Built environment industry has reason to be optimistic in its outlook

SEVERAL developments in the built environment industry have given us some reason to be cautiously optimistic about the outlook in the new year.

For one thing, the Vaccinated Travel Lane that was established between Malaysia and Singapore recently has facilitated the transport of construction materials from Malaysia, particularly pre-cast and pre-fabricated modules into Singapore, a move that has been welcomed by Singapore's construction industry.

The difficulties associated with importing construction materials into Singapore has been one of the major reasons for the delay in completing projects, both public and private.

A labour crunch and cost pressures aside, urbanisation continues to be a medium to long-term growth driver for many economies, particularly in South-east Asia.

Focus on the long term

How the built environment responds to these opportunities will be critical in charting the next wave of urban and infrastructure development.

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It is now time to explore a more a sustainable solution for the built environment sector, one that will hedge against volatility and variants.

We should reconsider the impact of en bloc sales on the carbon footprint, caused by the loss of embodied carbon in old structures and the carbon cost incurred by the new structures.

A shared materials bank is a very possible, workable solution. In concept, a materials bank is a repository of materials used in construction that can be recycled and reused in other sites.

It will enable designers, engineers and contractors to identify materials that can be recycled ahead of time to avoid unnecessary wastage during demolition. Material from one site can be transported and re-used at another site.

This practice is gaining ground in Europe.

Capital cost pressures may deter firms in Asean to create a materials banks but there is a lot of potential for advocacy groups and the private sector to coordinate the sharing of materials to hedge against supply chain disruptions and above all, achieve climate change ambitions.

An effective materials bank is in fact premised on a robust building information management system - the knowledge base that houses all information around which buildings are designed, constructed and operated.

The digitisation of building information management models have facilitated seamless transitions between each stage of the project life cycle.

Three-dimensional designs, analysis and cost projections of any project are coordinated among designers, planners, engineers and contractors - often on the cloud and with such precision that productivity has in fact increased even as markets were on lockdown at the height of the pandemic.

In Singapore, the bigger and more established developers have digitised building information modelling and virtual design and construction processes.

The next challenge for the built environment industry is to onboard more of the mid-sized and boutique developers on the sector-wide digital push.

Surbana Jurong is working with the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore to develop a dashboard that will provide developers with a 360-degree view of the various sub-systems including management systems, quality systems and costing information, analyse data across these systems to help project managers manage costs, improve productivity and track sustainability targets.

Project managers will be able to track the progress of projects in real time, be alerted to performance gaps and make swift decisions to address the issues immediately, minimising abortive work and improve productivity on site.

Adaptive re-use of space will drive higher-value design work

One of the biggest gaps in the built environment that Covid-19 has surfaced is the siloed thinking around design and the usage of spaces.

In the "next normal", we will need to build more urban spaces with the potential to serve multiple functions.

We saw how development sites quickly converted to temporary vaccination centres and community care facilities. Spaces below expressway viaducts are increasingly being used as sporting facilities.

Architects are challenged to think about how this kind of flexibility can be applied to other spaces including transport nodes, MRT stations and carparks.

They are increasingly working with other stakeholders outside the traditional project life cycle process; with climate engineers on improving air circulation in an indoor environment, segregating filtered clean air and contaminated air, in healthcare facilities as well as in homes to create endemic-responsive buildings.

Designers are looking to nature to create innovative design solutions. Biomimicry, the duplication of models, structures and elements of nature, will drive nature-based design thinking For example, the suction cups that hold large panes of glass work on the same principle as lizard feet in contact with surfaces.

Biomimicry is possibly the sector's quickest and cost-effective solution to issues of humidity controls, conserving energy and waste disposal controls in the built environment.

Another nature-based design solution is to plant much more trees and grass.

Leading developers are adopting such designs, prioritising biodegradable materials that support circular economy principles that will lead to a truly zero-waste culture.

Anchored on a robust financing framework, these initiatives will drive growth and activity in the built environment sector in 2022.

• The writer is group CEO of Surbana Jurong.