A public garden established on reclaimed land, Bay South seeks to display exemplary environmental design and management approaches. Its thematic areas explore what plants do for us and for the planet. Geotextile-reinforced earth rather than concrete walls help define spaces and soften steep slopes. Two cooled conservatories house Mediterranean and tropical flora respectively. At the site’s heart is a grove of 25- to 50-metre-tall ‘supertrees’, with concrete cores and steel canopies. Vertical gardens by day and magical structures by night, they provide shade, habitat, energy generation through photovoltaic arrays, and venting mechanisms for the biomass-fuelled energy centre and conservatories. The water management system favours open channels and semi-natural wetland corridors rather than piped solutions.
Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture
