RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN TAGORE FOREST

Dai Junwei

Facing with loss of nature resource due to housing development on secondary forest in Singapore, we need to find the appropriate and sustainable way to utilize the resource. These resources ought to be reused and adapted in the new development. The project aims to reuse site resources such as water, trees and soil and to recycle what is existing on the site rather than transporting large quantities of material in and out.

Firstly, in terms of planning the value of the two streams in site are reassessed and the Tagore stream will be naturalized based on the hydrological impact assessment. Some bioretention swales will be added in the low lying area along the stream as the main approach to utilize water. The valuable trees will be reserved as the main plantings in the residential park and other trees will be recycled as surface pavement material and playful structures. The existing topography is utilized to design new road network, layout of buildings and topographic landscapes, which has minimum interverence to nature.

Secondly, one residential patch based on the planning area is selected to show how the resources can be fully utilized by phased landscape development combined with building construction. Layout of building is designed to minimize intervention of humans. Storm water can be stored and recycled for irrigation in the low lying area before being discharged into Tagore Stream. Excavated soil dug from the building foundation can shape the terrain of the low area to accommodate both storm water and human activities. Valuable trees are reserved as the ecological extension of the residential park while other trees are made into playful structures and wooden deck which fits the terrain.

This project hopes to give a new way to design high rise housing development on former secondary forest by resource management.