Category Archives: General

318 awards given to construction industry players for excellence

Posted on 24 May 2012 | Comments Off on 318 awards given to construction industry players for excellence

Singapore’s construction sector honoured its best on Thursday evening.

The Building and Construction Authority gave out 318 awards to builders, developers, consultants and building owners for excellence in areas of safety, quality, sustainability and user-friendliness.

BCA said there are more winners this year due to higher construction standards and more Green Mark Awards.

Last year, 261 awards were given out.

At this year’s event, Ascendas, CapitaLand and the National University of Singapore were conferred the Green Mark Champion Award for their strong commitment towards environmental sustainability.

NUS is the first educational institution to be awarded the Green Mark Champion Award.

The university incorporates innovative environmental strategies into its building developments on campus, and adopts a sustainable life cycle approach to facilities management.

BCA said including the Green Mark Champion Awards, the number of Green Mark Awards increased from 164 last year to 205 this year.

It said more developers and building owners are coming onboard to “green” their buildings, as they recognise the growing importance of green and sustainable developments to their business and environment.

As of May, there are more than 1,180 green buildings in Singapore, with a total gross floor area of about 37 million square metres, or 16 per cent of the total estimated existing building floor space.

This year, the Housing and Development Board was conferred the Built Environment Leadership Platinum Award, the highest accolade for demonstrating excellence and leadership in shaping a safe, high quality, sustainable and friendly built environment.

This is the first time a public sector organisation is awarded the Built Environment Leadership Platinum Award since the award was introduced in 2009.

HDB’s CEO Dr Cheong Koon Hean said, “HDB is honoured to receive the Built Environment Leadership Platinum Award and other awards. This award is a great encouragement to us, and we will continue to focus on the three thrusts of our Roadmap – building well-designed, sustainable, and community-centric towns.”

At Thursday night’s event, the BCA also presented a cheque of nearly S$580,000 on behalf of the construction industry to President Tony Tan Keng Yam, as donation to the President’s Challenge.

Source : CNA – 2012 May 24

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Buoyant property market benefiting other sectors

Posted on 24 May 2012 | Comments Off on Buoyant property market benefiting other sectors

The buoyant property market has reaped benefits not only for developers in Singapore but also for related sectors such as interior designers and renovation firms.

Interior design firm SuMisura is one such company that has seen higher sales on the back of a property boom. The company, which performs design work for show flats, said such projects boosted the firm’s sales by 15 per cent last year.

Projects from developers accounted for 70 per cent of revenue last year, the company said, adding that the individual customers who made up the remaining 30 per cent were also inspired by their visits to the show flats it had designed.

“Once they see that and they feel it, and after buying the unit, they would want to come back to the very same interior designer to create that dream,” SuMisura director Angela Lim said. “We get a fair bit of spin-offs from doing show flats. They call us and ask us to do up their flats, whether new or old.”

Paris-based luxury designer Hermes also joined in the action this year, partnering high-end developer SC Global to design the interiors of an apartment at The Marq.

Ms Helene Dubrule, general manager for Hermes Home Division, said: “We will have plenty of projects in Singapore. We have a beautiful store in Liat Towers which will be renovated in the next few years … There is a very strong interest from Asian customers here.”

Another company benefitting from the buoyant property market is Kitchen Culture, whose mission is to create well-designed and highly functional kitchens.

Fitting residential projects with trendy kitchens make up more than half of Kitchen Culture’s business, the company said.

In the first four months of this year, the company clinched S$11 million worth of projects to supply property developers with kitchens in homes in Singapore and Malaysia.

Source : Today – 2012 May 24

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