About the Gardens

History of Gardens by the Bay

Gardens by the Bay brings to life NParks' vision of creating a City in a Garden. The Gardens captures the essence of Singapore as the premier tropical Garden City with the perfect environment in which to live and work - making Singapore a leading global city of the 21st century.

In January 2006, an international master plan design competition was launched to seek world-class design ideas for Gardens by the Bay. It drew more than 70 entries submitted by 170 firms, from over 24 countries, including 35 from Singapore.

An 11-member Jury comprising local and international experts shortlisted eight teams and two winners were announced in September 2006; namely Grant Associates for Bay South and Gustafson Porter for Bay East, both from the UK. A decision was made to develop Bay Central later.

A public exhibition of the master plan concepts and models of the winning teams was held in September 2006 at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Over 10,000 people visited the exhibition and over 700 gave their feedback. An overwhelming majority 85% of those surveyed liked the features in the master plans and over 97% said they would visit the gardens.

Bay South Gardens broke ground in November 2007, signalling the commencement of the Gardens’ development. Subsequently, development of Bay East Gardens also commenced. It was developed as an interim garden to be used as a staging site for some of the rowing and canoeing events of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in August 2010. Following the YOG, Bay East underwent reinstatement works and was open to the public in October 2011.

A special preview of parts of Bay South Gardens, including the Flower Dome, was held in November 2011 in conjunction with the World Orchid Conference (WOC). Some 300,000 members of the public visited both WOC and Bay 
South Gardens.

Sustainability in the Gardens

Underlying the concept of Gardens by the Bay are the principles of environmental sustainability. Much effort was made to plan and design for sustainable cycles in energy and water throughout Bay South Gardens.

Energetics of the Conservatories

Comprising two glass biomes, the Conservatories replicate the cool-dry climate of the Mediterranean and semi-arid sub-tropical regions and the cool-moist climate of the Tropical Montane region. They house a diverse collection of plants that are not commonly seen in this part of the world and are of high conservation value.

The conservatories are a statement in sustainable engineering and apply a suite of cutting-edge technologies for energy-efficient solutions in cooling. This suite of technologies can help to achieve at least 30% savings in energy consumption, compared to conventional cooling technologies.

1) Minimising Solar Heat Gain
The two conservatories are fitted with specially selected glass that allows optimal light in for plants, but reduces a substantial amount of heat. The roof is fitted with a sensor-operated retractable sails that opens automatically to provide shade to the plants when it gets too hot.

2) Cooling only the occupied zones
The Conservatories apply the strategy of cooling only the lower levels, thus reducing the volume of air to be cooled. This is achieved through thermal stratification – ground cooling by chilled water pipes cast within the floor slabs enabling cool air to settle at the lower occupied zone while the warm air rises and is vented out at high levels.

3) De-humidifying the air before cooling
To reduce the amount of energy required in the cooling process, the air in the Flower Dome is de-humidified by liquid desiccant (drying agent) before it is cooled. This desiccant is recycled using the waste heat from the burning of the biomass.

4) Generating energy and harnessing waste heat
Electricity is generated on-site to run the chillers that cool the Conservatories. At the same time, waste heat is captured in the process to regenerate the liquid desiccant. This co-generation of energy is achieved by the use of a Combined Heat Power (CHP) steam turbine that is fed by horticultural waste from the Gardens and other parks around Singapore. This reduces dependency on the electrical grid.

Environmentally Sustainable Functions of the Supertrees

Eleven of the Supertrees are embedded with environmentally sustainable functions. Some have photovoltaic cells on their canopies to harvest solar energy for lighting up the Supertrees., while others are integrated with the Conservatories and serve as air exhaust receptacles.

Board of Directors