SYNOPSIS

1 https://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/about-us/news-and-publications/press-releases/20102021-PilotHealth-District-in-Queenstown-to-Focus-on-Residents-Holistic-Well-being

2 https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/hdb-unveils-landscape-masterplan-to-spruce-updawson-estate

Context: The Old and the Young, Our Heritage and Our Future

There is an increasing amount of professional literature to support the claim that interaction with nature is highly beneficial for the holistic well-being of preschoolers and the elderly. Progressively, urban planners and policymakers are not only highlighting the need to design the city for our most vulnerable dwellers, but also vouching that such a paradigm shift has created greater inclusivity and, in turn, a better environment for everyone. Beyond static indices of liveability, convenience, and comfort, this facilitates an organic growth in other-awareness, sociability and empathy. This could potentially spark off more community initiatives that unearth previously hidden social issues and design interventions capable of addressing them.

Intervention: Landscape as Catalyst

This studio assumes a bold stance that landscape architecture, as it stands at the intersection between ecology, infrastructure, and social space, is strategically poised to augment the health of the environment and the people symbiotically.

How will outdoor and semi-outdoor spaces in and around our residential estates be designed differently if designers had a deeper understanding of the needs and circumstances of the vulnerable in our society?

Study Tours

Synopsis

The first week of studio was focused on study tours and visits to relevant spaces that exemplify sensitive design responses to the specific needs of vulnerable target users.

St Joseph’s Home (SJH)

As Singapore’s first nursing home to be co-located with an infant and childcare centre, SJH has been pioneering and advocating for quality inter-generational programmes. 4

Lions Befrienders

“Lions Befrienders is a social service agency formed in 1995, with a mission to provide friendship and care for seniors to age in place with community participation, enabling them to enjoy meaningful, enriching lives.”5 It has a strong presence in this neighbourhood, with its sole training centre at Block 163 Stirling Road and a senior activity centre at Block 151 Mei Ling Street.

Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden (JBCG)

JBCG was the first public garden in Asia to be dedicated to children. Fundamental to its design was “the process of ‘gradation’ in the sense that as the children grew, they would be able to move on to a different part of the Children’s Garden, while taking on the position of mentorship to the younger children,” 6 thus encouraging their motor, cognitive, social and emotional development within the context of a community.

Enabling Village

“The Enabling Village champions sustainability and sociability by promoting the learning, bonding and healing of people with varying abilities within a biophilic environment. This creates an inclusive space that enables and values everyone.... Wayfinding is developed as a series of touch-points at entries and strategic junctions to assist with orientation and navigation. Each building is identified by a feature wall with coloured graphics. External lighting is designed to give a serene park ambience. Building facades, drop-offs, cabanas and walkways are accentuated as beacons and connectors in the park. Art is integrated into the garden with building-scale murals, incorporating artwork by autistic artists.” 7

Outdoor Spaces as Optimum Environment for Mental Development

Despite their less-than-optimal ability to navigate their environment, ironically both preschoolers and the elderly benefit from constant and intensive interaction with the natural environment: one to ramp up their cognitive development, the other to slow down their mental degradation. Outdoor natural environments are optimum in achieving this for several reasons:

• Multi-sensorial stimulation

• Ample space and variability to build confidence in independent mobility

• Corresponding healthy environments (natural ventilation) and activities (recreation and exercise)

Intergenerational Symbiosis

It is also useful to consider similarities and distinctions in the circumstances of preschoolers and the elderly, as well as the symbiotic relationship that could arise from their interactions.

For example, both groups have limited independent mobility and often require some level of supervision. As such, they often benefit from a greater proximity to their place of residence. Universal or barrier-free accessibility are equally crucial to wheelchairs and strollers. Lowered executive cognitive functions often translate to challenges in wayfinding, requiring a more thoughtful landscape design that is not easy to get lost in.

4 https://stjh.org.sg/2020/impact-of-inter-generational-programmes-findings-from-st-josephs-home/

5 https://www.lionsbefrienders.org.sg

6 https://www.nparks.gov.sg/-/media/cuge/ebook/citygreen/cg16/cg16_04.ashx?la=en&hash=AA331A917

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7 https://www.archdaily.com/801850/enabling-village-woha

Spatial designs should engage the senses of smell, sound and touch more thoughtfully. The other senses that are not often discussed are just as important. The vestibular sense helps us keep our balance and sense movement, while proprioception is the ability to sense where our body is relative to the space around it. This would have implications on the diversity of movements that the landscape spaces will require of its users, including climbing, crouching, balancing, swinging etc.

As the nation’s demography progressively ages, the working population would have to increasingly take on a greater economic burden, often translating to the need for both parents in a family to work. In such a context, the older generation can be an appropriate partner in taking on part of the child-minding responsibilities.

Studies have also shown intergenerational interactions to be mutually beneficial. Children’s regular interactions with the older generation translate to greater language and social skills development. By reading and playing with the young ones, older adults become less prone to loneliness.