Parks for the Community: The City State’s Modernist Planning Model

Abstract

The modernist attitude of planning and designing the land from the aerial viewpoint is reflected in the extensive urban renewal program of new towns and the overarching island-wide greening beautification program – the model of ‘open plan’, with parks conceived as emblems of collective interest and social welfare. However, a postmodern critique was engaged by planners, who begun to fragment the green belt into a myriad of smaller town parks and neighbourhood parks, which they scattered in the new towns. The park system represents the nation by integrating tourism marketing products, and by portraying a globalized aesthetics of ‘tropicality’.