Case Study 案例研究
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Beyond the Garden Enclave： Singapore Botanic Gardens’ Role in Shaping a Nation’s Landscape
从植物园到城市 新加坡植物园在建构城市景观中的作用 Case Study by Kejie Li Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore 本案作者：李科劼 新加坡国立大学建筑学院
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As a core node of the British imperial botanical network, the Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) has long been regarded as the crown jewel of tropical botany—a landscape whose reach extends far beyond its physical boundaries to shape ecological imaginations across Singapore and the entire Malay Peninsula. Serving as a key knowledge hub, the Gardens has consistently produced and disseminated cognitive systems regarding botany and nature. These frameworks have been progressively expanded into the broader urban landscape through institutional, technical, and practical pathways.
本过高且森林生长状况不佳，森林部门长期入不敷出。至1890年代，因缺乏经济产出，森林被视为“无用”。 1930年代，森林保护区被大举撤销，职能转向景观休闲，保护制度的缺失致使森林持续萎缩。转机出现在1990 年代，随着生态旅游兴起，森林被重新定义为“生态资产”。园长陈伟杰通过建立自然保护分支，联合民间力量 促成1990年《自然保护总体规划》。该框架随后被纳入1992年《新加坡绿色计划》，正式确立了武吉知马、中 央集水区等四大自然保护区。在此过程中，植物园凭借筛选与定义，在科学层面主导着新加坡森林价值的重构。
From the designation of forest reserves in the 19th century and the optimization of rubber cultivation and tapping techniques to its role as the technical core of the post-independence “Garden City” movement, the Botanic Gardens has continuously shaped the logic behind the construction of Singapore’s landscape across different historical periods. Nature has been progressively classified, screened, and standardized, evolving into a manageable and replicable spatial object. Through three narratives, this study reveals the process of landscape construction centered on botanical knowledge and re-examines how seemingly natural environments in the contemporary city carry this historical continuity.
Following failed forest economy experiments, the introduction of Brazilian rubber transformed the Singapore Botanic Gardens into a scientific and distribution hub. In 1877, of the 22 saplings from Kew Gardens, 11 were successfully propagated here, eventually supplying over 7 million seeds across the Malay Peninsula. Director Henry Ridley—nicknamed “Mad Ridley” for his relentless lobbying—developed the revolutionary “herringbone” tapping method, ensuring sustainable high yields without killing the trees.
新加坡植物园作为大英帝国植物学网络的核心节点，长期被视为热带植物学的皇冠明珠，其影响力远超 花园围墙之外。作为关键的知识中枢，它持续生产并传播关于植物与自然的认知体系，并通过制度、技 术与实践路径，不断扩展至整个城市景观之中。 从十九世纪森林保护区的划定，再到橡胶种植体系的建立，以及独立后“花园城市”的形成，植物园在不 同历史阶段持续塑造着新加坡景观的构建逻辑。自然逐渐被分类、筛选与规范化，成为一种可管理、可 复制的空间对象。本研究通过三个叙事，揭示这一以植物知识为核心的景观建构过程，并重新审视当代 城市中看似自然的环境如何承载这一历史延续。
Rubber Cultivation: From 22 Saplings to a Global Industry Hub
By the 1920s, the Malay Peninsula’s rubber acreage exceeded 2 million acres, producing over half the world’s supply, with Singapore serving as the primary export gateway. Local plantations in Thomson, Bukit Timah, and Sembawang reshaped the landscape into geometric production zones linked by roads and factories. This boom attracted a massive influx of Chinese and Indian laborers, permanently altering the region’s demographics. It also fueled the rise of business titans like Tan Kah Kee and Lee Kong Chian, who integrated cultivation, processing, shipping, and finance. Through their efforts, Singapore evolved from a transshipment point into the strategic command center of the global rubber supply chain. These plantation networks and worker settlements ultimately formed Singapore’s early urban spatial skeleton.
Reconstructing the Value of Forest: From Timber Bank to Ecological Asset
橡胶种植：从22棵幼苗到全球产业控制中枢
By the late 19th century, extensive gambier and pepper cultivation had reduced Singapore’s forest cover to 7%. In 1884, Nathaniel Cantley, Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, submitted the Straits Settlements Forest Report, proposing 8,000 acres of forest reserves as a “timber bank”, with the Botanic Gardens as a central nursery to test and cultivate high value species such as mahogany and teak. However, severe land degradation led to the widespread dominance of lalang, making reforestation costly and ineffective, while poor growth and high maintenance costs left the Forestry Department in persistent deficit. By the 1890s, forests were increasingly regarded as “unproductive”. In the 1930s, large portions of the reserves were degazetted and their role shifted toward recreation, as weakened protection frameworks contributed to continued forest loss. A shift occurred in the 1990s, when forests were redefined as “ecological assets” alongside the rise of ecotourism. Under Dr Tan Wee Kiat, a Nature Conservation Branch was established, leading to the Nature Conservation Master Plan (1990) and its incorporation into the Singapore Green Plan (1992), which formalised key nature reserves. Across these phases, the Singapore Botanic Gardens, through scientific classification and selection, played a central role in the ongoing reconstruction of forest value.
随着森林经济化尝试受挫，巴西橡胶的引入使新加坡植物园从纯植物学研究机构转型为橡胶产业的科 研与分发枢纽。1877年，在由邱园转运至此的22棵苗木中，有11棵在此成功繁育，此后向马来半岛 输送了逾700万颗种子。园长里德利研发出不伤形成层的“连续割胶法”，通过科学周期性切口确保了 橡胶树的可持续高产，他因随身携带种子四处游说而被戏称为“疯狂里德利”。到1920年代，马来半 岛橡胶种植面积突破200万英亩，产量占全球半数以上，新加坡随之成为核心出口港。本地种植园集 中于汤申、武吉知马及三巴旺一带，其严格的间距与排水要求使景观转向高度几何化的生产空间，通 过道路与加工厂形成了连续生产网络。同时，产业引入大量中印劳工，重塑了人口结构，并催生了陈 嘉庚、李光前等华商大亨。他们通过整合种植、加工、航运与金融，使新加坡从转运站演变为全球橡 胶产业链的控制中枢。这些聚落沿交通干道分布，与种植园共同构成了新加坡早期的城市空间骨架。
森林的价值重构：从木材银行到生态资产 19世纪末，受甘蜜与胡椒种植的掠夺式消耗，新加坡森林覆盖率降至7%。1884年，植物园园长Cantley提 交海峡殖民地森林报告，建议划定8000英亩森林保护区，试图以植物园为中心苗圃，筛选并培育桃花心木、 柚木等高价值经济树种，力求将森林转化为“木材银行”。然而，因土地严重退化致使白茅肆虐，人工复育成
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and expansive canopies, but this uniformity later resulted in fungal disease outbreaks, prompting a gradual diversification of species. At the same time, flowering shrubs were introduced to enhance visual impact, shifting urban greening toward a more image-oriented landscape system. This efficiency-driven framework not only reshaped species composition but also redefined the role of trees, as standardised regimes absorbed them into infrastructural management systems where their growth, placement, and maintenance were predetermined, distancing them from everyday life. In contrast, within the kampung, trees functioned as sources of shade, food, and temporal continuity, embedded in daily practices, whereas the Garden City model transformed them into managed background elements, reshaping human– nature relationships. 花园城市：苗圃、标准与制式绿化 新加坡植物园参与城市的景观改造延续至独立后。1967年花园城市运动启动后，它成为全岛绿化核心。作为中央苗圃，它筛选并培育进入城市的树苗；作为技 术制定者，它通过植树手册与修剪规范统一物种选择、种植间距与维护周期。在这一体系中，植物被定义为可复制的绿色基础设施。早期为追求即时遮荫，大 量单一种植了如青龙木(Angsana)等易于移植且冠幅巨大的速生树种；这种高密度的单一化种植随后导致了严重的真菌病害蔓延，迫使后期逐步丰富树种选择。 同时，为提升视觉效果，城市中又配以大量开花灌木，使绿化逐渐转向视觉导向的景观系统。然而，这一以效率与可控性为核心的绿化体系，不仅改变了物种 结构，也重塑了树木在城市中的角色。通过统一的种植标准与维护周期，树木被纳入基础设施管理体系，其生长节奏、空间位置与维护方式均被预先设定，逐 渐脱离日常生活的参与过程。这与传统的甘榜(Kampung)时代形成鲜明对比：在甘榜里，树木既是遮荫与食物的来源，也是伴随社区成熟的时间载体，与日常 生活高度互惠。而“花园城市”通过标准化的筛选与管控，将树木从生活的参与者剥离为背景。这不仅改变了城市的生态结构，更重塑了人与树木之间的关系。
Garden City: Nurseries, Standards, and the Standardisation of Urban Greenery The role of the SBG in shaping Singapore’s urban landscape extended into the post-independence period. Following the launch of the Garden City Campaign in 1967, it became the central institution for island-wide greening, functioning both as a nursery that selected and propagated species introduced into the city and as a technical authority that standardised planting through manuals regulating species choice, spacing, and maintenance cycles. Within this system, vegetation was defined as reproducible green infrastructure. Fast-growing species such as Angsana were widely deployed to achieve immediate shade, often in monocultures due to their ease of transplantation
Captions Figure 1. Singapore Botanic Gardens as a transnational exchange node. Rendered by author. Figure 2. Forest reserves and rubber flows structured through Singapore Botanic Gardens. Rendered by author. Figure 3. Ridley with an original Para Rubber tree in the Economic Garden. Source: Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Figure 4. Lee Kuan Yew planting an African Mahogany at Tree Planting Day, 1980. Source: National Parks Board (NParks), based on archival photograph. Figure 5. Tree Planting Guide, 1963. Source: National Library Board, Singapore (digitised collection).
图片说明
图1. 新加坡植物园作为跨国交换节点。作者绘制。 图2. 由新加坡植物园参与构建的森林保护区与橡胶流动体系。作者绘制。 图3. Ridley 与经济园中的原始巴西橡胶树。来源：新加坡国家档案馆。 图4. 李光耀于1980年植树节种植非洲桃花心木。来源：新加坡国家公园局（NParks），基于档案照片。 图5. 《植树指南》，1963年。来源：新加坡国家图书馆管理局（数字化馆藏）。