Architects have the ability to inject sustainable goals into their building designs

THE birth of new technologies that resemble figments of science fiction has changed the facets of human life and altered our behaviour. Climate change is an everyday reality and governments are bracing themselves for more acute environmental changes in the future. These two forces of change - one we embrace, the other we want to stop - have made tremendous impact on the architecture, engineering and construction industry, including the way architects design.

In the latter half of my 30-year practice, traditional drafting methods gave way completely to computer-assisted design, legislation has made green certification mandatory for all new buildings, and market demand has driven the industry to innovate for sustainable buildings and construction.

Early adopters of technology are key to the success of a company and even the transformation of the construction industry. The founders of DP Architects saw the potential of technology to transform the practice and invested heavily in a computer studio in 1992. It was among the first architecture firms in Singapore to adopt computer-aided design. DP Architects is now the largest architecture practice in Singapore and ranked the eighth-largest in the world in the WA100 Survey. This early embrace of technology enabled DP Architects to do extensive option studies on the sunshading of Esplanade Theatres on the Bay in the 90s, which contributed to the building's iconic form.