PARTNERSHIP IN TRANSFORMING SINGAPORE’S LANDSCAPE INDUSTRY

LEONG CHEE CHIEW (DR) & ER KENNETH (DR) DEPUTY CEO & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, NATIONAL PARKS BOARD

The greening of Singapore

Singapore’s greening movement began in earnest in the 1960s with our founding Prime Minister’s vision of a Garden City. Over the years, with continued urbanisation, greenery became increasingly vital for liveability in our small and highly built-up island state. With growing environmental concerns, the mitigation of urban heat island and the impacts of climate change has also become a priority. Against this backdrop, the vision has evolved from Garden City to City in a Garden, and now, City in Nature. This presents the landscape industry with tremendous opportunity for growth as well as concomitant challenges regarding capacity, skill, professionalism and standards.

The landscape industry

The industry is currently worth about $861 million in revenue and employs some 12,000 persons. It comprises of companies that provide services such as plant nurseries, landscape architecture & design, landscape implementation and horticulture management.

Enlarging the green estate

Singapore is one of the greenest cities in the world, and will become even greener in the years ahead. In Master Plan 2019, our 7,800 ha of green spaces would increase by another 1,000 ha in the next 10-15 years. The 340 km of park connectors would increase by an additional 160 km by 2030, and would include the Round Island Route, Rail Corridor and the Bukit Timah-Rochor Green Corridor, part of which will be an innovative skypark over Bukit Timah Canal. The 120 ha of skyrise greenery would increase to 200 ha by 2030.

Capacity building

NParks set up the Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology (CUGE) in 2007 to prepare the industry for future demands. CUGE has been instrumental is training a previously unskilled workforce. NParks’ industry development initiatives through the Landscape Productivity Roadmap in 2011 focused on skill development and improving productivity. CUGE also enhanced professional development through the introduction of professional certification like the Certified Arborist, Certified Practising Horticulturist, Certified Park Manager and Certified Playground Inspector. Initiatives like the Landscape Productivity Grant incentivised mechanisation. The Progressive Wage Model was implemented through the efforts of the Tripartite Cluster for Landscape Industry (TCL) to make the salaries of landscape workers more competitive as they become better trained and more highly skilled.

In tandem with efforts to raise standards of horticulture and arboriculture, NParks took over the management of greenery on lands owned by HDB, PUB and SLA. NParks’ tree registry system would be expanded to include trees in Town Council areas to facilitate higher standards in tree management. To strengthen greenery management, CUGE conducts research in arboriculture, horticulture and ecology. NParks’ tree management regime adopts the highest international standards, and in certain areas, surpass them. To ensure long-term stability for the industry, NParks took on the role of providing land for landscape nurseries, and the promotion of technology and productivity in the use of such land.

Challenges faced by the landscape industry

In spite of efforts to improve training, skill development and productivity, the industry continued to be perceived as menial and low paying, with little prospect for career advancement. The ageing workforce was not being replaced by young talent. Other more competitive industries were attracting the graduates from the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL). Although there was some mid-career recruitment of those displaced from other industries, the number was small. A transformation was urgently needed.

Landscape Sector Transformation Plan (LSTP)

In 2017, stakeholders including the landscape contractors, professional associations, institutions of higher learning, union and government agencies came together to deliberate on what was needed of the industry in order to sustain the greening vision. The opportunities were clear to the stakeholders. Greenery in Singapore was increasingly more complex, and a highly skilled workforce would be required to sustain it. Beyond the basic productivity initiatives, more needed to be done to raise professionalism and make the industry attractive.

City in Nature

The industry’s commitment to transformation was timely. The City in Nature vision was announced by the Ministry of National Development in March 2020. The new paradigm would be to plan and develop with the view of restoring nature back into our city. Nature would permeate urban infrastructure to soften its harshness, restore balance in the ecosystem and ensure liveability. In so doing, Singapore’s natural heritage and rich native biodiversity would be safeguarded for future generations of Singaporeans. Four broad thrusts would be involved: (i) build upon the nature reserves to ensure a healthy ecosystem, (ii) restore nature in gardens and parks, (iii) integrate nature into the built environment, (iv) strengthen connectivity between our green spaces. The active support and participation of the entire community would underpin the vision and would foster closer bonds between Singaporeans and a deeper sense of stewardship and ownership for the environment.

Some of the key initiatives under City in Nature include planting 1mil trees over the next 10 years; strengthening Singapore’s natural capital, the nature reserves, with the addition of 250 ha of nature parks; and restoring native habitats in 50% of all gardens and parks. The aspiration is to make every road a Nature Way so that the forest environment along our roads would contribute to a cooler Singapore. Hotspots of highest temperature like industrial areas would also be greened up.

Skills and technology needed for a City in Nature

To become a City in Nature, we would need to revolutionise the way gardens and parks are designed, and streetscapes are planted, so that nature becomes our assurance of liveability, and defence against the impacts of climate change. We would need to equip ourselves with new tools, and leverage on technology and digitalisation.

Building on existing strengths to manage our growing population of trees, modelling techniques such as the Tree Structural Model (TSM) would predict the impact of environmental conditions such as wind speed on the structural integrity of trees. This would help guide pruning interventions to improve tree stability. Changes in stability would also be detected by wireless tree tilt sensors for timely intervention. Lidar (Laser in detection and ranging) technology would map the locations and physical attributes of trees. We would have tools to detect decay in roots below the soil surface and to efficiently manage contractors’ vehicle fleets. A landscape library for Building Information Modelling would also be available.

Beyond these, the application of disciplines like ecology increase greatly. The conservation of pollinators like bees would be strengthened. Night vision equipment would enable a better understanding of the behaviour of nocturnal animals. Innovations like the Roadway Animal Detection System would help protect animals from becoming roadkill. Predictive modelling would help establish the complementarity between habitats for better planning. For example, the application of this tool together with radio tracking of birds, provided scientific evidence to support the conservation of Mandai Mangrove and Mudflat by establishing that it complements Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. GPS tracking of migratory birds would provide insights into the migratory routes along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Technology would be key in the City in Nature.

Implementation of the LSTP

The LSTP was launched in May 2019. The LSTP’s objective was the creation of a professional and productive industry through six thrusts, these being industry standards, digitalisation & mechanisation; education & training; progressive contracting; making available land for nursery plots; exporting services; and whole of government support for the industry.

The Skills Framework for Landscape Industry was also approved by Skills Future Singapore was a key reference standard mapping out the training and skills needed for the growth of the industry, as well as to support the career progression and pathways for the workers and professionals.

Collaboration with tertiary institutions

As part of the LSTP, NParks and the Institute of Education (ITE) collaborated in revamping the NITEC and higher NITEC curriculum of the urban greenery & landscape courses. Students and their parents were assured of the career opportunities in the landscape industry and the pathways for advancing the students’ education and professional development. The image of menial labour was debunked. Instead, students were equipped with wide ranging higher value skills in design, nature conservation, ecology, arboriculture, horticulture and park management. ITE also introduced a Work Study Diploma, the curriculum of which was formulated in collaboration with the industry. Student-run parks and the Work Study Diploma offer students the opportunity to clock working experience which would enable them to fulfil the prerequisites for professional certification even while they are studying. To provide further exposure for the students, NParks also facilitated the collaboration with Australian institutions like the Australian Institute of Horticulture and Roma Street Park for training and attachment opportunities for the students.

NParks set up Bedok Town Park as the first student-run park in July 2019. Under the mentorship of NParks staff, ITE students became adept in using advanced technology for tree inspection, designing and constructing therapeutic, nature-play and butterfly gardens, setting up a bee hotel, and applying skills in data management, playground inspection, tree climbing and the use of drones and labour saving machinery including the robotic lawn mower. They would be primed to hit the ground running in the private and public sectors upon graduation.

Partnership was also forged with the polytechnics and universities. Mr Peter Lim set up a scholarship to support students pursuing tertiary education in the fields of horticulture and animal science. Disbursement of the scholarship awards would be through NParks’ Garden City Fund. To strengthen their curriculum, NParks would offer to teach modules in areas like ecology and nature conservation, as well as to implement staff exchanges with the IHLs as a means of providing their students the skills needed to manage a City in Nature. NParks expanded the student-run park scheme by setting aside Clementi Woods Park for the training of Ngee Ann Polytechnic Diploma in Landscape Design and Horticulture students. The Landscape Industry Association of Singapore would also help to train the students in Bedok Town Park and Clementi Woods Park, strengthening the interaction between students and seasoned industry professionals.

Bachelor of Landscape Architecture

NParks has been sending its scholars for undergraduate studies in Bachelor of Environmental Studies, and postgraduate studies in Master of Science (Environmental Management) and Master of Landscape Architecture. NParks was very pleased for the opportunity to work with the National University of Singapore (NUS) at the early stages of conceptualising the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) course. A BLA that equips local landscape architects with wide skillsets and understanding of tropical urban ecosystems, conservation, ecology, native biodiversity, and biophilic design would be a boost to the industry. The BLA would satisfy the demand for locally trained landscape architects, and also support the Government’s push to internationalize Singapore’s landscape industry leveraging on its international renown as a green city, for which a pool of well-trained landscape professionals would be key. The BLA would also expand the pathway for ITE and polytechnic students to further tertiary education. The BLA was greatly welcomed by the landscape industry when it was announced.

An exciting future for young talent

NParks will continue to work with the IHLs to prepare their graduates for a forward-looking landscape industry.

Graduates will find themselves in the forefront of an industry that will embrace new areas of knowledge and skills. These include learning to manage wildlife for harmony between people and nature; extending knowledge and expertise to the region and beyond for complementary in sustaining key habitats for migratory birds; engaging the community more extensively for coownership and stewardship of the City in Nature; and realising the benefits that nature brings to the health and wellbeing of the populace. All these, and more, would challenge young talent and provide engaging careers.

A decade of the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) programme is an important milestone. To mark it with the launch of the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) is farsighted. As partners in the landscape industry journey, we offer NUS our warmest congratulations!

History Of Mla Programme In Nus

WONG YUNN CHII (DR) HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE (2007-2017)

We recognize that gardens, parks and landscapes amidst our urban settings do marvelous things to our lives. Making us happy and healthy. Thrilling us to the wonders of nature’s beauty and diversity. Reminding us of the fragility of life itself. Yet, while we accept them as a part of us, we often take them for granted; habituated in assuming that they ‘just happen,’ and they ‘will always be there.’ The mildness of our weather and fecundity of our land continues to bequeath us these gifts. While the assumptions are partly true, it is also foolhardy for us to believe in their natural perpetuity. More so in the context of urbanized Singapore.

In the first place, our physical developments continue to place demands on whatever is left of our ‘natural’ places. Gambier and pepper plantations devastated the primary forests in the early years of our colonial settlement. Closer to our time, the competition for scarce land resources to fulfil an imagined standard of living, and the pressures of global climate changes, all extoll greater loads to whatever is left of our natural settings.

For this reason, the study of and the care for nature, landscapes and the cultivation of new ones is vital for our national survival and resilience. The journey to this realisation is long in its making; and a decade ago, we took the first step. It resulted in the first graduate professional program in Landscape Architecture.

It was a journey with numerous false starts; perhaps the time was not right due to the exigencies of other educational concerns. In the chronicles to chart the genesis of our landscape architecture program, these ‘start-stops’ punctuate our institutional awareness, nudging us along to do the right thing. We count among these earlier pioneers as caring individuals, advocating the discipline as worthy for pursuit: in the eighties through the nineties, Damien Mugavin, Edmund Waller and finally, Ong Boon Lay. Boon Lay succeeded in moving along a white paper on Master studies in landscape architecture at NUS, in collaboration with SILA (Singapore Institute of Landscape Architecture). And it was his dogged effort that finally secured the support and approval of the Ministry of Education. As the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) program’s inaugural director, Boon Lay’s interest in holistic environmental design, formed during his doctoral studies at Cambridge, underpinned and shaped the program’s pedagogical ethos.

We recognized from the start that the Landscape Program at NUS is uniquely positioned to be among the best in Asia. Firstly, in joining the orbit of associated design endeavors already in place, namely architecture, urban design, integrated sustainable design and industrial design, it completes belief in comprehensive and integrated design. Secondly, in the context of an island city state, it is defined by the responses to the special challenges to inculcate a special cluster of skills and knowledge system. Thirdly, in the context of island-archipelago Southeast Asia, in the face of the environmental challenges caused by the inter-linked global climatic warming, denudation of natural areas, and rapid urbanization, landscape architecture’s cascading scales of attack were especially poignant. Over the next six years, Jörg Rekittke, the Program’s second director, was instrumental in formalizing the instructional rubrics for realising these goals. Cases and projects sited in Singapore and the region quickly demonstrated the urgency of both design actions and research knowledge needed. And under the leadership of Tan Puay Yok, a heightening of research knowledge to sharpen the designer’s tool sets.

The achievements of the MLA over this past ten years were obtained through the perseverance of a few core faculty and a battery of adjunct appointments consisting of professionals and scientists. We count among them Henry Steed, Shawn Lum, Bianca Maria Rinaldi, Wolfgang Wende, Philip Paar, Stefan Benard, S K Ganesan, Veera Sekaran, Otto Fung, Lim Swee Ting, Long Seen Hui, Sherman Stave and Tan Peck Chong. Puay Yok and Yun Hye, our remaining core faculty steered the program to what it is today, a program of substance and significance, truly fitting and extending the Program’s vision. To all these dedicated individuals and a decade of graduands from the MLA Program who believed in our unique objectives, we thank them for holding the line and building the course.

Overview Of Nus Mla

TAN PUAY YOK (DR) PROGRAMME DIRECTOR, NUS MLA (2015 - CURRENT)

In teaching the only graduate programme in landscape architecture in Singapore, my colleagues and I are constantly reminded of the overriding purpose of our work—the NUS MLA must make a difference through our graduates and the academic and professional activities of the MLA faculty. It is timely now, as I look back on the past decade and ahead to the next one, to share my reflections on the key premises that have guided us in shaping the MLA programme.

My colleagues and I agree that three key factors should guide our programme. First, we must build the strength of our programme in Asia, not only because it is where we are, not only because the next century is touted as the Asian century, but because there is so much that landscape architecture can do as a profession to make Asian growth more benign to the environment, one that assures the conservation of natural heritage and cultural landscapes. The sheer diversity of ecosystems, climate, geography, culture, and heritage, as well as the immense socio-ecological challenges brought about by very rapid land development, population growth, the growing middle class, large coastal populations threatened by climate change, etc., presents a rich backdrop within which to ask an urgent question—how can landscape architecture make a difference in Asia, to people, the environment, practice, and education?

Second, as we look out, we must also remember to look in, to Singapore. NUS MLA is taught in what is widely recognised as the greenest high-density city in the world. Despite its small land mass, high population density, and high-rise environment, Singapore is remarkably, very green. While this achievement offers useful lessons in how policy, laws, governance, and science can work together, critical questions must also be asked. Should Singapore be a reference, a model for other cities? Can a green city be also ecological, and if so, how does landscape architecture play a role? How do we leverage opportunities for our students to learn real-life lessons in engaging policy makers and the community? Wonderful opportunities exist for us and our students; to take advantage of them, we must eagerly and skilfully engage partners to work with us.

Third, landscape architecture is like geography, a very broad discipline, so we need to find our own niche within it. Landscape architecture is a messy discipline that appears to claim intellectual and professional space in the design of home gardens, indoor and semi-indoor green spaces in buildings, large gardens, and parks, (nature-based) urban and large-scale infrastructures, green space planning, regional planning, etc. Landscape architecture draws on knowledge from arts and aesthetics, plant sciences and ecology, construction and technology, hydrology and hydraulics, physical sciences and social sciences, etc. In fact, the list of disciplines with which landscape architecture is associated has expanded in recent years. This is not necessarily a problem in an evolving discipline, but what should the NUS MLA focus on, given the inadequate curricular space and teaching resources to maintain adequate breadth and depth? This is not unique to us. Every design school is faced with the same challenge. Some choose to focus on representation as a core emphasis, some specialize in sustainable design, and others take a more grounded approach to promoting realizable design. Still others encourage a more speculative approach to envisioning the future. All aspects are valuable, but no school can afford to teach all. Over time, NUS MLA has used the term “research-centric approach to design” as a distinguishing feature of the programme. What this means for us is that in teaching design, we emphasize rigour in systematic analysis of the site to define problems and identify potential, and the information gained is combined with knowledge of the sciences to derive interventions that are represented spatially and graphically. In promoting the link between science and design, we provide a means for faculty members to bring their research into teaching and to use teaching as a resource for their research. As none of us will ever know every scientific discipline in depth, our teaching faculty must necessarily know the blind spots and gaps in a design task, co-opt the necessary expertise, and in so doing, enrich their teaching, their students, and themselves.

In short, NUS MLA extracts lessons from Singapore, sets its sights on Asia, and uses research as an approach to ground design through the application of scientific knowledge.

How have we done, and where do we go from here?

I am not ashamed to say that we have done well. For many years, MLA has operated with a very lean faculty team, and have about 100 graduates who make us proud. About 70% are in practice; 20% are in a regulatory role in government agencies but remain in the urban planning, landscape planning, and landscape design disciplines, and the remaining 10% have gone on to do research or are in academia. Many are in senior positions in their workplace, and a handful have started their own practice. Many of the local graduates are actively engaged in local professional organisations, promoting landscape architecture to the younger generation. Leakage from the profession is low, and we hope that many will keep the passion as they develop their careers in whichever field they select.

Have they made a difference to shaping developments in Asia? I believe they have, each in his or her own small way. Have we claimed a mindshare among the few hundred MLA programmes in the world over the last ten years? I would like to think so, from the ever-increasing application numbers each year and the near doubling of our class size. This is where credits must be given to my past and present colleagues, as well as the leadership in the Department of Architecture and School of Design and Environment for believing that landscape architecture is a core domain in its educational mission.

But we are clearly not “there” yet, simply because the discipline is evolving, new techniques and tools that need to be taught are constantly developing, and the knowledge domains from which we draw theories and contents in landscape architecture education are shifting. I see three tasks ahead of us in NUS MLA.

First, we must keep pace with rapid advancement in digital and remote sensing techniques and incorporate them in our teaching. It was not that long ago that remotely obtained images from airborne drones took hours to be stitched together to be used for visualisation and design. Now, there are abundant software that now only do this quite effortlessly, they also produce DEM and DSM for design applications that would again have taken many hours of site measurements in the past to produce. LiDAR-produced point clouds should, in a few more years, become a viable platform for landscape design, and when coupled to environmental models, enable a performancebased method of landscape design. Thanks to the hyper-realistic visualisation methods from the gaming industry, visualisation techniques deployed for landscape design have grown by leaps and bound, and it is now almost routine to see fly-through and fly-over of landscape designs in design competitions. We need to enhance our teaching to ensure our graduates are ready for industry expectations when they graduate.

Second, we all recognise that the big challenges confronting societies today cannot be solved by a single discipline, certainly not landscape architecture alone. Indeed, it would be foolhardy to suggest that landscapes, or anything green, are a panacea to all the environmental challenges in the world. Global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, etc. can only be managed through interdisciplinary collaborations. Although landscape architecture has a role, more often than not, in real life it is combined with other professions. We should and can step up our efforts in interdisciplinary collaborations, such as with architecture, urban planning, or even non-design disciplines, such as conservation biology and social sciences, to reinforce the need for interdisciplinarity in practice. Useful lessons can also be learnt from our past experiences in running joint studios with colleagues here in the school and with other universities.

Third, we should diversify our student composition. Cross-learning between students from different socio-cultural backgrounds and with different emphases in landscape architecture education at the Bachelor’s level is an enriching experience for MLA students. Friendships are forged during the two years here, and over time, these can turn into valuable professional networks. Over the past decade, in addition to our local students, we have had students from Columbia, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Japan, and Thailand, with exchange students from New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. Student numbers from other countries remain low, however, compared to India and China, and we should particularly explore means to increase the representation from other Asian cities to enrich the experience of our students.

The year 2020 marks an important year for landscape architecture education in Singapore. Having mooted the idea for many years, we will launch the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture in the academic year 2020/21. Finally, we have a bridge between a diploma and a master degree in the national academic programme for landscape architecture. The next 10 years is therefore, not just about MLA, but about how MLA and BLA will collectively shape the golden years of landscape architecture education in Singapore. We have high expectations, and my colleagues and I are eagerly looking forward to making our contributions.