DP Green’s Yvonne Tan on nature-inspired landscape design and the focus on well-being
By Hailey Yu
/ EdgeProp Singapore |
Tan: Homebuyers are getting more sophisticated and possibly more idealistic too. Their own personal beliefs also influence their home purchases. It’s not just about gross floor area or location anymore. It’s important to have the sustainability angle too (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - For landscape architect Yvonne Tan, space has never been an issue for creating her own private haven of greenery and wildlife. Her balcony at home measures just 3m by 0.42m. Yet, she manages to plant mulberry, calamansi and kaffir lime, along with ginger, chilli, kale, guchai and longevity spinach. She wants to grow sunflowers next.
Tan has incorporated plants that attract both birds and bees. “It’s a nature-inspired garden,” she says.
Given her expertise in landscape architecture, Tan, the director of DP Green, has been on the judging panel of the EdgeProp Singapore Awards for the past five years. DP Green is the landscape architecture and arboriculture consultancy arm of homegrown architectural practice, DP Architects.
According to Tan, it’s “encouraging” to see more developers aligning their corporate environmental, social and governance strategy with climate change. “Homebuyers are getting more sophisticated and possibly more idealistic too,” she notes. “Their own personal beliefs also influence their home purchases. It’s not just about gross floor area or location anymore. It’s important to have the sustainability angle too.”
Biophilic design, health and wellness have become buzzwords since Covid, but it has been something that architects have been working on for more than a decade. It started as therapeutic landscape design introduced in healthcare facilities in Singapore, says Tan. For instance, at Khoo Teck Puat General Hospital in Yishun, completed in 2010, almost every bed has a view of greenery.
DP Green was involved in the master plan of transforming Alexandra Hospital into the Alexandra healthcare campus; and in the design of Sengkang General Hospital and Sengkang Community Hospital (collectively known as SKH Campus), which was completed in 2018. It incorporated green spaces such as therapeutic roof gardens and landscaping on the first floor.
The focus has shifted from healthcare facilities to other sectors, such as residential and offices. “There’s a lot more focus on well-being in the office because people spend so much time there,” says Tan.
Man doing yoga under Punggol viaduct (Credit: DP Green)
One of DP Green's recent projects in Singapore was a playground in one of the linear parks linked to a park connector under the MRT viaduct in Punggol. The playground opened recently. While her colleagues were there one day, they saw someone with a yoga mat in a zen pose under the concrete viaduct against the backdrop of the colourful playground.
Well-being means different things to different people, notes Tan. “It can mean mental well-being, physical health and your inner soul,” she says. “As long as we can create different types of experiences and different kinds of connections to nature, even if it’s just a place to do yoga.”
In Singapore, DP Green, together with DP Architects, is working on the design of the 6,6ha Plantation Village in Tengah, which is poised to be a futuristic, smart and sustainable town. When fully completed, Plantation Village will have 1,420 homes, a 164,700 sq ft neighbourhood centre and 30,570 sq ft of communal spaces.. It is one of the five residential districts in the new Tengah town, which occupies 700ha. When fully completed, will have 45,000 new homes.
DP Green is involved in the landscape architecture of Plantation Village. The centrepiece is the Plantation Farmway which is 700m long and 40m wide. It will include community farming and weave through the housing precincts, connecting the community and recreational facilities within the district. The Plantation Farmway will also serve as a green connector, linking residents to other key facilities and amenities in Tengah town, such as the town centre, Central Park and Forest Stream.
Perspective by DP Architects and DP Green (Credit: HDB)
“Although we can’t recreate Tengah Forest, we are trying to bring in the plant species found in the forest and plantation,” says Tan. “We also want to focus on Tengah as a plantation, so we are recreating some of the memories and heritage through the plantation language. I think the Plantation Village is going to be one of the greenest residential precincts in Tengah.”
In the hospitality sector, high-end hotels are adopting a more “nature-centric” approach even as they focus on luxury elements, notes Tan. An example is Raffles Hotel at Sentosa, where DP Green is the landscape architect working closely with international design studio Yabu Pushelberg. The luxury hotel will have 61 villas ranging in size from 260 sqm one-bedroom to 450 sqm four-bedroom set within a lush garden.
“The focus is on biodiversity, on creating ecological connections and how we can bring nature closer to the guests,” says Tan. “It’s inward-looking. And it’s a design concept that can apply to residential condominiums too — creating views and garden spaces, even on a tight site.”
The 61-villa Raffles Hotel Sentosa where DP Green is the local landscape architect working with Yabu Pushelberg (Credit: Raffles Hotel)
DP Green is also the landscape architect for the 143-unit The Standard Singapore, slated to open next year. The upcoming hotel is located opposite Shangri-La Hotel on Orange Grove Road. “We are creating experiential spaces that are very relevant in any project — whether it is mixed-use, office space or residential, be it a high-density condominium or low-density, low-rise development.”
DP Green is the landscape architect for the upcoming 143-room The Standard, Singapore at Orange Grove Road (Credit: DP Architects)
A lot of people are looking for “real experiences” when they visit a destination, notes Tan. DP Green’s landscape architecture projects extend beyond Singapore’s shores. In its overseas projects, for instance, shopping centres in India, landscape design is now part of placemaking. Increasingly, it’s about the community, she says. In the past, it would entail the creation of just a sensory garden. It has moved beyond that. “These days, the focus is on how people use the space,” she adds.
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