The thought of heading to a sky terrace decked with plants and flowers for a breather after being buried under piles of work for hours may be a luxury that only the minority of office workers can enjoy now. Similarly, enjoying a cup of coffee in a rooftop garden on a lazy Saturday afternoon may be a wish that many residents have yet to realise. However, with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)’s latest green initiative, the Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High-rises programme (LUSH), these scenarios may soon become reality.
Generous Incentives for Greening
Launched in support of the Government’s Sustainable Development Blueprint, LUSH enhances Singaporeans’ living environment through the innovative use of resources to turn land limitation into greening opportunities. The programme complements URA’s continuous efforts to encourage more vertical and skyrise greenery in private developments in Singapore. As the nation becomes more densely built up, greenery plays an increasingly important role in ensuring a sustainable and high-quality environment for city dwellers.
From December 2009, all new developments within the Downtown Core, including Marina Bay, Kallang Riverside and Jurong Gateway, will have to provide greenery within their developments, occupying an area equal to the plot of land the development sits on. The intention is to replace the greenery lost at the ground level by the building. The greenery can be provided through a combination of landscaped areas on the ground floor, and on the upper levels via sky terraces and rooftop gardens.
An artist’s impression of the future Marina Bay Station Square with skyrise greenery.
A: Gross Floor Area (GFA) includes all covered floor areas of a building, except otherwise exempted, and uncovered areas for commercial uses. It measures the bulk and intensity of a development for the purposes of plot ratio control and computation of development charge.
In addition, to encourage more greenery on rooftops, bonus Gross Floor Area (GFA) over and above the permissible planning intensity will be granted to existing developments in the Orchard and Downtown Core areas. This additional GFA can be used for outdoor refreshment areas on the rooftop if building owners provide landscaping for their developments.
Meanwhile, existing guidelines have also been fine-tuned to encourage more greenery and landscaping within developments. For example, developers will now have to provide planting and landscaping on the sky terraces to enjoy GFA exemptions for them. The quality of the proposed landscaping and communal facilities will form part of the considerations to qualify for the GFA exemption. Furthermore, under the revised guidelines for landscape decks, developers are also encouraged to provide more porous fencing around the perimeter of the development, so that the lush greenery along the side of the deck can be admired and enjoyed by the neighbours and even passers-by.
With LUSH, many will benefit as communal areas are spruced up with verdant greenery.