Opening Address by MOS Tan Kiat How at the Singapore Institute of Architects Inaugural Architectural Specifier Market

Tuesday, 24 August 2021

A very good morning to everyone. It is my pleasure to be with you here today at the inaugural Architectural Specifier Market. I thank everyone for taking the necessary precautions to allow us to meet physically. Even though vaccination rates are climbing, the new cases detected at the North Coast Lodge, released last night have shown that we cannot be complacent.

While the situation has stabilised sufficiently for us to ease community measures, we have to work together to keep the situation under control. We will test more frequently, and more widely. By detecting cases early, we can then quickly isolate and ring-fence them to halt the spread of the virus. Since 18 May, we have required all visitors to construction worksites to undergo Rostered Routine Testing (RRT). This has helped us to detect the positive cases at North Coast Lodge and thereby quickly commence further testing.

As a precautionary measure, we have also placed all the dormitory residents on Movement Restriction Order in order to halt the spread of the virus. On top of this, we have also made Antigen Rapid Tests (ART) mandatory for workers and visitors not residing in dormitories who enter the construction worksites. This has started at large worksites a few days ago and we will implement it for the rest of the worksites from 3 September. There is clear evidence that vaccination can significantly reduce severe illnesses and deaths.

And that is why, beyond testing, we aim to vaccinate as many people as possible. As of 21 August, 78% of our population have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and 82% has received at least one dose. Our vaccination rate is amongst the highest, if not the highest in the world. The vaccination rate amongst our migrant workers in the construction sector is also very encouraging. Nevertheless, I would like to urge more locals in our sectors who are eligible to get your jabs. Please do so as soon as possible. Your friends, your colleagues, and your staff who are in this sector and who have not taken their jabs, please encourage them to do so. Let’s continue to stay safe together as a nation, and as an industry.  

COVID-19 and the Built Environment

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Government has been working hard to ensure that work in the Built Environment sector can continue safely and smoothly, so that our sector can remain viable and well-positioned for recovery. We have provided significant financial support such as wage subsidies for local employees under the Jobs Support Scheme. We have also introduced unprecedented legislation under the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act to help affected firms, including providing temporary relief from certain stipulated legal actions. We provided a universal Extension of Time, and mandated the co-sharing of certain costs.

For consultants who have provided services in evaluating or certifying these COVID-related relief claims, government agencies provided a one-off, ex-gratia payment for this additional work done. Consultants need not submit any claims to receive this payment. Government agencies will provide the payment after the services are rendered.

Nevertheless, we acknowledge that the industry continues to face constraints. And we will tackle these challenges together. For instance, in consultation with the Singapore Institute of Architects, or SIA, we have enhanced the Quality Fee Method framework in December last year to ensure that any outlier bids are removed from the computation of average fees. This will go some way to address concerns regarding fee diving and mitigate unhealthy competition.

BCA is also working with SIA, public agencies and other stakeholders to review standard consultancy contract provisions, with a view towards a more equitable sharing of risks and cost items arising from current and future pandemic events.

Turning Adversity into Opportunity

Our past efforts to transform the industry have actually made it more resilient. If not for these efforts, the impact to the industry could have been far worse. For instance, while actual construction work had to be halted sometime last year, we were able to continue design-related work remotely because of our digitalisation efforts.

At the same time, our Construction Industry Transformation Map (ITM) and other efforts have helped us raise the productivity of our industry by about 2% per year over the last decade. We have made good progress, but the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought other changes. And we must redouble our efforts to adapt to a post-COVID future.

Today, I would like to touch on three key drivers of transformation for our Built Environment Sector.

Key Driver 1: Sustainability

First, is on sustainability. We are making a whole-of-nation push on sustainability with the Singapore Green Plan 2030.

To accelerate our transition to a more sustainable, low-carbon Built Environment, we launched the 4th edition of the Singapore Green Building Masterplan in March this year.

At the heart of this plan are our “80-80-80” targets. First, we want to green 80% of our buildings by Gross Floor Area by 2030.  Beyond this, we want 80% of our new buildings to be Super Low Energy, or SLE, buildings from 2030, so that we set a high bar for sustainability moving forward. Third, we aim to realise an 80% improvement in energy efficiency for our best-in-class green buildings over the 2005 baseline by 2030. This will be done by ramping up our research and innovation efforts. Ambitious targets, 80-80-80, by 2030.

These are ambitious targets, and we will need the entire Built Environment sector, entire value chain to drive and support the adoption of green buildings – from early stages of design and construction, to the subsequent operation and maintenance of our buildings.

All of you, as architects play a very important role in this effort.  We need you to reduce the overall carbon footprint of our buildings by designing for sustainability. A good example is SMU Connexion, which is a BCA Green Mark Platinum Zero Energy project that has incorporated many innovative sustainable design features. The use of Mass Engineered Timber, a low-carbon alternative to concrete, reduces the building’s embodied carbon and creates an aesthetically distinctive façade that allows the building to integrate seamlessly with Fort Canning Park. The architects also added the “Solar Verandah”, a sheltered linkway covered with solar photo-voltaic cells. This helps to generate clean energy, offsetting the building’s energy consumption.  

Buildings that are designed for sustainability can also improve the health, well-being and comfort of occupants, and increasingly more so, in the post-pandemic future. Take for example the NUS School of Design and Environment Four, or SDE4, which is another Green Mark Platinum Zero Energy building. There, naturally ventilated spaces and the use of a hybrid cooling system help to enhance air quality and circulation, as well as provide thermal comfort. The COVID-19 situation has underscored the importance of designing for these other aspects of sustainability.

Later this year, we will be launching the next iteration of the Green Mark scheme. We will place greater emphasis on aspects such as health and well-being, as well as how these buildings are designed for long-term maintainability.

SMU Connexion and NUS SDE4 are not the only examples of buildings that are functional, beautiful, and sustainable.

I look forward to your support and seeing many of such well-designed green buildings becoming a norm in Singapore.

Key Driver 2: Automation

The second key driver is on automation. We want to push the industry to further adopt automation as a key driver of construction productivity. A key thrust for us is Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, or DfMA. By moving construction off-site into a controlled indoor work environment, DfMA reduces our on-site workforce of migrant workers, whilst creating highly skilled jobs for Singaporeans. We have made good progress since our last Industry Transformation Map. DfMA adoption in Singapore doubled over the last three years, from 19% in 2017 to 39% in 2020.

We aim to make DfMA the default building method, especially for large projects.  Starting from April next year, we will raise the minimum buildability score for large commercial, institutional and industrial developments with GFA of at least 25,000 sqm.

Architects play an important role in advancing DfMA in Singapore. Adopting DfMA doesn’t mean that we have to sacrifice design and creativity. For instance, the architect firm ADDP was involved in designing for Avenue South Residences, an upcoming condominium located in the Bukit Merah area. When complete, it will hold the distinction of being the tallest prefabricated building in the world. The development has won several awards, including the award for “Best Condo Interior Design” at the 2019 PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards for Singapore.
 
I am confident that our architects will continue to deliver well-designed buildings, with the use of DfMA technologies.

Key Driver 3: Digitalisation

The third driver is on digitalisation. We must better leverage digital technologies.

Just over a decade ago, many of our architects were still solely reliant on paper and pen to design our buildings.

Since then, our architectural firms have radically transformed their work processes to embrace digitalisation. Today, our architects are plugged into the wider digital ecosystem of the Built Environment sector, allowing them to realise the benefits of enhanced collaboration with other firms along the construction value chain.

This is enabled by Integrated Digital Delivery, or IDD, which is a digital spine enabled by the adoption of interoperable digital platforms on a Common Data Environment. For architects, this enhanced collaboration improves the accuracy of your building designs. Costly design mistakes that affect the construction of the building can be avoided. IDD also allows architects to coordinate with other project stakeholders across the building lifecycle to discuss their designs remotely, without having to meet physically. For instance, the firm Ong & Ong has leveraged the cloud-based Autodesk BIM 360 platform to share their building designs.  The platform acts as a single source of truth, where the latest edits from any user are reflected to all project stakeholders at any given point in time. These digitally-enabled ways of working have proved invaluable, no less so than now, as we learn to live and grapple with the reality of COVID-19.

Such a transformation of our industry would not have been possible without the close partnership between our architects, SIA and public agencies. SIA has played a leading role in engaging the industry on new digital solutions, and facilitating their development and industry adoption. The Government has likewise supported our architects through funding schemes under BCA’s BuildSG Transformation Fund, such as the Productivity Innovation Project and the Productivity Solutions Grant.

Let me take this opportunity to speak about some of these solutions.

In 2019, SIA revamped APEX, a cloud-based project management platform available to its members. The online platform allows for architects to manage the administrative needs of their projects with other stakeholders. The current version of APEX enables live updates to be easily tracked and edited by multiple parties at any point in time. In its 16th year of operation, the platform now has an active user base of more than 3,000 users in 200 companies. I am pleased to share that the platform will soon be supported under BCA’s Productivity Solutions Grant, starting from this month. Firms adopting the APEX platform could benefit from up to 80% of funding support through this grant scheme. I encourage all members to actively use this platform.

Another initiative spearheaded by SIA in collaboration with other industry trade associations is the Intelligent National Productivity and Quality Specifications, or iNPQS. This is another cloud-based digital platform with standard templates of project specifications for architects and engineers to adapt and customise. These specifications are regularly updated. This reduces abortive work for our architects that sometimes arises from discrepancies between designs and requirements. Since its launch last November, more than 40 firms have been supported under the Productivity Solutions Grant to adopt the iNPQS solution. I encourage other firms who have not done so to please apply, and benefit from the Productivity Solutions Grant as well.

We are also seeing more sophisticated use of digital technologies in our firms.

For example, one technology that IDD has made a reality for architects is the adoption of virtual reality, or VR. VR tools could allow building designs to interact with real-life elements at construction sites, and surface potential construction issues even before they occur. Our more progressive firms have adopted such tools, to enhance their work processes to become more productive. For instance, ID Architects has used the BIMatrix VR tool for its architects to review their designs virtually together with other project stakeholders. The tool helps project teams visualise the scale and finishes of designs in a 3D virtual space, and flag out any issues prior to construction.

This is a quantum leap when compared to a decade ago, where BIM was still being introduced to the industry at large. I had the opportunity of checking out the tool, and I think some of the users have shared with me that it was actually very useful, in the COVID environment, project stakeholders, developers and owners who are not physically in Singapore can take a look at the project.

So I encourage all of you to continue this good work, and invest in adopting digital technologies. My BCA colleagues will be happy to support you and your firm on your digitalisation journey.

Conclusion: The Way Forward for our Architectural Profession

Let me conclude. Our approach towards industry transformation has been to partner industry stakeholders – associations and firms. In this regard, I am grateful for your support, in particular SIA which has worked tirelessly to champion the interest of the industry and partner the government agencies to identify, develop and implement solutions.

At the same time, people are at the heart of our efforts. We want to see a strong architectural profession for many years to come.

I empathise with the challenges that our local architectural fraternity face in attracting and retaining younger people in this profession. We have given our next generation of young people a very strong educational foundation. We have diversified and grown our economy over the years. So today, young people have many exciting opportunities when they graduate, and even after they have started work for a number of years. We are proud of our next generation and are happy that they have many more opportunities compared to our generation. But this means that these developments put pressure on our sector in being able to attract the next generation of leaders and leading lights in our field. The perception that architects work long-hours, have poor work-life balance, provide services that are often under-appreciated by clients and command low fees does not help.

These are not unique challenges to the architectural sector. Many other segments in our Built Environment sector face the same challenges. But I personally believe that there are many exciting opportunities for aspiring, passionate young people in our sector.

So I seek the support of industry partners, all of you, to continually place our people at the heart of our transformation effort, even as we leverage digital technologies, adopt automation and ride the green wave of sustainability change.  

On the government’s part, we will continue to work with all of you, industry associations and firms, to tackle these challenges, together.

So I wish all of you good health and fruitful discussions at the various panels and meetings today. Thank you for having me this morning.