PRS Australia PhD Examination - Bjorn Low (School of Architecture and Urban Design - RMIT University)

Restoring Singapore's Food Collective Actualisation Through Regenerative Agrarian Dynamics

The rapid territorialization of Singapore, a land-scarce island-state, created an urban landscape marred with vertical colonies, devoid of community interaction and without food sovereignty. Singapore’s food future stood in stark contrast to the self-sufficient agrarian societies of Southeast Asia. Shifting demographics and a rapidly aging population raise new societal issues in the 2020s: isolation and a regression in equity and cohesion among the pioneer generation. These challenges require a new set of environmental design and social engineering policies and projects.  

This research provides an environmental history of Singapore’s five-decade-long “Garden city” policies as an overture to an analysis of how a shifting geo-political ecology in the Anthropocene age has helped the landscape metamorphize into an “edible garden city”. The inquiry will help create a new positioning for a self-actualized food collective that delivers not only food security and sovereignty, but also an equilibrium and balance to the current ills of a vertical colonies. Regenerative foodscapes and restorative agrarian biosphere can play a part in increasing healthy and productive longevity, promoting intergenerational bonding, and supporting a community for all ages.