Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park or Bishan-AMK Park, (formerly known as Bishan Park) is a major park in Singapore, located in the popular heartland of Bishan. Serving the residents of Bishan and Ang Mo Kio, the park sits entirely within Bishan, running along the Ang Mo Kio–Bishan boundary line, which is situated at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1. In the middle of the park lies the Kallang River, which runs through it in the form of a flat riverbed.

History
Bishan Park was constructed to provide a buffer between Ang Mo Kio New Town and Bishan New Town. It was also envisioned as a leisure destination for residents ranging from children to nature-lovers, containing facilities such as a football field, a floating amphitheatre and a natural pond. Construction took place in two stages. The park, which cost $8.5 million to build, was one of the biggest park projects by the Housing Development Board at the time of its construction. Before construction work was completed, people from the adjacent areas began using the unfinished facilities, making work on the park difficult.

Background
The Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Programme was launched in 2006 to transform the country’s water bodies beyond their functions of drainage and water supply into beautiful and clean rivers and lakes with new spaces for community bonding and recreation. At the same time, it promotes the application of a new, water-sensitive urban design approach (also known as ABC Waters design features in Singapore) to managing rainwater sustainably. A long-term initiative, over 100 locations have been identified for project implementation in phases by 2030, with 20 projects already completed, bringing people closer to water. ABC Waters Kallang River @ Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park is one of the flagship projects under this programme. The park was due for major refurbishment and the Kallang River in the form of a concrete channel along the park edges was also due for upgrading to cater to increased rainwater runoff from the catchment due to urbanisation. Plans were thus made to carry out redevelopment works together, transforming Kallang River from a linear utilitarian concrete drainage channel into a meandering, natural river through the park.

Design process
The integration of the river and park involved joint responsibilities between government agencies in charge of different areas (parks and water). The National Water Agency, PUB, and NParks engaged Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl (design) and CH2M Hill (engineering) to look at how the park, river and surrounding residential estates could be integrated as one. This took place through a series of workshops, on-site tours and discussions where issues were thrown out and ideas were exchanged and debated. The suitability of plant species for soil bioengineering, for example, had not been implemented in Singapore prior to this, and thus had to be tested – this was done through a year-long survey at the test reach (see Techniques). Other parties which came on board included bioengineering specialists and horticulturists

Project Details and Cost
Source:

Landscape Architecture: Atelier Dreiseitl

Partners in Charge: Herbert Dreiseitl, Gerhard Hauber

Project Management and Lead Design: Tobias Baur, Rudolf Mager, Leonard Ng, Hendrik Porst

Project Engineers: Andreas Bockmühl, Stefan Brückmann

Project Team: Jeff Boggess, Angelika Büchele, Jason Chia, Edith, Gustavo Glaeser, Tobias Klinger, Martin Koller, Birgit Kühlbrandt, Wi Ming, Herbert Montevirgen, Vera Sieber, Angela Soler, Chanida Suebpanich, Sebastian Walker, Melissa Yip, Ingo Zoefelt, Christoph Hald, Nengshi Zheng

Bioengineering: Peter Geitz und Partner JV

Partner: CH2MHILL

Project owners: PUB, Singapore’s national water agency and the National Parks Board

Area: Central catchment 140 km² 62 ha / 155 acres

Client: Public Utilities Board & National Parks Board

Design: 2007 – 2010

Construction: 2009-2012

Cost: 76 million SGD / 45 million € / US$ 60 million

Awards: WAF 2012, Excellence on the Waterfront Honor Award 2012, President’s Design Award Singapore 2012

Opening


Amidst a crowd of 2000 people including residents, local community partners such as schools and non-profit groups, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong officially opened the redeveloped park on 17 March 2012, renaming it Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park.

Activities
There are regular group exercise sessions organised in the morning at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, including qigong and chapteh exercise sessions. Energy Bagua practitioners also often engage in bagua walks in the park by repeatedly walking in circles around trees to increase their vitality and replenish their positive energy. In addition, outdoor yoga sessions are also organised monthly at Ficus Green.

NParks conducts a guided 'Ecolife' tour for families during school holidays.