DP Group clinches BCA awards for championing green design

Honouring outstanding individuals who have championed sustainability in the built environment through design, construction or building management, two 2015 BCA-SGBC Green Building Individual Commendation Awards were conferred respectively to director of DP Architects and advisory director to DP Sustainable Design, Mr Wu Tzu Chiang, as well as Mr Yong Siew Onn, associate director of DP Engineers. 

On the accolade, Mr Wu said, “It is a privilege for our green design efforts and advocacy to be recognised by industry peers. Implementing Green Design requires a whole array of like-minded advocates, including the client and the professional teams, to adopt the various designs effectively. I am very fortunate and thankful to have all these opportunities because of the collaborations I had. At DP Architects, we have set up our own sustainable design subsidiary primarily to avail green know-how and technology for all our projects. This way, whether a project is slated for Green Mark certification or not, be it local or overseas, we can do our best to design responsibly, towards safeguarding our environment as best as we can.”

Mr Yong said, “I am honoured for my engineering work and applied solutions to be acknowledged by this award. At DP, we are dedicated to the design of people-centric schemes, so I believe buildings need to perform optimally and comfortably for people. I adopt green mechanical products for any project undertaken, enhancing the tropical living environment rather than diminishing it.”

Designing for Sustainability from the Start

Mr Wu, in the course of his practice, has witnessed the evolution of passive and active design optimisation as core tenets of green design, to what it is today. For example, before the green building movement accelerated as a recent trend, in the late 1990s, Mr Wu worked on the first large-scale rainwater harvesting system at Suntec City to provide water irrigation for the vast landscaped deck areas, a feature now often adopted in other projects.

In the last decade, Mr Wu has brought his expertise overseas, particularly in Indonesia and Vietnam, promoting non air-conditioned shaded environments and outdoor activity areas that are conducive even in the tropics.  Usually built into large mixed-use one-stop developments that provide residential, shopping, office, entertainment, hospitality and even healthcare facilities, these mega developments help to reduce commuting and adding to city traffic, thus reducing the carbon footprint.  Mr Wu has attained several Green Mark Platinum awards, the highest Green Mark rating for projects, for Nanyang Polytechnic, 368 Thomson, H2O Residences at Sengkang and the first zero-energy gallery in Singapore, CDL Green Gallery @ SBG Heritage Museum.

While green design has come a long way, Mr Wu feels that great challenges still remain in educating the industry on a total, holistic green approach and mindset that is all encompassing. Addressing this issue, he said, “Architects will also need to consider the best and most efficient benefits of a design at a social level, and its impact to the community at large, especially in very crowded urban spaces.  There is a need to design for open, green spaces that will encourage family gatherings, and allow for the blending of events and activities in a commercially viable way, making the best and most effective use of scarce resources.”

With the cooperation of clients, Mr Wu has implemented some of these exemplar strategies in socially sustainable civic spaces such as Alun Alun in Bandung, Indonesia and Central Park in Jakarta, Indonesia, a shopping space incorporating a generous 1ha of garden space for gatherings, events and activities, unprecedented in a megacity like Jakarta.

Engineering for Sustainability at the Close

Mr Yong was appointed the SGBC Mechanical Technical Committee Deputy Chairman in 2009 and promoted to its Chairman in 2013. That same year, he joined DP Engineers to co-lead the M&E team. He was instrumental in implementing green design features on the large-scale Mediacorp headquarters at one-north project, ensuring a highly efficient air-conditioning system and air-distribution design, energy-efficient lighting and regenerative lifts with sleep-mode features.

As SGBC Mechanical Technical Committee Chairman, he led the identification process for innovative mechanical products that could be used by the industry, developing new product criteria and collaborating with industry players for feedback before launching the products to the industry.

Consolidating the creative and implementation processes, Mr Yong is a key player in DP Engineers who works to ensure that sustainable engineering design solutions are fully coordinated and methodically applied.

The award is recognised as a symbol of excellence in Singapore for sustainable design. The award ceremony was held on 2 September 2015 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

Green Thinking: The DNA of DP Group

DP Group also received two prior BCA-SGBC Green Building Individual Commendation Awards in 2013 and 2014, testifying to DP’s leadership in and commitment to the field of sustainable design.

DP Architects has scored many firsts in providing a sustainable and inhabitable built environment: the first two Green Mark District awards for Resorts World Sentosa and NUS University Town, both achieving the second highest rating of GoldPlus; the first Green Mark Platinum awarded to a private landed house, 36BTrd; and the inaugural Green Mark award for the New Park category conferred on River Safari. DP Architects has also been recognised by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore as one of the architecture firms with the highest number of Green Mark Platinum and GoldPlus projects.