Design In Print

|
Awards & events
Winning insights
BIM
Strategies
DP Architects was invited to share
its BIM experiences with the
industry at a session organised
by the Singapore Institute of
Architects (SIA). Representing the
firm, senior associate Ms Laura
Smagin explained DPA’s winning
strategies in the past Singapore
BIM Competitions organised by the
Building and Construction Authority.
She also discussed DPA’s journey to
integrate BIM in its design process,
including the implementation of Revit
training programme for staff, the
lessons learnt, key success factors
and upcoming challenges. The Are
You Ready for BIM Competition
2013 session was held at the SIA
building on 22 May 2013.
DPA clinches four
Asia Pacific Property
Awards 2013
At this year’s Asia Pacific Property
Awards, four projects designed by
DP Architects were awarded for their
design excellence in a combination
of categories. OUE Bayfront won
a Five-Star award for ‘Best Office
Development’ and earned a Highly
Commended accolade in the
‘Commercial High-rise Development’
category. In addition, Twin Peaks
and Orchard Central bagged Highly
Commended accolades in the
‘Residential High-rise Development’
and ‘Retail Architecture’ categories,
respectively. The awards ceremony was
held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala
Lumpur on 10 May 2013. The awards
are part of the International Property
Awards, and the winning projects were
judged on their concept, finishing,
sustainability, innovation and location.
Clockwise from top
left: Orchard Central,
OUE Bayfront and
Twin Peaks.
| Sustainable Design These two conditions imposed some challenges
Design Optimisation
By Lee Boon Woei
BUSINESS-AS-USUAL
BUILDING ENERGY
SYSTEM DESIGN
RESOURCES
NEEDED TO
OPERATE THE
BUILDING
ESD
PROCESS
OPTIMISED
DESIGN
within the boundary conditions and constraints.
The certification process is certainly not a mere
documentation process. Green certification
benchmarks environmental performance and is
the product of the sustainable design process
rather than the process itself.
If we were to use a leaking barrel as an analogy of
a design that is suboptimal, the design optimisation
process is to eliminate potential inefficiencies within
the system – plug the leakages; work within the
constraints of the project – produce a similar barrel
but at an ideal size; and achieve a lower running
cost – a smaller tap with slower flow.
Our current Green Mark Office Interior certification
process revealed a few interesting learning points.
Unlike Green Mark for new Non-Residential
Buildings which has a total point allocation of 190,
Green Mark Office Interior only has 115. This
implies that the ‘opportunities’ to score Green
Mark points have greatly reduced. On top of this,
Office Interior requires a Green Mark point of 95 to
secure the highest rating of Platinum while Non-
Residential Buildings only require 90 points.
to the team in the certification process. A SWOT
analysis of the ‘environmental friendliness’
of the office was conducted, and tangible
improvements to achieve our Green Mark
objectives were identified and implemented.
This exercise has deepened our appreciation that
sustainable design is a process that optimises
the environmental performance of a design
The optimisation process is now made possible
with the availability of powerful computers and
simulation software that provide designers
accurate information on the interactions of the
physical geographic conditions encountered by
the site, identifying the site’s inherent strengths
and weaknesses, so that designers could
fully explore the passive design potentials of a
development and generate an environmentally
sensitive and responsive design that will help
mitigate its carbon footprint.
The columnist is the director of DP ESD, a
subsidiary firm of DP Architects that specialises
in environmentally sustainable design.