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Surbana, JTC power green revolution
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By CECILIA CHOW
Friday, 09 July 2010 16:59 Bookmark and Share
UK-educated HDB scholar Frven Lim, head of architecture at Surbana International Consultants Pte Ltd, is a sustainable-building enthusiast. Having just moved into a Black & White conservation terraced house with his wife and two cats, he is busy greening it up with lots of plants and adding shade to areas.

His dream is to buy a plot of land and build a bungalow based entirely on green features, he says. At Surbana, green features are the core of the design for most of its projects — starting with public housing and extending into commercial and industrial sectors. “We all know that green is in, and sustainability is a big issue around the world,” says Lim, 38.

“Three years ago, Surbana  started working on the first ecofriendly HDB housing project.” That project is the 712-unit TreeLodge@Punggol, and the first HDB public housing  project to receive a Green Mark Platinum award — the highest rating bestowed by the Building & Construction Authority (BCA) for environment-friendly buildings based on criteria  such as energy and water efficiency, environmental protection and indoor environmental qualities.

The handover of the flats at TreeLodge is planned for year-end, and it will also be another significant milestone for HDB, as it marks the handover of the one-millionth key of a brand new flat. TreeLodge also represents HDB’s new generation of flats that are one step closer to that of private housing, with fiveroom loft apartments said to be the equivalent of penthouses in luxury condominiums.
 
Another new-generation public housing project Surbana’s Lim has incorporated green features is Dawson Estate, an old HDB development in Queenstown that the government
wants to revitalise.

“Public housing nowadays is very different from what is was a decade ago,” observes Lim. This difference has been especially palpable over the last two years since HDB started to engage designers and consultants from the private sector, he adds.
 
The seeds of change were planted in 2003, when HDB Corp, which was the building and development division of HDB, was corporatised. In 2005, it was renamed Surbana Corp
and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings.

In 2003, a moratorium was put in place whereby HDB had to engage HDB Corp for all the design and development work of public housing projects for the first three years, after
which, 10% could be outsourced to the private sector in the fourth year, 30% in the fifth, 50% in the sixth, and then subsequently, open to all players.

“So, today, the boundaries have become more blurred,” says Lim. “Anyone who’s designing private housing has also become our competitor, because they are also servicing HDB in the designing and building of public housing. Even private developers are now developing public housing under the Design, Build and Sell Scheme].”

Reinvention
Lim joined HDB just when Surbana was corporatised and had to reinvent itself. Probably more than anyone else, Lim appreciated the power of reinvention from a young age, and that has served him well in his pivotal role of leading the design and architecture team at Surbana. “I’ve three sisters,” he says.

“When I was seven and about to start primary school, we realised we didn’t have any Christian names, which was very- fashionable then.” So, they created names for themselves, and Lim’s sisters christened him “Frven” (pronounced “Fri-ven” with the “i” deliberately left out “because we thought it was cooler”, he says).

Under the moratorium, Surbana was also not allowed to compete in the country for non-HDB jobs for the first five years after it was corporatised.

It therefore leveraged on its expertise in design, building and development of HDB public housing and ventured overseas. For instance, it developed townships in joint-venture projects in China (Chengdu, Shenyang, Wuxi and Xian).

In India, it tied up with Chennaibased Marq Ltd, an infrastructure and real-estate development company, to introduce prefabricated construction  technology for residential and industrial developments. It also designed a 225-unit senior citizen apartment project for a Bangalore-based realtor, Alliance Group.

In the United Arab Emirates, Surbana designed the US$163 million ($227.16 million) headquarters for the Abu Dhabi Tourism Development and Investment Co, which obtained the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification — the highest internationally recognised accolade for sustainability, and the first building in Abu Dhabi to receive the  certification, says Lim.

The moratorium for Singapore expired two years ago and since then, Surbana has started to build up “a vocabulary of projects outside of public housing”, says Lim. The portf olio  of over 300 design projects that Surbana is currently involved in include the design of the Centre for Aquatic Science Research at Sungei Ulu Pandan for National University of Singapore, a new sports hall for Hwa Chong International and three boutique private condo projects in the East that have yet to be launched.

Recently, Surbana secured the contract for the design of a 400-unit “ecofriendly” executive condo project in Yishun for MCC Land, which is part of the state-owned Metallurgical Corp of China. The project is expected to be launched at the year-end. In line with the design works undertaken by Surbana, Lim wants the project to achieve at least a BCA Green Mark Gold Plus certification “at a negligible increase in construction costs”.

JTC’s Cleantech One — test bed for green features
altMeanwhile, Surbana was appointed by JTC as the design architect for its Cleantech One project to demonstrate that having green features do not equate to high costs. Cleantech One is the seed project in Cleantech Park, a 50ha site in Nanyang Avenue, which is the first master-planned ecobusiness park in Singapore.

Developed by JTC Corp, Cleantech One is a six-storey building with a gross floor area of 403,650 sq ft, with construction cost estimated at $90 million.

Sitting on a 1.5ha site on the northern edge of Cleantech Park, the building acts as a gateway into the eco-business park and is also a test bed or “live laboratory for green technology and green features” — the building’s design concept is based on “a living capsule”, says Lim.

In terms of architecture, there is a “green ribbon” running through the building and leading to Cleantech Park’s green lung. Acting like a partially covered atrium space between the two blocks, the green ribbon maximises the use of natural light, and also allows people to engage the greenery outdoors.

The building is also oriented and designed to ensure good airflow and cross ventilation, with naturally ventilated common corridors and perforated screens to allow natural light in.

Perimeter corridors have also been deployed to create a buffer between the façade and the interior units to minimise heat gain. Recycled building materials, such as reconstituted timber and concrete, will be used for all the façade walls and pavements, says Lim. Stormwater will be harvested on the rooftop with minimal use of pumps and also via bio-retention pools.

The target is to reduce water consumption by 30%, says JTC. Lush greenery and plants will be strategically deployed not just for aesthetics, but also to provide natural shade and a buffer from the solar energy gain, says Lim.
 
This can be seen in Cleantech One’s sky trellises and installation of a “giant creeper netting” over the building and eventually the whole park. The building will also run on hydrogen
power generated by a onemegawatt plant fed with wood chips, plant waste and other biological material.

It can generate enough renewable energy to power up to 20% of the building’s needs, says JTC. Other green features include a dehumidifier powered by solar energy to drive
the air-conditioner units directly, installation of solar panels on roof space, and biodigester to decompose food cleanly.

The first tenant in the building will be Nanyang Technology University, which plans to house its water and environmental R&D facility in Cleantech One. It could eventually house
up to 50 clean tech companies.

The building is expected to be completed by end-2011. “We need to go back to sound fundamentals,” says Lim. “A lot of thought has gone into Cleantech One, and some of the
underlying principles and concepts are [also] relevant to private condos, and we’re hoping to learn and adopt it for our other projects.”
 

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