17/52 - Marina Barrage

Week 17 of 52
Force of Nature art sculpture
Marina Barrage
Singapore

Have you ever passed by a place so many times that you eventually decide you need to know what the heck it is?  I have seen Marina Barrage off in the distance on walks, on my way to and from the airport, from the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel...and have never known what it was...

I had always assumed that it was some sort of boating place but it is not at all.  It is actually a fresh water reservoir that has a dam to keep the fresh water in and the sea water out.  Who the heck knew???  Clearly I need to brush up on my vocabulary because when I just looked up the definition of barrage it reads "an artificial obstruction in a watercourse to increase the depth of water, facilitate irrigation."  You are allowed to walk in and around the area and it is pretty informative.

Walking up to it appears a little ominous...I wasn't quite sure what I was walking into...

You walk around that curve and enter this open courtyard area with art and water fountains and more importantly...an amazing breeze.

The first place that I wandered out to was the Marina Bridge. 

(This is a view from on top of the pump house building but you can actually walk out across the bridge.)  The bridge itself sits on top of nine dams or gates that can be raised or lowered to help with flooding in Singapore.  The water on the left of the bridge is fresh water that flows into the reservoir from the rivers in Singapore and the water on the right side of the bridge is sea water.  You can see one of the gates raised (second one in from the right side of the picture).  Here's a view of it from the bridge...

I walked out across the bridge to catch the view of the city...and this is an view that I have only seen from a moving taxi up until today...

Inside of the complex is the Sustainable Singapore Gallery.  It has information on Singapore's efforts at environmental sustainability.  It was interesting but I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked as there were a few large tour groups that kept getting in my way...there was however a nice mix of information and art...

A wall of recycled bottles.

These little water droplets actually had information inside you could read.

There were funky mirrors on the ceiling and walls that I liked.

Even I was trying to be a bit artsy with the reflections inside the gallery.

Up on top of the building is a 'green roof'.  They have grass growing and is a wide open space where you could have a picnic or relax and read a book.  It was pretty hot up top so I didn't spend too much time there.  However, due to the location at the edge of the sea there were some pretty nice breezes so was a perfect location for kite flying...

Back down on the main level is a nice central courtyard.  There are some great pieces of art (including the one that I posted at the beginning of this blog entry.)

There was also what they called a 'water playground' which was essentially a bunch of fountains that you could walk out and either play in or stand in with your bare feet to cool off.

I enjoyed wandering around today.  And I am always so impressed at how Singapore manages to have so many green spaces in the middle of such a big, urban area.  And I am doubly impressed that these places are almost always free to get into.  Mostly, I enjoyed the fact that now when I see this place I will actually know what it is!