More Than 200 Ideas to Co-Create a City in a Garden Received. Parks Festival 2011 will Call for More Ideas on What People Wish to Have in their Parks

Singapore, 15 September 2011 -  Three weeks ago, the National Parks Board (NParks) launched a public engagement exercise to call for ideas to co-create a City in a Garden (CIAG). NParks has since received more than 200 ideas and suggestions from the public on how to green up their living environment.

About half of the suggestions received were on enhancing our parks and streetscapes, such as increasing night programming in parks, strengthening the identity of our parks, and planting more shady trees to increase our green cover.  About a quarter of  ideas were on optimising urban spaces for greenery and recreation, such as more rooftop gardens and solar panels on top of HDB flats, and turning schools into green buildings. The public can continue to contribute their ideas in this year-long exercise at http://www.nparks.gov.sg/ciag.

Share with us at Parks Festival 2011

While ideas to co-create a City in a Garden are still streaming in, NParks will be inviting the public to share which are their favourite parks and what they wish to have in parks, at the inaugural Parks Festival 2011. The public can start sharing from tomorrow, 16September, at the Parks Festival roadshow at Raffles Place Park (situated above Raffles Place MRT station) from 12:00noon to 6:00pm.

Held in conjunction with World Parks Day on 17 September, NParks will join in the global appreciation of green spaces by beginning Parks Festival 2011 on that day.  Exciting events and activities await visitors during the 9-day festival which ends on 25September.  They can look forward to guided walks at parks and nature reserves, brisk-walking, cycling, gardening workshops, a forest exploration by night with the opportunity to sleep under the stars, charity concert, or catch the award-winning WaterFire art installation. Visitors can also enjoy special discounts offered by participating outlets at the parks.

"We are heartened by the support from companies, tenants, schools and volunteers who have made Parks Festival 2011 possible. NParks' aspiration is to make parks the preferred place for play and we aim to achieve this by catering to diverse lifestyle needs so that there is a park for everyone. Whether you enjoy extreme sports, love nature, relish the arts and heritage, or fancy a good time at the playground, there is a park just for you. Come and discover our parks and at the same time, share with us what kind of parks you would like to have", says Mr Poon Hong Yuen, Chief Executive Officer, NParks.

Get a Parks Passport today

In conjunction with Parks Festival 2011, NParks has introduced a Parks Passport where the public will be encouraged to visit different parks and collect stamps. These stamps can be exchanged for token prizes.

City in a Garden (CIAG) photography competition

The winning entries to the first theme of the year-long CIAG photography competition were announced today. The competition which began on 2 July 2011, received close to a thousand entries for the first theme, "Our Parks and Gardens". Jointly organised with the Photographic Society of Singapore, the competition aims to showcase the amazing biodiversity and greenery that make Singapore vibrant and interesting through the lenses of photographers.

The public can continue to submit their photos for the rest of the themes at http://ciagpc.nparks.gov.sg/ and stand to win cash prizes worth $29,000 as well as other attractive prizes worth over $27,000, including an expedition (sponsored by Clarins) to Burkina Faso, West Africa, with ethno-botanist Jean-Pierre Nicolas for the overall best winner.

The youth category of this competition will be launched in October 2011. City Developments Limited (CDL) will be organising their biennial CDL Singapore Young Photographer Award (SYPA). CDL will be adopting all the four themes from the "City in the Garden" Photography Competition. Participants between 13 and 25 years old can compete in this brand new "Young Nature Photographer Award" with cash prizes worth $5,000.

Children between 7 and 12 years old can also submit photos for the junior category of the photography competition presented by Clarins, from November 2011 onwards, and stand to win cash prizes worth a total of $5,000.

Parks Festival "A Park for Everyone" video competition

NParks organised a video competition from 1 June to 21August 2011, for the public to express their creativity on their perspective of the diversity of parks in Singapore. The competition received 24 quality entries. Three winning videos have been selected. The winning videos can be viewed at http://www.nparks.gov.sg/parksfest/video/videos/winners. NParks will submit the winning video as an official entry onto the World Parks Day Website.