Rifle Range Nature Park wins ULI Asia Pacific Award for Excellence

Amidst the increasingly urgent biodiversity crisis, Rifle Range Nature Park safeguards one of the last primary forests in Singapore, supporting the country’s ambitions to transform into a ‘Green City in Nature’, under the Singapore Green Plan 2030. 

Rifle Range Nature Park serves as a green buffer to protect the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve from edge effects and abutting developments, while enhancing ecological connectivity and providing complementary habitats for the Nature Reserve’s biodiversity. The nature park also features restored forest and wetland habitats, and provides visitors with more nature-based recreation opportunities with new trails, boardwalks and nature play features.

Rifle Range Nature Park is located at the site of the former Sin Seng Quarry, which ceased operations in 1998, resulting in a degraded landscape with poor soil quality and overgrown scrub vegetation. A comprehensive biodiversity baseline study was carried out to identify areas and species of conservation significance, and informed the design and planning of works for the project. As a result, elaborate planting strategies were implemented to improve soil quality, attract native fauna, and facilitate the nature park’s transition to the adjacent Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Today, the area is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, including the critically endangered Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica), and the Horsfield’s Flying Squirrel (Lomys horsfieldii).

Water management, crucial for ecosystem revival, is central to the nature park’s design, which features a freshwater habitat restored from a backfilled quarry, widened streams, and water-sensitive elements like swales and raingardens to support biodiversity and natural irrigation.

With a variety of nature trails spanning a total of over 7 km, the restorative and regenerative landscape design for the nature park is developed from thoughtful considerations for a spectrum of users, from the mobility-impaired to the adventure seekers. 

Rifle Range Nature Park is also the first net-positive energy nature park in Singapore, with the energy harvested from the photovoltaic solar panels installed around the nature park exceeding the expected annual operational energy consumption of the site.

Kee Wen Yu, Deputy Director, NParks, said, “We are honored that Rifle Range Nature Park has been recognised by the ULI Asia Pacific Awards for Excellence. This is testament to our commitment and ongoing efforts to safeguard and extend Singapore’s natural capital, such as through the establishment of nature park networks to protect our core biodiversity areas. Our journey, from the careful enhancement of the former quarry to establishing Rifle Range Nature Park as Singapore's first net positive energy nature park, and improving ecological connectivity to habitat enhancement for native biodiversity, has been guided by a dedication to ecological stewardship and innovation. This will also contribute towards  NParks’ holistic conservation approach to transform Singapore into a City in Nature."

Jelle Hendrik Therry, Design Director, Henning Larsen said, “We are honoured Rifle Range Nature Park has been recognised with the ULI Asia Pacific Awards for Excellence, the site which once played an important role in Singapore’s history now is a place of high ecological value and a much-loved visitor destination. 

In our small country every square meter counts for nature, people, water, and experiences. As part of Singapore's larger strategies to protect and enhance nature, opportunities to unveil the beauty of Rifle Range Nature Park came in the form of demonstrating how nature, fauna, and flora can coexist harmoniously in a City in Nature.

Our design philosophy revolves around the transformative power of nature – we design for nature and give it space to adjust and correct itself over time. Alongside our client, NParks, and collaborators in the multidisciplinary team led by architects61, we are proud to have improved the ecological value and delivered enhanced recreational opportunities with accessibility for visitors. We aim to reignite the inner child in each of us, fostering curiosity, learning, and change.” 

Announced at the 2024 ULI Asia Pacific Summit held from 27-30 May in Tokyo, this year’s award winners include projects in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and the Philippines. 

Rifle Range Nature Park will automatically qualify as nominee for the 2024 ULI Global Awards for Excellence, competing against projects from North America and Europe.