Telok Blangah Hill Park’s Flying Infrastructure in the Sky

If you enjoyed our coverage of New York City’s High Line raised park, we think Telok Blangah Hill Park’s dizzying infrastructure will “elevate” you to an ever higher level. Located in Singapore, the park’s fly-over style “walkways” are reminiscent of those ancient rope bridges you see suspended over caverns in movies, giving you the very rare experience of viewing towering treetops from a monkey’s perspective. The pathways and suspension bridges are anything but rickety though. In fact, many of them are elegant works of art and architectural precision. But at 120 feet above the forest floor at their highest points, they aren’t for the faint of heart!

Telok Blangah is certainly breathtaking, but it also has the right kind of attitude when it comes to respecting nature. While some parks are constructed by chopping trees down to make room for open space and eliminating the animals that make their home there, Telok Blangah’s layout chose to preserve the natural landscape and instead build around it. Furthermore, the web-like paths consist of open structures which allow light and air to pass through. Some of the most awe-inspiring connection points are the undulating Henderson Waves (Singapore’s highest pedestrian bridge) and Alexandra Arch, which sparkles every night with a dazzling colour-changing LED lightshow.

Another amazing feature of this leafy treetop paradise is the fact that you can actually come face to face with some of the rich wildlife that lives there such as squirrels, sunbirds, doves, lizards and white-crested laughing thrushes. In fact, researchers frequent the nearby HSBC Treetop Walk to study the rain forest canopy which, if not for the unique aerial structures, would not be an easy place to access at all.

If all that nature makes you long for the bustling city, you don’t have to look very far to regain sight of the Singaporean metropolis. Many areas of the park treat visitors to panoramic views of the skyline, which is a vista that you don’t find in most nature preserves. With today’s architectural sentiment leaning towards mingling green spaces and cities rather than creating unnecessary divisions between them, Telok Blangah Hill Park is a real-life example of how successfully nature and architecture can combine.

GREEN OFFICE 2015: Workplace of the Future!!!

The Netherlands being the tiny country that it is, it’s no surprise that we tend to look to them for innovative design for dense urban spaces. RAU Architects developed their Green Office 2015 concept for a multi-functional office building that combines a spacious interior for comfortable working and ample green space for recreation. Designed for a site with existing infrastructure, this green office integrates sustainable transportation and is outfitted with photovoltaic cells and wind turbines to keep the office’s carbon footprint low.

For a productive working environment, the architects proposed interior and exterior features that would encourage a balanced working style. The interior of the office includes an adjustable ventilation system for comfort, as well as surface lighting that will provide more even illumination than traditional lighting. The outside of the building is designed with a verdant green roof and central courtyard — both to invite employees outdoors and to create opportunities for mingling.

To make this development eco-friendly, the architects approached energy efficiency in three ways: first, conservation through efficient insulation; second, re-use by converting kinetic energy into electrical energy (although the proposal does not give specific details about this process); third, clean energy production through the use of photovoltaic cells and wind turbines.

Green Treehouse Provides an Incredible Learning Playground

Stunning design and green architecture shouldn’t be reserved just for adults, as showcased by this gorgeous green treehouse built by the architects at Lord, Aeck & Sargent. Constructed as an extension to Camp Twin Lakes, a camp dedicated to kids with special needs, this treehouse is not only beautiful, fun and kid friendly, but green as well!

The treehouse, also known as the “Wild Side,” was built to be completely wheelchair accessible along either of the camp’s two lake-bound trails. The architects intended to create a space where kids could begin to connect with nature and learn about the different ecosystems that surround them. The treehouse is fairly ample in size and features a main space meant for environmental arts and crafts, an area for their drumming program, a storytelling and activity room, and some extra space for the staff and storage. There is even a 600-square foot covered deck with bench-to-ceiling screens that provides panoramic views of the pristine setting.
But that’s not all – amenities in the treehouse were specifically designed to be environmentally sensitive, giving the little campers the opportunity to learn about sustainability and saving water and energy. The Wild Side features a 1,700-square-foot green roof garden (which replaces the structure’s displaced forest floor below) in addition to a 1.4-kilowatt, eight-module photovoltaic solar array, two dry composting toilets, a copper rain chain to help divert rainwater that comes from a gutter over the door, and 3 dome skylights that take advantage of the forest’s amazing natural light. Camp Twin Lakes’ executive director Eric Robbins sees the treehouse as “a perfect educational tool for children and adults to learn about sustainability options.”

Students at the Savannah College of Art and Design contributed a bit of creativity to project as well. The school’s introductory sculpture class created totem pole-inspired sculptures to line the trail leading up to the Wild Side.
Camp Twin Lakes grew out of the community’s desire to provide camping facilities and programs catering to children with serious illness, disabilities or other challenges. Limited availability left programs contending with one another for space, and existing venues failed to provide the appropriate amenities for the campers with special needs. The completed project introduces a highly flexible campsite that can be customized to individual camp groups, and features climate controlled cabins, wheel chair-accessible recreation facilities and a state-of-the-art medical lodge where procedures such as dialysis and chemotherapy can be carried out.

Foating Green: A Grassy Bench

A lush lawn can be a wonderful thing to stretch out on. Unfortunately, the high-maintenance needs, which include frequent seeding and fertilizing, of grass can make it more of a pain than a joy, leaving would-be loungers disappointed. Fortunately, grassy seating can put back some of the fun. The idea of creating seating out of grass is no new concept, as you may find with the lawnge chairs or living lawn chaise. In this formulation, the Floating Green, by Ling Fan, is a stretch of lawn that appears to have rebelled against horizontality by springing from the ground, doing an elegant twist and then settling into a vertically folded position to offer passers-by a place to sit.

Fan writes: “Lawns are a visual representation of nature in an urban context; but they are anything but natural. The lawn is an engineered product genetically enhanced, mass produced in rolls, cut into uniform strips, transported in a truck, and installed on site by hard human labor.”
Fan seeks to integrate grass back into the urban landscape — and felt that creating street furniture would best express a fluidity with the surrounding, while giving the city a new and interesting sculptural form. While grass may not be the eco-friendliest plant, we all know it has a wonderfully soft feel perfect for kicking back, and it offers some carbon-capture qualities. In creating a sculptural grassy bench, Fan gives grass a fighting chance to gain a more positive relationship with city dwellers by allowing people to enjoy grass again in a fun and approachable way