27 May 2004 Lincoln's Singapore Students Design High Commissioner's Residency Grounds

Lincoln University landscape architecture students studying in Singapore are helping with designs for the grounds of the New Zealand High Commissioner's residence in the island state.

At a special presentation at the High Commissioner's residence in Queen Astrid Park on Friday 28 May, 11 final year students from the Singapore-based Bachelor of Landscape Architecture course showed their proposals to the High Commissioner, Nigel Moore. Each student gave a five-minute illustrated presentation outlining their concepts.

The invitation to submit designs for development of the grounds came about through official contact between Lecturer Neil Challenger, who has led Lincoln's BLA teaching initiative in Singapore, and the High Commissioner who has been aware of the University's innovative "export education" activities in South East Asia.

The brief for the students was that the property must "resonate with New Zealand so that when visitors step through the gates they know they are still in Singapore – 'home' – but at the same time know they are somewhere different – 'away'."

Functionally the half-acre property is both a home for the High Commissioner, family and friends, and in the absence of a landed embassy it is also the site where the New Zealand Government entertains official guests when it wants to be "on its own turf” and when it wants to show off New Zealand.

The students had to create an environment that was both residential and representative of New Zealand. It had to provide a venue that could be used to entertain visitors to cocktail parties, dinners and garden parties while providing an interesting and diverse outdoor environment that included a range of spaces and socio/spatial opportunities.

In their designs the students were encouraged to consider issues such as the arrival experience, car parking, indoor outdoor linkages, lighting, drainage, a desire by the clients to keep the site "green", the image of New Zealand and security. Essentially they had to express in the grounds a "home and away" theme, combining New Zealand and Asian elements in a tropical setting.

The students had a visit to the site earlier in the year to view the location and they have been working on their assignment since the end of March. Only three of them have been to New Zealand.

The project forms part of course work for the paper Complex Site Design.

Lincoln University has been offering its full Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree in Singapore since 2002.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand