The Grand Challengers Podcast Episode #30
From tropical Singapore to Europe – the “ABC Waters” of sponge cities and climate adaptive design
Guest: Tobias Baur
June 4th, 2024
Episode Teaser
Introduction
“…When you go through nature, you cannot see a boundary between ‘blue’ and ‘green’ …”
Tobias Baur is Professor in Landscape Architecture and Design at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST) and former partner at Studio Ramboll-Dreiseitl. Tobias developed a lifelong passion around the connection between humans and water, growing up along the waterfront in Germany. In 2008, he embarked on a 10-year journey to the tropics in Singapore to lead major engineering and design projects centered around the country’s national Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters program, from watershed masterplans, to urban redevelopment and local-scale sponge city and climate-adaptive designs.
On today’s show, Tobias and I reflect upon Singapore’s journey in water management, its Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters approach and the intricacies of renaturalising urban spaces in the tropics. We hear his experience on leading the flagship Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park project among others and draw comparisons to Europe and the current push for climate adaptation, especially the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration for a more sustainable future.
Biography
Tobias Baur is a Professor in Landscape Design at the Institute for Landscape and Open Space (ILF) at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST), Rapperswil, former Partner and Team Leader at Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl, Germany (2018-2021) and former Adjunct Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) (2016-2018). He studied landscape architecture and landscape planning at the University of Applied Sciences Nürtingen from 1995 to 2004, undertaking a thesis on the topic of “Urban Development along the waterfront”. In 2004, he joined Atelier Dreiseitl and spent 2008 to 2018 in Singapore undertaking numerous projects in supporting Singapore’s shift to more Active, Beautiful and Clean (ABC) Waters Programme (a holistic approach to linking water, nature and community) across the country.
Notable projects, which Tobias led, have involved elements of river renaturalisation, urban climate improvement and adaptation as well as holistic and sustainable water management using blue-green infrastructures and sustainable landscape design. These include the development of the Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park, the flagship project of the ABC Waters Programme, the Central watershed management masterplan for Singapore as well as the Ludwigsburg Climate Terrace and Frankfurt FOUR in Germany among many others. In his current role as Professor, he is now looking into improving the design of blue-green infrastructures or ‘sponge cities’ across Switzerland and finding ways to apply his global knowledge to support better adoption of the practice.
Resources Related to the Episode
- All about Singapore: I grew up there and left in 2003 and Tobias came in 2008
- Geographical Context and overview for your convenience [Wikipedia]
- The Marina Bay Sands and history of the Marina Bay
- The Esplanade in Singapore
- Newton Circus or Food Centre**, a large Hawker Centre definitely a great place to bring people to for local cuisine
- The Michelin Guide to Chicken Rice in Singapore
- Check out China Town as well if you ever visit
- Formula 1 in Singapore
- All about Studio Dreiseitl or Ramboll Dreiseitl, the studio is now called Henning-Larsen
- The ‘traditional view’ of water management – from resource to waste, now outdated as we think more actively about sustainability – a nice recent article on this
- Singapore’s Water Management History [From the PUB themselves]
- A nice article summarising the history
- All about the 4 Taps Approach
- NewWater and NewBeer or NewBrew as it is officially known
- The ABC Waters Programme, which launched in 2006. Singapore’s idea of sponge cities or Water Sensitive Urban Design
- Singapore has an International Water Week that happens once a year
- The Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park Project
- The National Parks Board Page on the project
- Studio Ramboll-Dreiseitl’s project page [Another Link]
- A nice brochure on the project from the PUB
- What is soil bioengineering?
- Peter Geitz from Stuttgart, mentioned by Tobias
- A useful YouTube timelapse of the river renaturalisation process
- Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve – The National Parks Board page
- The Singapore Central Watershed Masterplan
- Useful PDF summary brochure
- A general overview of Singapore’s masterplans from the Urban Redevelopment Authority
- If you want to learn more about rain gardens, check out Episode 20 with Belinda Hatt or Episode 24 with Jon Hathaway, who have extensively worked on this type of technology.
- Singapore Green Plan 2030 – Singapore is a City in a Garden – one of the greenest cities in the world
- Discussion on urban heat:
- The paper I mentioned on the temperature and humidity thresholds and Singapore’s heat being threatened by the urban heat island: Mora, C., Dousset, B., Caldwell, I.R., Powell, F.E., Geronimo, R.C., Bielecki, C.R., Counsell, C.W., Dietrich, B.S., Johnston, E.T., Louis, L.V. and Lucas, M.P., 2017. Global risk of deadly heat. Nature climate change, 7(7), pp.501-506. [Link]
- We cover the impact of urban overheating on a previous episode of the podcast. Check out Episode 16 with Mattheos Santamouris for some deep insights on the impact of urban overheating
- Sponge Cities in Switzerland, Tobias’ recent publication on the topic (in German): Baur, T., Schirmer-Abegg M., Brunken, T., Risi, D., Weibel, L. (2023) Die Stadt der Zukunft ist grün und blau – Aktuelle Entwicklungen zur Schwammstadt in der Schweiz. Korrespondenz Wasserwirtschaft 2023(16) Nr. 11.
Episode Chapters
(Chapters are embedded in the episode for quick access, click this to expand and view all chapters and time stamps)
- 0:00 Intro
- 1:59 Guest Intro and Reflections on Singapore
- 5:04 Early inspiration for water in landscape design
- 9:00 Singapore’s early water management leadership
- 12:15 The ABC Waters Programme
- 15:46 The Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park Project
- 27:20 Tobias’ other projects around Singapore
- 31:58 Back in Europe and comparisons with the tropics
- 36:14 Sponge Cities in Switzerland
- 40:06 The role of the landscape architect and designer
- 42:34 Q&A Start
- 42:54 What inspires you?
- 44:10 Key event, person, book
- 44:40 If you had a magic wand?
- 46:16 Biggest challenge in career to date
- 48:20 Time management
- 50:00 Advice for young researchers
- 51:05 Where can people reach you?
- 51:36 Final Message
- 52:02 Outro
Connect with Tobias Baur
Related Episodes
 | Episode #13 – Veljko Prodanovic Going vertical in a green horizontal world and promoting urban water and nature co-design (Related Topics: water sensitive urban design, co-design) |
 | Episode #16 – Mattheos Santamouris A ‘hot’ topic for ‘cooler’ cities – high performance architecture to combat urban overheating (Related Topics: climate adaptation, urban heat, health) |
 | Episode #20 – Belinda Hatt Stormwater control measures, healthy waterways, battleships and karate at the riverside camp (Related Topics: stormwater management, waterways, blue-green infrastructures) |
 | Episode #28 – Alexa Delbosc A social psychology toolkit for changing transport planning, built environment and future mobility (Related Topics: space conflicts, mobility, urban development) |
Credits
- Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach, follow me on: X: @petermbach, Instagram: @petermbach87 or subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
- Intro/Outro Song: ‘Starsky’ by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)