I’m finally back. After spending many nights toiling away on my desk with a mountainous, endless, bottomless pile of lecture notes and clearing all my papers, I have finally earned the right to get my normal life back. I realize that there’s some degree of time dilation during the examination period – my exams started on the 25th of March, a few days shy from the day two weeks ago. It only lasted 10 days for me, but it felt like forever.
Two weeks before the commencement of my exams, I traveled downtown to pick up some goods and passed Brenda her Threadless tee. Orchard Road was on my way so I decided to drop by Orchard Central to check out their sky garden. I have heard it from Ivy and Dayna about the place, and even read about it on a campus newspaper feature on sky greeneries in Singapore. I wanted to have a look for myself.
It turned out to be better than I have expected. In order to get all the way up there (it is located on the 11th floor), you will have to take a series of escalators up. Alternatively, if you’re the lazy one, there’s always the elevators waiting.
There sky garden actually spans two levels – the first level it shared the floor space with several restaurants, reducing it’s size to a small patch a grass with a few sculptures. Scaling a flight of starts hidden behind a green wall will bring you to the second level, which is home to waterfalls and ponds.
The following panoramas are made by stitching overlapping images on Hugin, and using a fisheye projection during mapping.
The Streets Below
View from the second floor
I am able to relate to Orchard Central sky garden very closely because of an architectural module I have taken in the previous semester, which is something about urban eco-architecture in Singapore context. I am very glad that more and more urban skyscrapers in Singapore are not only moving towards a more eco-friendly method of construction, but also to integrate the tropical garden feel into their design.
There were a few water lilies blooming in the pond and I took a handful of photos. Unable to decide among which one of them to use, I decided to combine them into one multiple-exposure shot:
Water lily
I have a handful of photography and writing works which I have accumulated over the past month or so. I will be progressively releasing them, so do stay tuned for more updates!
;) welcome back coussie…looking forward to the updates
I love the first photo. It brought back many memories of my 5-year stay in Singapore. I would also love to see the gardens when I come back to visit.
Glad to see you back and updating, Teddy!
Ah! And Ivy works in that building. Oh hai Ivy. Maybe if you look closely you can see her at one of the windows.
You should definitely visit the revamped Orchard Road. A few major changes over the years include Orchard Central taking over the same pot where Hotel Phoenix once stood, ION Orchard turned the green rolling hill on Orchard Station into a high end shopping mall, less pedestrian crossings along the Scott-Orchard Road junction, Circle Line is half-open and etc.
You’ll be surprised how much Singapore has changed in a few years time :) of course, I’ll, by hook or by crook, make sure I’ll get time to meet you if you’re in Singapore. How can I not meet the person who have been a great source of inspiration all the while?