HDB Awards 2016: 23 Projects recognised for design and construction excellence

Housing & Development Board (HDB) has announced that the winners of the HDB Design Awards and Construction Awards to building contractors this year.

A total of 11 Design awards and 12 Constructions Awards are to be presented this year. The winners will received their awards from Minister for National Development, Mr Lawrence Wong, during the HDB Awards ceremony, on 8 September 2016.

Recognising Design Excellence

One of the Design Award projects, SkyVille @ Dawson, designed by WOHA Architects Pte Ltd, is a new generation of public housing aimed at:

• Building a cohesive and vibrant community,
• Encouraging family-friendly living,
• Developing a greener living environment.

It is said that each home is designed to be part of a Sky Village. A total of 12 Sky Villages, each comprising a cluster of 80 homes that share a naturally-ventilated Sky Garden. A roof garden on the 47th storey, equipped with a 400m jogging track and seating areas.

Another HDB Design Award winning project, Waterway Ridges, by Surbana Jurong Consultants Pte Ltd.

Furthermore, Waterway Ridges is the first public housing development with a large-scale integration of Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) or water-sensitive design elements.

Rejuvenation of older estates

HDB notes that its Design Award for this year, seeks to recognise design excellence in the rejuvenation of older estates, bringing the standards of the older estates closer to the newer estates.

Two Neighbourhood Centres which have been upgraded under the ROH programme for East Coast area, as well as the NRP in Simei Street 1 were awarded with the HDB design awards.

Recognising Construction Excellence

All seven housing projects that have won the HDB Construction Awards this year achieved CONQUAS scores of over 90, well ahead of the national average of 88.5.

Mr Tan Kok Hiang, Designer of the Year for the President’s Design Awards 2014, and an HDB Construction Awards jury panellist said, “I see that HDB continuously sets higher and higher benchmarks for construction innovation and quality, so much so that in some of the projects I have seen, the quality is equal to, or even better than those in the private sector. At the end of the day, the HDB Construction Awards are about pushing quality standards to meet and surpass home owners’ expectations."

One of the award winners is Keat Hong Axis, located at the junction of Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1 and Avenue 7. The project comprises nine residential blocks offering a total of 1,130 dwelling units, and a multi-storey carpark with roof garden.

Undertaken by China Construction (South Pacific) Development Co Pte Ltd, it achieved a CONQUAS score of 93.6. Construction productivity and quality were said to have been enhanced through more efficient work processes and the use of precast components for the roof features instead of casting them on site.