Leadership and the Biophilic City

Tim Beatley in his book, Biophilic Cities, asserts that biophilic cities are about "bringing daily nature into the lives of ordinary city dwellers", and I'm not sure there is a city on earth that prioritizes this higher than Singapore.


Above you can see a remarkable example of this in Singapore's supertrees, operating as biological engines, tourist attractions, and an embodiment of Singapore's attitude regarding the feel of their city. This emphasis on smoothing the seam between the built and natural environments is what I found to be most inspirational about the film we watched in class. If all the cities around the world cared as much about biodiversity, de-fragmenting habitats, maintaining ecological services, and human interaction with natural systems, the standard quality of life in the world would be drastically improved. Below you can see people interacting with these natural systems and services while at a park that doubles as flood water storage during storms.



Something else that struck me about Singapore while reading the article is their determination to become what they envision themselves to be in the future. They lack a fundamental fear we have in the U.S., they are not afraid to be wrong. They understand that not every strategy will work or work perfectly, and this gives them the courage to experiment. I think the importance of this cannot be understated. Here in the United States we are always looking for the singular solution that will fix all of our problems, and we argue to no end which strategy to choose or invest in, yet other societies around the world, like Singapore, are not looking for a "fix-all" solution. They understand that in order to really solve problems you need a diversity of strategies and the courage to be wrong.



Here's a quote that stood out to me from the attached article, Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore – Another Way of City Building, "What the country has done is to place the strongest challenge to the generally accepted premise of advanced western countries; that a society based on ever advancing individual rights and benefits will provide its citizens with the highest quality of life. Singapore stands that on its head. It is individual responsibility; to work hard, to get an education, to stay healthy, to abstain from dangerous behaviour, to look after the family, to own and maintain property, which actually produces the best personal and community outcomes." I find this to be a very poignant statement about the construction of Singaporean society and poses a large question at advanced western societies, like Kennedy said "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." My take away from the article would have to be simply that there's more than one way to skin a cat, even when referring to something as complex as the socio-politcal dynamics of a nation. Here in the states, we often times like to think that we do everything the best way possible, that we're the most advanced, but often we remain blind to alternative and perhaps brighter ways of living.