NParks' research into cooling techniques bears fruit

Channel NewsAsia 29 May 08;

SINGAPORE: The National Parks Board's (NParks) research at its Prototype Glasshouse Complex has literally blossomed – a large variety of temperate plants has not stopped flowering since it was brought to Singapore eight months ago.

The six glasshouses of the S$7 million complex at HortPark are filled with a hundred species of blooms, native to the highlands of New Guinea, East Africa and South America.

Anton van der Schans, assistant director of Horticulture, Gardens by the Bay, NParks, said: "Certainly rare in Singapore is the Wollemi Pine – a large coniferous pine tree that was fairly recently discovered in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, growing at a very rugged area down in the bottom of a big sandstone gorge."

The NParks team is testing the integration of several advanced cooling technologies that can be introduced at the 2-hectare new conservatories at the Gardens by the Bay.

The glasshouses simulate humidity and temperatures similar to those found in the Mediterranean regions and tropical highlands. On average, the temperature is kept at 25 degrees Celsius in the day and it dips to about 16 degrees Celsius at night.

The cultivation and display of hundreds of species of temperate plants at the conservatories at Marina Bay will be one of the largest in Asia.

Kenneth Er, general manager of Gardens by the Bay, NParks, said: "Prototype glasshouses would have implications on the way we construct glass buildings and atriums locally, even in the industry. Obviously for us, we want to try to achieve longer flowering persistence in a cost-efficient and energy-efficient manner."

Phase One of the Gardens by the Bay, which includes the conservatories, is expected to be completed by 2010. The project is estimated to cost S$900 million.- CNA/so