Singapore City Guide with Keith French

Singapore City Guide
With Keith French, Grant Associates

In everything Beulah undertakes, we are defined by civic-minded responsibility, rigorous research, global vision, innovative thinking and a passion for design and culture. We frequently look to a range of industry and thought leaders to share their thinking, insights and perspectives, often drawn from lived experiences.

With a wealth of inspiration and rich storytelling at our fingertips, we share this with you by way of our Beulah City Guides Series, an exploration of cities around the world, through the eyes of compelling industry and thought leaders.

Grant Associates is a pioneering international landscape architecture practice. Their work reconnects people with nature in insightful, delightful and distinctive ways whilst addressing the global challenges of urbanisation, the climate crisis and biodiversity extinction. The practice’s design process is underpinned by a knowledge of human behaviour, nature and ecological science combined with innovative design technology. The team brings original thinking, creative collaboration and they are exploring what regenerative design and the circular economy means to landscape architecture.

Grant Associates’ completed work includes the global phenomenon, Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay which attracts over 12 million visitors a year, Madagascar’s Ankarafa Field Station, Singapore’s boundary-pushing Robinson Tower and Sydney’s Barangaroo South – sprawling over two hectares of public realms. Grant Associates is also part of the international team, led by UNStudio and Cox Architecture, appointed to design Australia’s Southbank by Beulah.

Their work reconnects people with nature in insightful, delightful and distinctive ways whilst addressing the global challenges of urbanisation, the climate crisis and biodiversity extinction.

With award-winning, internationally-renowned projects spanning Singapore, we are thrilled to share with you the following city guide exploring this inspiring city, by Grant Associates’ Director, Keith French. This guide explores Keith’s experiences and knowledge of Singapore, and the adventure and inspiration behind Grant Associates’ incredible developments.

Gardens by the Bay

Keith, thanks for joining our City Guide Series! Can you please share why you chose to explore Singapore with us?

Following Grant Associates’ competition win on Gardens by the Bay, I have travelled regularly to Singapore over the last 15 years; a place I have really connected with and enjoy and feel comfortable in, and see as a second home. I really enjoy the atmosphere and energy of the different neighbourhoods and communities, and admire Singapore’s forward-thinking approach to city planning, as well as the amazing food and gardens and tropical plants and exotic wildlife.

a place I have really connected with and enjoy and feel comfortable in, and see as a second home.

We established a studio and team in Singapore in 2012 and continue to enjoy a really interesting mix of work in Singapore and the region. With Covid I am missing travelling, which is always an adventure and an inspiration but I have also missed meeting up with colleagues and design friends in Singapore.

Cloud Forest at Gardens by the Bay

Where do you stay in this city? Any particular neighbourhood or hotel?

I enjoy staying in the historic Chinatown district of Singapore which is constantly changing and full of life on the streets, and offers great places to eat and drink within close walking distance.

During the design and construction of Gardens by the Bay, we regularly stayed as a design team at the New Majestic Hotel on Bukit Pasoh. After a day of workshops and site meetings, the open foyer was a great place to come back to and catch up on the day over a cold Tiger beer – I think many of the creative solutions for Gardens by the Bay were developed in that foyer. Sadly, the hotel has now closed.

More recently I have been staying at the Oasia Hotel (designed by Singapore architects WOHA) which is a short walk from our office on Tras Street. Oasia is an amazing living, tropical creeper clad, red coloured tower which stands out amongst the rest of downtown Singapore. It’s a great place to stay and the open-sided sky gardens set within the tower, allow naturally cooled garden spaces to meet.

I enjoy staying in the historic Chinatown district of Singapore which is constantly changing and full of life on the streets, and offers great places to eat and drink within close walking distance.

Chinatown

Can you share with us your three favourite picks for each category below?

Cultural Institutions

A walking tour of the temples in China Town such as Thian Hock Keng and Sri Mariamman Temple
National Gallery Singapore plus great food on the roof terrace at The National Kitchen
Singapore Botanic Gardens

Retail Destinations

Chinatown Street Market for an eclectic mix of stalls, smells and street food – particularly at night
Funan Mall – we recently worked on the transformation of Funan into a new creative mixed-use retail hub and the largest rooftop garden in downtown Singapore. Funan Mall was well known for its electronics and I first visited Funan in 1992 whilst travelling with a friend and remember haggling for a state of the art, mini tape recorder.
Orchard Road is where all the malls are located. I enjoy a visit to Takishimaya, the Japanese mall.

Singapore City Guide

Places to eat

The street food, dumplings and chicken rice at Maxwell Food Court
The takeaway curry at the Palm Court in the Botanic Gardens is a great lunch stop
Dinner on the garden terrace at PS Café at Dempsey Hill
Satay and a cold beer at East Coast Park food village
Lots of great restaurants along Keong Saik Road and around Tanjong Pagar to suit all tastes

Nightlife Destinations

A drink on the roof terraces around Tanjong Pagar and Ann Siang Hill
A beer at the Blu Jaz Café with music
If you are wanting energy, people and sounds then a visit to Clarke Quay

Wellness Destinations

I really enjoy the walk from Mount Faber to Hort Park, along the elevated walkways through the forest of Southern Ridges spotting birds, macaques and other wildlife
Early morning walks in the Botanic Gardens
A walk through the mangroves and spotting the smooth-coated otters at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

Things to do

The wilder side of Singapore offers a lot of hidden beauty – places like Sungei Buloh; Labrador Park; the Central Catchment Nature Reserve
Eat – it’s a national pastime! – so much on offer – enjoy
Visit Gardens by the Bay, including the Cloud Forest and Supertrees walkway – the best time to go is probably towards the end of the day so you can get a feel of the place during the day and also as it transforms at night with the lighting and sounds and it’s a little cooler

Architecture

The shophouse architecture and five-footways – a brilliant mix of cultural influences – the neighbourhoods of Joo Chiat / Katong, Chinatown and Emerald Hill have many beautiful examples.
The URA City Gallery – a great starting place to understand the city and its future planning
The Park Royal on Pickering and Kampung Admiralty building, both by WOHA are great examples of integrated greening and tropical architecture

The Park Royal on Pickering

Finally, do you have any tips, tricks or advice when travelling to Singapore?

Go slow – it’s hot and humid. Stop regularly and enjoy a drink and food. Visit the outdoor spaces in the early morning or from mid-afternoon. Night time is cooler and a great time to walk the city streets.

About KEith french

Singapore City Guide

Keith is a Director of Grant Associates and a landscape architect with over 25 years’ experience across a diverse range of UK and International projects. Keith has been at the heart of the company’s evolution since 1997 and takes a personal, hands-on approach and fosters a collaborative spirit throughout the practice’s design work.

Keith has contributed to many of Grant Associates’ landscape and urban design projects across a range of scales, from strategic landscape planning of National Parks, to landscape framework planning of new towns and green infrastructure strategies through to the design of particular landscape and public realm spaces in cities and towns. Keith played a key role in the award-winning Gardens by the Bay project at Bay South in Singapore which opened in 2012. This scheme covering 54 hectares explores the technical boundaries of landscape and horticulture in a dense Asian city.

More recent work includes urban regeneration mixed-use schemes throughout the UK and overseas together with major university projects, residential schemes, transport infrastructure, new city parks and public realm strategies. As well as joining national and international design juries Keith is a member of the London Legacy Development Corporation Quality Review Panel.