Meinhardt provides innovative solutions for cities' needs

THE global urbanisation challenge today is multi-dimensional and planners have to deal with the concurrent triple challenges of an ageing population, falling birth rates and climate change, says Wong Teck Hong, Technical Director at Meinhardt (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a leading engineering firm. He is recognised as a young leader in the built environment industry sector.

Mr Wong cites a McKinsey study which reported that population growth has been the crucial driver of cities' GDP growth, accounting for 58 per cent of it in large cities between 2000 and 2012. But as the world's population ages and birth rates decline, this traditional source of growth for cities around the world will decline.

By 2030, one in four Singaporeans will be aged 65 years and above and he says the country will have to make provisions for the silver tsunami that will put a strain on healthcare and transportation as well as social safety networks.

"Concurrently, the effects of climate change looms large on the horizon. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently highlighted the urgent need for us to future proof our city against the effects of climate change which will bring about rising sea levels and potentially highly disruptive effects on our city.

"Singapore is uniquely placed as our government agencies plan long term, sometimes with a 50- to100- year horizon. Meinhardt is happy that we are able to work with our government agencies, providing innovative engineering solutions for projects such as the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System, our MRT network, as well as many of the tall buildings in the CBD such as Tanjong Pagar Centre, which is the tallest building in Singapore."

Asked what role the built environment industry can play in improving the living conditions for the large population shift to urban areas, he feels that the industry's main role is to bring innovative solutions to the market, working with city planners, and building and project owners.

"For example, in land scarce Singapore, engineers and planners help to optimise land use by building higher. Meinhardt's engineers have brought leading innovations to constructing tall buildings in Singapore for the last 45 years, enabling us to do more with less land.

"We are also playing our part in sustainability where we have brought Environmentally Sustainable Designs (ESD) and solutions to over 40 buildings in Singapore including Gardens by the Bay, Assisi Hospice and Our Tampines Hub. Our solutions have helped Singapore reduce its carbon footprint with green, low energy and low carbon emission building designs."

With increasing demands being placed on the built environment industry, it needs to transform itself to meet the new challenges that it is facing. As city planning becomes more complex with the triple challenge, built environment industry players need to solve their clients' problems with a multi-dimension approach.

They need to move away from just being suppliers of single solutions and consider how they can be part of an integrated system of solutions, working hand in hand with city planners and other solution providers, says Mr Wong.

This can be done through technology collaboration and converging services with other industry players to build a seamless ecosystem of solutions for the built environment. There needs to be evolving platform services where shared resources can be utilised more efficiently and effectively, across territorial jurisdictions. At the same time there needs to be aggressive training initiatives to retrain and groom a new generation of built environment leaders.

The built environment industry consists of two major elements, design and constructability, says Mr Wong. Currently, design firms push out cutting edge solutions to address environmental metrics such as sustainability, low energy usage, reduced carbon footprints. They are also at the helm of integrating smart systems in buildings and trunk infrastructure to track and optimise energy usage.

Among the changes that are needed is greater interoperability of the software systems that are being used for digital transformation such as Building Management Systems (BMS) and smart systems that control lighting, air-conditioning, and so on. He is of the view that higher grants are needed to spur upskilling for industry professionals so that they can bring more value. Increased placements and industry partnerships are also needed to help bring the industry up to speed.

He says new standards should be evolved to address climate change and foster innovation in the engineering and construction industry. This should go with embracing innovative building techniques like precast and Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) to enhance productivity.

Digitalisation can help enhance productivity, shorten construction times and save money.

"We need to find the right balance to be able to achieve meaningful productivity gains while not overly disrupting the livelihoods of industry players, especially the SMEs.

"The value proposition at the end of the day should be about finding ways to do things faster, cheaper and with less manpower so that the industry benefits as a whole."