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13th Dec 2016

Sir David Attenborough applauds Bath designed Supertrees in Planet Earth 2

Sir David Attenborough has applauded Singapore’s Supertrees, which were designed by Bath-based and award winning landscape architect Grant Associates, in the final episode of the hit BBC documentary Planet Earth 2.

Attenborough cited the Supertree Grove in Singapore’s nature park Gardens by the Bay as ‘perhaps the most spectacular example of city greening’, while praising the city state’s efforts to promote the co-existence of humans and nature in urban environments.

Andrew Grant, founder and director of the internationally acclaimed Grant Associates, developed the concept for the Supertrees and led a British and Singapore team to design the structures with horticultural input form the Gardens by the Bay team, structural engineering by Atelier One, environmental design by Atelier Ten and additional input from Wilkinson Eyre Architects and local Singapore consultants.

There are 18 Supertrees in Gardens by the Bay that range in height from 25 to 50 metres in height, with two of the Supertrees connected by a 128 metre long aerial walkway. The Supertree Grove is part of an area of the park called Bay South, a 54 hectare public park which was masterplanned by Grant Associates.

Cities, the final episode of BBC Earth’s natural history series Planet Earth 2, was watched by an average of 9.5m viewers, beating the X Factor final with 7 million. The programme explored the opportunities and threats for wildlife in cities with Attenborough concluding that despite its dense population, Singapore was richer in species than any other city in the world.  “Is this a vision of the cities of our future?” asked the distinguished broadcaster.

Andrew Grant, director and founder of Grant Associates, comments: “Our vision for Bay South and the Supertree Grove was to blend nature, technology and imagination to create a unique, 21st century destination experience. We also sought to embody Singapore’s bold aspiration to become a ‘city in a garden’.

“We’re hugely excited to see the Supertree Grove and Bay South feature in such a high profile and prestigious series as Planet Earth 2, and proud that landscape design is providing positive examples of people and nature co-existing in harmony.”