Botanic nations: The aesthetic of the forest in Chandigarh and Singapore

Abstract

AbstractAs specific elements of the landscape, trees are invested with cultural meanings related to local histories and the idea of indigenous landscapes. Focusing on two parallel but autonomous largescale projects based on the introduction of dense arboreal vegetation into the urban scene—the landscaping of Chandigarh and of Singapore—the paper explores the role of urban trees as essential tools in shaping strategies of constructing national identities in former British colonies, where plants were used to elicit an emotional and aesthetic response. While current discourses on urban forestry often emphasize the functional capacity of urban trees as an antidote to current and future challenges associated with climate risks, the article proposes the planting endeavours in Chandigarh and Singapore as models of an approach to urban forestry in which cultural and aesthetic aspects played a major role.Keywords: Postcolonial landscape strategiesCultural role of treesAesthetic perception of urban forestsLocal identityChandigarhSingapore AcknowledgmentsResearch for this article was supported by the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, which I would like to gratefully acknowledge.The topic this article presents is part of a book I am currently preparing that focuses on the role of plants in informing the construction of national identities and strategies of self-affirmation in former colonies in the Global South.Earlier versions of this article were presented first at the conference ‘Connected Histories, Cosmopolitan Cities: Toward Trans-Colonial and Inter-imperial Histories of Cities in Asia, 1800–1960’, held in Singapore from 7 to 8 November 2019 and hosted by the National University of Singapore and the National Heritage Board of Singapore, and later at the conference on ‘Urban Forests, Forest Urbanisms and Global Warming – Developing Greener, Cooler and more Resilient Cities’, organized by KU Leuven from 27 to 29 June 2022. I wish to express my gratitude to the conveners of both conferences (Jiat-Hwee Chang and Puay Peng Ho for the conference in Singapore, and Kelly Shannon, Chiara Cavalieri and Cecil Konijnendijk for the conference in Leuven), to the respondents during the panels, and to the anonymous reviewers who commented on the initial conference paper I presented in Leuven, for the feedback and remarks they offered.Notes1 Timothy Beatley, Handbook of Biophilic City Planning and Design (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2017). Singapore has been a member of the Biophilic Cities Network since 2013, see: Biophilic Cities, biophiliccities.org/singapore, accessed 14 January 2023.2 Natalie Marie Gulsrud and Can-Seng Ooi, ‘Manufacturing Green Consensus: Urban Greenspace Governance in Singapore’, in: L. Anders Sandberg, Adrina Bardekjian and Sadia Butt (eds.), Urban Forests, Trees, and Green Space: A Political Ecology Perspective (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015), 77–92: 81–83.3 Wong Hong Suen, ‘Picturing a Colonial Port City: Prints and Paintings as Visual Records on 19th Century Singapore’, in: Wong Hong Suen, Singapore Through 19th Century Prints and Paintings (Singapore: Editions Didier Millet and National Museum of Singapore, 2010), 30–54: 43–44.4 For the discussion on colonial greens that follows I have relied on: Anuradha Mathur, ‘Neither Wilderness Nor Home: The Indian Maidan’, in: James Corner (ed.), Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), 205–220; Limin Hee, Constructions of Public Space, Singapore (PhD dissertation, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, 2005), 71–74; Chee-Kien Lai, ‘Maidan to Padang: Reinventions of Urban Fields in Malaysia and Singapore’, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 21/2 (2010), 55–70; Chee-Kien Lai, ‘Maidan-Padang-Bay: Reinventions of Urban Fields in Singapore’, in: Khoo Peng Beng et al. (eds.), 1000 Singapore: A Model of the Compact City (Singapore: Singapore Institute of Architects, 2010), 169–179; Eugenia W. Herbert, Flora’s Empire: British Gardens in India (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 73–75; Janina Gosseye, ‘Mumbai’s Maidans: From Fields of Fire to Non-Places’, in: Kelly Shannon and Janina Gosseye (eds.), Reclaiming (the Urbanism of) Mumbai (Amsterdam: SUN Academia, 2009), 120–131.5 For the idea of the maidan as a clearing, see: Mathur, Neither Wilderness Nor Home, op. cit. (note 3), 211–212.6 Ibid.; Lai, ‘Maidan to Padang’, op. cit. (note 3), 55–70.7 Franco Panzini, ‘Prati di città: Per una storia dei prati civici’, in: Franco Panzini (ed.), Prati urbani: I prati collettivi nel paesaggio della città/City Meadows: Community Fields in Urban Landscapes (Treviso: Antiga Edizioni, 2008), 34; Gosseye, ‘Mumbai’s Maidans’, op. cit. (note 3), 125; Mathur, Neither Wilderness Nor Home, op. cit. (note 3), 206. For a discussion on greens and commons in England, see: Franco Panzini, Per i piaceri del popolo: l’evoluzione del giardino pubblico in Europa dalle origini al XX secolo (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1993), 12–18.8 John Thompson, The Straits of Malacca, Indo-China and China (London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1875), 61.9 Reverend George Murray Reith, Handbook to Singapore (Singapore: The Singapore and Straits Printing Office, 1892), 36. The Singapore Cricket Club was established in 1852 for exclusive use of the British and European community, while the Singapore Recreation Club, founded in 1883, was opened for Eurasians.10 Ibid., 36.11 George W. Steevens, In India (Edinburgh and London: Blackwood, 1899, second edition), 69.12 Ibid.13 Ibid., 68.14 Ibid., 69. This sentence is quoted in Herbert, Flora’s Empire, op. cit. (note 3), 73.15 On deforestation in colonial Singapore, see: Tony O’Dempsey, ‘Singapore’s Changing Landscape since c. 1800’, in: Timothy P. Barnard (ed.), Nature Contained: Environmental Histories of Singapore (Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2014), 17–48: 17–28.16 Basanta Bidari, ‘Forest and Trees Associated with Lord Buddha’, Ancient Nepal 139 (1996), 11–24; Albertina Nugteren, Belief, Bounty, and Beauty: Rituals around Sacred Trees in India (Leiden and Boston: Brill: 2005).17 Ibid., 7–10, 17.18 As Nugteren notes when discussing Hinduism and the wishing trees, trees were also associated ‘with material riches and the fulfillment of desires’. Ibid., 41.19 For Randhawa and his work on the landscaping of Chandigarh, I relied on: Franco Panzini, ‘I fiori di Chandigarh: Mohinder Singh Randhawa, Flowering Trees in India (1957): Una presentazione del lavoro del Maestro dei giardini di Chandigarh’, Engramma 121 (novembre 2014), engramma.it/eOS/index.php?id_articolo=2067, accessed 4 April 2022.20 Mohinder Singh Randhawa, Flowering Trees in India (New Delhi, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, 1957).21 Panzini, ‘I fiori di Chandigarh’, op. cit. (note 18); Randhawa, Flowering Trees in India, op. cit. (note 19), 117.22 Ibid., 121.23 Ibid., 117; Panzini, ‘I fiori di Chandigarh’, op. cit. (note 18); Silvia Benedito, Atmosphere Anatomies: On Design, Weather, and Sensation (Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2021), 120–121.24 This aspect is discussed at length in: ibid., 96–127.25 Randhawa, Flowering Trees in India, op. cit. (note 19), 125.26 Ibid., 123.27 Ibid., 126.28 Ibid., 123.29 Ibid., 2 and 14.30 Ibid., 139.31 Ibid., 139-140.32 Min Geh and Ilsa Sharp, ‘Singapore’s Natural Environment, Past, Present and Future: A Construct of National Identity and Land Use Imperatives’, in: Tai-Chee Wong, Belinda Yuen and Charles Goldblum (eds.), Spatial Planning for a Sustainable Singapore (New York: Springer, 2008), 183–204: 184–191.33 For the discussion on the Tree Planting Campaign that follows, I relied on: S.K. Lee and S.E. Chua, More Than a Garden City (Singapore: Parks and Recreation Department 1992); Belinda Yuen, ‘Creating the Garden City: The Singapore Experience’, Urban Studies 33/6 (1996), 955–970; Jörg Rekittke, ‘Bottom-up Landscape versus Top-down City’, in: Khoo Peng Beng et al., 1000 Singapore, op. cit. (note 4), 157–168; Limin Hee, Constructions of Public Space, op. cit. (note 4), 80; Neo Boon Siong, June Gwee and Candy Mak, ‘Growing a City in a Garden’, in: June Gwee (ed.), Case Studies in Public Governance: Building Institutions in Singapore (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012); Timothy Auger, Living in a Garden: The Greening of Singapore (Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2014), 20–37; Timothy P. Barnard and Corinne Heng, ‘A City in a Garden’, in: Timothy P. Barnard (ed.), Nature Contained: Environmental Histories of Singapore (Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2014), 282–293; Bianca Maria Rinaldi, ‘Post-colonial Strategies: Open Spaces in Twentiethand Twenty-first-Century Singapore’, Die Gartenkunst 27 (2015), 151–164; Limin Hee, Constructing Singapore Public Space (Singapore: Springer, 2017), 47–49.34 ‘“Plant a Tree” drive in S’pore’, The Straits Times, 12 June 1963, 9. Quoted in: ‘“And that Was Good”: A Brief History of the Greening in Singapore’, in: Barnard (ed.), Nature Contained, op. cit. (note 33), 276.35 Limin Hee, Constructing Singapore Public Space, op. cit. (note 33), 48; Wong Yew Kwan, ‘Highways, Roadsides and Byways’, in: Aileen Lau Tan (ed.), Garden City Singapore: The Legacy of Lee Kwan Yew (Singapore: Suntree Media Pte Ltd, 2014), 60–61.36 Barnard and Heng, ‘A City in a Garden’, op. cit. (note 33), 289. See also: Siong, Gwee and Mak, ‘Growing a City in a Garden’, op. cit. (note 33).37 Ibid., 289; Wong Yew Kwan, ‘An Early Vision: Building the Infrastructure Alongside the Greening’, in: Tan, Garden City Singapore, op. cit. (note 35), 35.38 Kwan, ‘Highways, Roadsides and Byways’, in: Ibid., 57–65; Kwan, ‘An Early Vision’, in: ibid., 35–37.39 ‘Garden City’, The Straits Times, 13 May 1967, 10, eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19670513-1.2.87.2, accessed 5 November 2022.40 ‘A Million Trees to Be Planted in This Year’s Drive’, The Straits Times, 10 April 1978, 6, eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19780410-1.2.39, accessed 14 January 2023.41 Barnard and Heng, ‘A City in a Garden’, op. cit. (note 33), 291–292; Auger, Living in a Garden, op. cit. (note 33), 24, 28; Kwan, ‘An Early Vision’, in: Tan, Garden City Singapore, op. cit. (note 35), 37; Timothy P. Barnard, Nature’s Colony: Empire, Nation and Environment in the Singapore Botanic Gardens (Singapore: NUS Press, 2016), 250–251. They recall that the Parks and Trees Unit joined forces with the Singapore Botanic Gardens and evolved into the Parks and Recreation Division that was part of the Public Works Department. It was later transformed into the Parks and Recreation Department within the Ministry of National Development.42 Auger, Living in a Garden, op. cit. (note 33), 34; Jörg Rekittke, ‘Bottom-up Landscape versus Top-down City’, in Khoo Peng Beng et al., 1000 Singapore, op. cit. (note 4), 161; Chua Sia Eng, ‘Shade and Colour: Mantle of Comfort and Beauty’, in: Tan, Garden City Singapore, op. cit. (note 35), 45–53.43 For the list of plants I am indebted to: Auger, Living in a Garden, op. cit. (note 33), 34-37; and Kwan, ‘Highways, Roadsides and Byways’, in: Tan, Garden City Singapore, op. cit. (note 35), 60–61, who offers a more comprehensive catalogue of the botanical species introduced within the Singapore urban landscape.44 See: Kwan, ‘Highways, Roadsides and Byways’, in: ibid., 62–65.45 Kwan, ‘An Early Vision’, in: ibid., 39; Choo Thiam Siew, ‘Ground Dynamics of Greening: Practicality, Form and Function’, in: ibid., 69.46 Geh and Sharp, ‘Singapore’s Natural Environment’, op. cit. (note 32), 187–188.47 Peter Ho, The Planning of a City-State, Working Papers Series No. 2 (Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, 2014), 1–16: 11, lkycic.sutd.edu.sg/publications/working-paper-series/planning-city-state/, accessed 5 November, 2022; Auger, Living in a Garden, op. cit. (note 33), 34.48 Gulsrud and Ooi, ‘Manufacturing Green Consensus’, op. cit. (note 1), 81–82.49 ‘Planting for a Garden City’, The Strait Times, 11 January 1971, 10, eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19710111-1.2.62, accessed 15 January 2023. On the involvement of local residents, see: Jesse O’Neill, ‘Clean and Disciplined: The Garden City in Singapore’, in: Kjetil Fallan (ed.), The Culture of Nature in the History of Design (London and New York: Routledge, 2019), 89–102.50 ‘MP’s to Lead Tree Planting Campaign’, The Strait Times, 30 October 1977, 5, eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19771030-1.2.26, accessed 15 January 2023.51 Puay Yok Tan, personal communication with the author, 29 June 2022.52 Ho, The Planning of a City-State, op. cit. (note 47), 9.Additional informationNotes on contributorsBianca Maria RinaldiBianca Maria Rinaldi is an associate professor of Landscape Architecture at the Politecnico di Torino and a member of the editorial board of JoLA-Journal of Landscape Architecture. Her research is at the intersection of landscape architecture history, theory and design and focuses on the relationships between landscape architecture and identity with an emphasis on China and South-East Asia. In 2012, she received the J.B. Jackson Prize for her book The Chinese Garden: Garden Types for Contemporary Landscape Architecture (2011).