Every time I stroll along the KT Waterfront at night, I would have my hands full arresting couples caught for khalwat or for making out in close proximity - that is, if I were a Pegawai Pencegah Maksiat. But the sight of couples making out does not distract my urge to compare the thinking process of the people who created this waterfront and the thinking process of those who created Singapore's Gardens By The Bay.
The KT waterfront is indeed spectacular at night, thanks to the bright and vibrant artificial trees lining the waterfront. There's nothing as attractive in KT.
On closer look, the spectacle is just decorative lights in the form oftrees lined up in no particular artistic fashion - just planted without any further thought. Not much artistic value, no functional value. Not sure if the lights are meant to attract sotong for the candak sotong season.
Wonder what's the planner's or designer's vision is for the KT waterfront.
Singapore's Gardens by the Bay, is a 250-acre sprawling series of indoor and outdoor waterfront gardens. It is part of a not-so-simple plan to reinvent Singapore as a city in a garden. The idea is to create a sustainable garden in the city, generating a better environment for humans with a creative fusion of technology and nature.
The man-made mechanical forest consists of 18 supertrees that act as vertical gardens, generating solar power, acting as air venting ducts for nearby conservatories, and collecting rainwater. To generate electricity, 11 of the trees are fitted with solar photovoltaic systems that provide lighting and assist with water flow in the conservatories below.
These trees serve several purposes: they act as a vertical tropical garden, as the engine room for the environmental systems of the conservatory, and as rainwater receptacles. And yes, they light up at night!The Supertrees, which vary in height between 80 and 160 feet, are made of four parts: reinforcement concrete core, trunk, planting panels of the living skin, and canopy. Just like non-mechanized forests, the large canopies operate as temperature moderators, absorbing and dispersing heat, as well as providing shelter to visitors walking below. This suite of technologies can help to achieve at least 30% savings in energy consumption, compared to conventional methods of cooling, according to the project’s website.
Special sky bridges connect a few of the trees, for those brave enough to walk above Earth at the height of the top of skyscrapers.
Are KT's city planners and developers brave enough to bridge the mind gap?
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