DESARU COAST RESTORATION

The rough wild coastline of Desaru near Johore Bahru, Iskander and Singapore anticipates potentially significant tourism growth. Responding to a new development scheme, we reviewed the plan and existing site conditions; climate, topography, foreshore and vegetation, formulating a landscape strategy for the southern coastal zone comprising hotels, resorts, golf courses, residences and infrastructure.

Proposed development on such a scale have huge impacts on the environment, so we developed a restoration plan to preserve as much existing vegetation as possible, and plant new trees to protect remaining forest margins. First testing this strategy out by planting of twelve kilometres of new roads, we then applied the approach on the boutique hotel sites. For future developments we prepared design guidelines based on our knowledge and experience with large scale developments, to steer the projects towards creating a robust landscape suitable for the exposed coastal environment and long build-out period.

PROFESSIONAL SCOPE:

• Sites analysis and research
• Landscape master-planning
• Design & documentation
• Implementation inspections

LANDSCAPES FEATURES:

• Tree Preservation and restoration strategy
• Framework tree planting
• Coastal revetment strategies
• Multi-modal pedestrian buggy and cycle networks