designers (and
academics) and to begin to celebrate
and promote the skills and innovations of
homegrown designers, thinkers and critics.LANDSCAPE ISSUE 157 056 — 057AN ASIAN PRACTICE