A walkway stretches between the 25-metretall supertrees.
T
he feeling of amazement hits early in The gardens get additional energy from burning their my trip, as I make my way from the biowaste in a giant steam turbine. This is new ecological airport to Singapore’s city centre. In architecture. front of me, out of jungle-like greenery ENTER THE CLOUD FOREST next to a tightly packed cluster of skyA waterfall rushes down a steep, jungle-covered hill. The air scrapers, rise futuristic constructions is thick with mist. Far overhead curves a futuristic glass with dome ceilings and supertrees dome. reaching for the skies. The inside of this dome is home to Gardens by the Bay, a stimulation of a cloud forest, one of which opened in June of the world’s richest and most endan2012 after more than six years of planning THESE STEEL TREES gered ecosystems. Cloud forests grow and construction, are marked by two enorat the height of one kilometre or mous greenhouses and a collection of 18 ARE ACTUALLY more, in the tropical mountains of supertees. At their tallest, they reach 50 VERTICAL GARDENS. Southeast Asia and South and Middle metres in height. America. These steel “trees” are, in fact, vertical The 40-metre hill can be ascended gardens covered with ferns, tillandsias and by elevator or via a path made out of metal bridges. The orchids. And like naturally born trees, they too have an ecological function: their funnel-like canopies offer shade to fauna changes according to manmade climate zones, which are achieved with sophisticated air conditioning technology. those strolling through the gardens and collect solar energy Higher up, ferns, orchids and camellias give way to pitcher and rain water for the gardens. They also function as air plants. ducts for the greenhouses.
40 BLUE WINGS
MARCH 2013