Speech by 2M Desmond Lee at the HDB Awards 2018

Sep 3, 2018

Good evening to all. 

We are here tonight to recognise you – our colleagues and partners – for your contributions in developing well-designed, quality homes for Singaporeans.  

The important role and responsibility of HDB’s industry partners 

Since HDB was set up in 1960, it has built over one million homes across 26 towns and estates. Today, over 80% of our people live in HDB flats, with more than nine in 10 owning their homes. We have one of the highest home ownership rates in the world. We are also ranked highly in international surveys as one of the most liveable cities in Asia and the world. This is no mean feat. Delivering well-designed and quality homes for Singaporeans will continue to be a national endeavour. 

Unlike in the past, where HDB took on the sole responsibility of designing, building and maintaining flats, our public housing landscape today is also shaped by our industry partners.   

While HDB still takes the lead in master-planning the town, it is progressively involving more private sector stakeholders, tapping on their creativity and expertise in designing and constructing new homes; as well as improving the facilities in existing HDB towns, under various rejuvenation programmes.

All of you here tonight – whether you are an architectural consultant or a building contractor – play an integral role in helping HDB deliver its mission of providing quality homes. Thank you for stepping up to help shape our city with HDB.

Recognising the good work through HDB Awards

HDB recognises the important role that you play. It therefore initiated the HDB Awards in 2004, to recognise those who excelled in the design and construction of our HDB flats and estates. 

Beyond design and construction, HDB has expanded its suite of awards in recent years, to include partners who have been instrumental in creating a sustainable and quality living environment for Singaporeans. For example, we now have awards that recognise consultants engaged by our town councils for their excellent work carried out under the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme or NRP.  

This year, HDB is introducing a new category of awards – the Engineering Awards – to recognise engineering excellence in infrastructure, land reclamation, and HDB building projects. This affirms the importance of engineering and infrastructural works in laying the foundation for a good quality living environment. 

The growth of the Awards is part of HDB’s efforts to recognise its partners across the whole value chain – from planning and design, to engineering and construction, and even post-construction maintenance of our estates.

All the winning projects exemplify the values that are important to HDB – Design, Productivity, Engineering, Innovation, and Quality. Congratulations to all 31 award winners for your outstanding home designs, excellent construction quality, and engineering achievements. 

Building better homes faster with technology

As the public housing authority and largest housing developer in Singapore, HDB takes the lead in improving construction productivity as it builds homes for Singaporeans.  

Over the past eight years, HDB and BCA have been working to transform and future-proof our built environment through the use of productive technologies and digitisation, such as Building Information Modelling and Virtual Design & Construction. The results have been encouraging as they continue to push boundaries. Since 2010, overall site productivity has increased by almost 15%. 

We are making good progress towards achieving HDB’s target of a 25% improvement in productivity by 2020, and raising the bar for public housing in Singapore. We are adopting more productive forms of precast construction, including the use of Prefabricated Bathroom Units (or PBUs) and Prefinished, Prefabricated Volumetric Construction (or PPVC). By next year, all new HDB flats will be fitted with PBUs, while the PPVC method will be implemented in 35% of public housing projects. 

These efforts, together with ongoing initiatives such as the laminated uPVC doors and vinyl strip flooring, have enabled us to build better homes faster, and achieve higher levels of productivity. 

We will continue to invest in technology to push the boundaries further. The next step we are taking is to develop digital fabrication and 3D printing. Currently, concrete building elements using the conventional precast production process can take months to prepare and fabricate. We will work with Robin Village Development Pte Ltd, Witteveen+Bos, and NTU to develop 3D-printing of full-scale concrete building elements. 

When completed, the 3D concrete printer will be the first of its kind and the largest concrete printer to be set up in Singapore. We aspire to use the 3D printer to “print” typical room-sized units like the precast bathroom units in just two days. Research efforts in this area are currently ongoing. The construction industry will be able to reap considerable time savings and productivity improvements. 

Pushing the frontiers with R&D

Research, innovation and enterprise are cornerstones of our national strategy to develop a knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy and society. 

Research & Development (or R&D) is an investment in our future, and public investment in R&D has grown over the years. From $2 billion under the National Technology Plan back in 1995, to $19 billion under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2020 plan. This reflects our continued commitment to research, innovation and enterprise, and to invest more across various domains, including in urban solutions. 

To realise this, we set up a Strategic Research Panel comprising leading experts in various fields to provide thought leadership and augment research efforts in the sustainable built environment domain. Our panel has looked into game-changing innovations and urban solutions that can redefine the way people plan, design, build and live in cities, and charted a research roadmap to make improvements in the built environment. Our vision is to develop integrated R&D solutions, and holistically address issues to ensure Singapore remains highly liveable, sustainable and resilient. 

Conclusion 

There is more to be done to make our city even more liveable and sustainable, and to create a better environment for all to enjoy.  We must continue to push ourselves to go beyond the status quo, strive for continuous improvements for every town and precinct. Each new project must push the boundaries and pilot innovative solutions to make our city more attractive and enhance our quality of life.  

I look forward to your continued partnership in our journey to build better homes. Congratulations to our winners again and good evening.