Ng Sze Oun Reclaiming Green Spaces Humans And Nature
When Ng Sze Oun, the director of landscape studio Compound Collaborative, lived in a walk-up apartment along King’s Road a few years ago, he would frequently take walks to the Singapore Botanic Gardens to enjoy the lush greenery and admire the landscape design. Even though he has since moved closer to his office at BCA Academy in Braddell, the Singapore Botanic Gardens remains his favourite park in the city. However, despite living within walking distance of Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, he rarely gets the chance to visit it now. He explains, “These days, I only get to spend time in gardens or parks during site visits to developers’ projects or private clients’ properties.” Ng holds a deep admiration for nature, and in every project he undertakes, he strives to design landscaped spaces that offer benefits for both people and wildlife.
Rivelle Tampines, situated only a stone’s throw away from Tampines West MRT, offers the convenience of being close to Tampines MRT Interchange as well. This interchange, located within the bustling Tampines Regional Centre, provides easy access to both the East West Line and the Downtown Line. The Tampines Regional Centre itself is a vibrant hub of various commercial, retail, and recreational amenities. Additionally, with the highly anticipated Rivelle Tampines Tampines Street 65 just a short distance away, residents can look forward to a plethora of exciting opportunities and experiences.
One of Compound Collaborative’s recent projects is the landscape design of TMW Maxwell, a mixed-use development centred around a 20-storey vertical garden concept. According to Ng, this project demonstrates how inventive design can create new spaces for people while also reclaiming lost ground for nature. In 2021, he brings his expertise to the EdgeProp Singapore Excellence Awards (EPEA) 2025 as a judge. This is the second year he joined the six-member judging panel of industry experts. Ng shares, “The EPEA has been an enlightening experience for me, allowing me to witness the growth and evolution of landscape design in Singapore. It’s an opportunity to observe how different landscape designers and developers apply urban design policies to their projects.”
He also notes that the majority of the award-winning projects in the landscape excellence category demonstrated a strong respect for the surrounding nature and landscape. They were able to incorporate them efficiently into their landscape design. For example, The Reef at King’s Dock emphasised its waterfront location by incorporating a marine element into its landscape design, using corals. The project also features a 180m floating deck which includes a marine viewing hammock for residents to observe marine life. The 429-unit luxury condo, which was jointly developed by Keppel Group and Temasek Holdings, was completed last year. At the EPEA this year, the project won three awards – Landscape Excellence, Innovation Excellence, and Top Development.
The progress made in incorporating urban greenery into the built environment has primarily been a top-down approach, with the Singapore government taking the lead in transforming the city-state’s urban landscape into a greener and more resilient built environment. Policymakers have set out development guidelines that mandate new projects to adhere to strict landscape replacement area (LRA) requirements, as well as offering incentives to provide green communal spaces. Today, LRA requirements guarantee that at least 40% of the development site area is reserved for greenery such as gardens and landscaped areas. Ng highlights that these policies are vital in achieving the long-term goal of balancing the urban landscape with greenery and nature. In addition, they enable developers to work with landscape consultants to better integrate green communal spaces within their projects, such as vertical green walls that bring greenery closer to humans and serve as safe spaces for wildlife and pollinator insects.
Landscape design in Singapore has increasingly focused on rewilding urban green spaces in recent years. This approach involves converting manicured landscapes into an intentional, managed state of wildness that balances planned and spontaneous plant growth to foster an ecologically rich environment. Ng says, “This is a trend that many landscape architects in Singapore are incorporating into their work, and it has garnered a lot of support from developers and private clients.” He adds that urban rewilding helps people to feel more connected to nature at home and work. “As we promote a more natural-looking landscape in our gardens and public spaces, we should see a greater acceptance among the population for a thriving network of green spaces where nature is restored into our urban environment.”
This aligns with Singapore’s vision of being a City in Nature, as part of the Singapore Green Plan 2030. The plan aims to expand the network of public parks, naturalise the biodiversity of green spaces, restore nature in urban areas, and improve the physical connection between green spaces. Ng emphasises that in land-scarce Singapore, planners must strike a balance between the demand for land among various groups and societal needs, such as residential development, commercial, and transportation. Landscape architects are among the few voices who represent nature and fight for its right to be protected. “Over the past 30 years, Singapore’s urban greenery strategy has focused on developing green buildings. We’ve gained extensive experience in using technology to control our environment.” Ng predicts that the next generation of landscape planners and architects will have to explore new methods to harmoniously integrate nature and human spaces.