Landscaping Watten House: Harmonising with the “Spirit of Place”
Creating the ideal landscape for Watten House requires a deep understanding of its “genius loci,” the unique character and atmosphere of a place. While “genius loci” historically referred to a protective spirit, today, it signifies the distinctive ambience or “spirit of place” itself.
This concept was central to Henning Larsen’s approach. Their initial observation revealed that Watten House and the nearby Hillcrest Park, Adam Park, and Raffles Park all share a higher elevation than their surroundings. This key feature presented an opportunity to seamlessly integrate the landscaping with the existing hill terrain, ensuring harmony with the surrounding environment.
The Four Pillars of Crafting a Place with Spirit
Pillar 1. Asian Contemporary Design: The Foundation for Landscaping
Effective landscape planning begins with understanding the architectural style of the building. For Watten House, the design draws inspiration from contemporary Asian aesthetics. This approach incorporates elements with a distinctly Asian influence while remaining geographically neutral and independent of specific traditional landscape design styles like Chinese or Japanese gardens.
Pillar 2. Balancing Functionality with Natural Elements: Blue and Green Integration
Achieving a harmonious landscape requires careful consideration of the interplay between water features, plants, and the building itself. To this end, the landscape plan strategically uses blue and green elements. This colour palette visually balances the building’s mass and softens the impact of hardscape features like walkways and walls, creating a more cohesive and inviting environment.
Pillar 3. Harmony in Contrast: Blending Structured and Organic Forms
Landscape design often thrives on juxtaposing elements with contrasting forms.
This principle is evident at Watten House, where the designers combined a structured lap pool, ideal for exercise, with the organic curves of a resort pool designed for relaxation. Despite their contrasting shapes, these features are positioned side-by-side, creating a unified visual entity offering functionality and leisure within a single space. This harmonious blend, exemplified by the lap pool, aqua lounge, and cascading ponds, showcases the best of both worlds, seamlessly transitioning between focused activity and tranquil enjoyment.
Pillar 4. Creating Depth in Tight Spaces
This landscape design strategically incorporates two-dimensional (flat) and three-dimensional (textured) elements, enhancing smaller areas’ visual depth and complexity.
The layered design of the arrival water cascades creates an illusion of depth, drawing visitors into the space and amplifying the arrival experience. The cascading water feature, enhanced by layered stonework, creates a dynamic and visually engaging arrival sequence.
Focusing On The Flora.
Sunshine Play Trail: A Multisensory Oasis
The Sunshine Play Trail, nestled between Blocks 40 and 44, exemplifies the thoughtful integration of nature into the landscape design. This space offers a haven for residents, meticulously crafted to provide privacy, attract butterflies and birds, and stimulate the senses with vibrant colours, textures, and even delightful scents.
Strategically placed plants create distinct zones within the trail. Agathis Borneensis, a tall conifer, stands near Block 40, providing a natural privacy screen for residents. Craxtoxylum Formosum, a vibrant ornamental tree, adds a burst of colour with its pink flowers and reddish foliage. Closer to the walkways, Philodendron Xanadu and Oxmoxylum linear, low-lying shrubs with decorative leaves soften the concrete paths with their lush textures. Finally, towards Block 44, Leptospermum madidum, a small tree with fragrant white flowers, adds another dimension of sensory delight to the landscape.
This carefully curated plant selection transforms the Sunshine Play Trail into a multisensory experience, enhancing the enjoyment of the space for both residents and visitors.
A Symphony of Nature: The Rain Dance Trail
The Rain Dance Trail, situated at the heart of the development across the lap pool, mirrors the Sunshine Play Trail’s thoughtful plant selection. The flora also serves multiple purposes, attracting butterflies and birds with vibrant blooms and delightful scents.
Clerodendrum paniculatum alba, a shrub with eye-catching green and white flowers, beckons butterflies, while Melastoma malabathricum, another shrub, caters to feathered friends. Agastache foeniculum proves its versatility, attracting butterflies and birds with its inviting fragrance. Leptospermum madidum, a small tree with fragrant white flowers, adds another layer of sensory delight, while Lipidibia ferrea further enhances the air with its pleasant aroma. Finally, Hematomata rubescens, with its ornamental leaves, soften the walkway with a touch of lush texture.
This meticulous plant selection transforms the Rain Dance Trail into a vibrant haven for wildlife and a sensory delight for visitors, fostering a harmonious connection with nature.
Breeze Trail: Privacy and Beauty in Close Quarters
The landscape design prioritises privacy and visual interest in areas where the blocks are closer together, like the Breeze Trail. Agathis borneensis and Dendrolobium umbellatum, both large trees, are strategically placed near the blocks to provide a natural privacy screen for residents. Lagerstroemia floribunda adds a touch of vibrant colour with its ornamental flowers, while Leptospermum madidum, with its fragrant white blooms, offers another layer of beauty and sensory delight.
This combination of tall trees for privacy and flowering shrubs for visual interest ensures that the landscape design remains functional and aesthetically pleasing even in areas with limited space.
Bridging the Gap: The Garden of Dimensions
The Garden of Dimensions, located between stacks 01 and 07, addresses the elevation difference between these two blocks with a clever and visually pleasing landscape design.
A series of strategically placed plants ensures safety and creates a sense of visual continuity across the elevation change. Cratoxylum cochinchinense, a tall tree, serves as the central focal point, while smaller trees like Schefflera actinophylla and shrubs like Cenchrus × cupreus create a layered effect. Finally, tall grasses like Cenchrus purpurascens and Liriope muscari complete the lowest level.
A green wall bridges the gap between the taller and lower sections on the lower level. Additionally, the large leaves of Angiopteris evecta ferns create a natural, continuous green slope that appears seamless from the higher and lower vantage points. This ingenious design solves the practical challenge of the elevation difference and adds a captivating sense of depth and visual interest to the space.
Immersed in Greenery: Every Unit with a Verdant View
The thoughtful positioning of blocks and landscaping ensures that all 36 stacks within the development boast 100% greenery-facing units. This translates to every resident enjoying a direct view of the lush landscape, creating a sense of tranquillity and connection with nature.
Furthermore, 12 outer stacks benefit from an additional layer of greenery borrowed from the external wall. This strategic design maximises the visual presence of nature throughout the development, further enhancing the overall sense of serenity and natural beauty.
Water: A Tranquil Enhancement
Water features are crucial in seamlessly integrating nature into the development’s landscape. Their clever placement ensures that all internal-facing units have a view of the water, creating a sense of tranquillity and connecting residents with the natural element.
Furthermore, 9 out of the 20 water-facing stacks have a direct view of a reflective pond, further amplifying the visual impact of water and creating a sense of serenity. This thoughtful integration of blue and green elements evokes the ambience of an exclusive, low-rise landed property, elevating the overall experience for residents.
A Symphony of Nature at Watten House
Henning Larsen’s meticulous landscaping design for Watten House goes far beyond aesthetics. It embodies a deep understanding of the “spirit of place,” seamlessly integrating the development with its surrounding environment. By drawing inspiration from Asian contemporary design principles while remaining geographically neutral, the landscape creates a unique and harmonious atmosphere.
Throughout the development, the four pillars of landscape design – understanding the “genius loci,” balancing functionality with natural elements, harmonising contrasting forms, and enhancing depth – are masterfully applied. Each space, from the Sunshine Play Trail and Rain Dance Trail to the Breeze Trail and Garden of Dimensions, offers a distinct experience that caters to visual and sensory delight.
The strategic placement of water features ensures that every internal-facing unit enjoys a water view, enhancing the sense of tranquillity and connection with nature. This, coupled with the 100% greenery-facing units and borrowed greenery, creates a truly immersive experience akin to an exclusive, low-rise landed property.
Watten House’s landscape design is not just a beautiful backdrop; it is a vital element that elevates the overall experience for residents, fostering a harmonious connection with nature and a sense of serenity within the urban environment.
Article contributed by Jerry Wong.
Jerry Wong is a versatile professional, serving as a realtor at Propnex Realty and contributing his interior designer expertise at the award-winning ProjectGuru. With accolades in both realms, Jerry’s passions extend beyond his work, with his greatest joy in facilitating connections between individuals and properties, deriving immense satisfaction from helping clients achieve their goals.
