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Local firm behind Gardens by the Bay is building greener across S’pore – and beyond
The pioneer of eco structures in Singapore, including Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Changi Airport Terminal 3, is tapping on novel technology to cut energy and resources
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Multi-disciplinary infrastructure consultancy CPG Consultants designed both Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) and Gardens by the Bay (pictured) with nature and sustainability as a starting point.
PHOTO: CPG CONSULTANTS
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When Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) opened in 2010, its design took many by surprise. It was a clear departure from the more utilitarian architectural style of hospitals familiar to most Singaporeans.
The hospital was designed by CPG Consultants, a subsidiary of CPG Corporation, a 190-year-old multi-disciplinary infrastructure consultancy that is one of Singapore’s pioneers in the green built environment sector. With research showing the health benefits of being immersed in nature, CPG put greenery at the centre of its design for KTPH.
To tap Yishun Pond Park next to the site, it planned the hospital as a cluster of buildings surrounding a central courtyard that opens to the park. This courtyard also flows into the basement, admitting natural light and ventilation.
With strategic landscaping, patients and staff on every floor have garden views from different angles.
Furthermore, CPG designed every available rooftop space as a garden, to either grow fruits and vegetables, including for the hospital’s kitchen, or be used as therapy for patients.
With these and other features, the total surface area of horizontal and vertical greenery in KTPH is nearly four times the size of the land that the hospital sits on.
Other energy efficiency measures, such as positioning and orienting its buildings to minimise heat from the sun and maximise ventilation from wind, have paid off too.
KTPH is 30 per cent more energy-efficient than other hospitals in Singapore, and 35 per cent of its gross floor area has natural ventilation.
KTPH is just one of CPG’s sustainability breakthroughs. The firm established a studio specialising in eco-friendly design in 2002, even before Singapore launched its Green Mark certification scheme in 2005 to rate buildings’ sustainability.
Since then, it has added its green touch to many buildings and developments in Singapore and beyond. These include Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, Jurong Lake Gardens and Changi Airport Terminal 3; Pakistan’s Islamabad International Airport; Vietnam’s Aquabay Sky Residences; and the upcoming New Rainforest Park at Mandai Wildlife Reserve.
Architect and CPG Corporation’s group chief innovation officer Tan Shao Yen, 57, notes that many of its longstanding practices are now common, such as analysing how the sun’s path would affect temperature, light and shade in different parts of a building, to identify ways to save energy.
“In Singapore, green features used to be ‘nice-to-have’. Now, sustainable design is an integral part in all buildings,” he says.
He adds that architects and other built environment professionals have a crucial role to play in the urgent fight against climate change. “The global population is still increasing, especially in Asia, so we will need more buildings, facilities and infrastructure, but we must minimise their carbon emissions. At the same time, many of the developments that were built years ago need to be modified or improved to be more sustainable.”
Building a greener world
When CPG set up its green studio, it was ahead of its time in acknowledging the need for sustainability. “In the early 2000s, there was some awareness of the world’s environmental challenges, but not to the extent that there is today,” explains Mr Tan.
One of the studio’s earliest projects, in 2003, was to redesign the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) headquarters in Manila, Philippines, which had been built in the 1980s. It had two atria with poor natural lighting. “We used computer models to determine how to best improve the natural lighting, reduce heat gain and minimise energy use, while taking into account the construction cost and timeframe.”
The project was so successful that ADB hired CPG as its architectural consultant when it wanted to add a new block. The eight-storey expansion, completed in 2014, was certified by the US Green Building Council as LEED Gold, just one level below its highest, Platinum, rating.
Other clients, including government agencies, multinational corporations and universities, came calling. As CPG spread the word about sustainable design, it honed its expertise and practices, often seeking new ways to bring nature into developments, whether by injecting greenery or integrating natural surroundings.
For Nanyang Technological University’s School of the Arts, Design and Media, which was completed in 2007, CPG took inspiration from the site’s adjacent wooded valley. It came up with two crescent-shaped, gently-rising buildings that give staff and students within them expansive views of the nature nearby. The two buildings also encircle a central foyer that is lit by natural light during the day.
Many CPG projects, including KTPH, have won local and international design awards. It has continued to incorporate sustainable solutions in more recent projects, such as Singapore’s National Orchid Gardens and Jurong Lake Gardens.
The former is powered by renewable energy, and features ground cooling and other systems, while the latter cleanses rainwater runoff through swales and bioretention ponds and collects it for use, among other solutions.
Staying ahead of the sustainability curve
Looking back on CPG’s journey so far, Mr Tan says that advances in materials, energy-efficient technologies and other innovations have made green buildings more achievable than ever. At the same time, built environment professionals must keep abreast of the latest developments to be able to put them to good use.
CPG also collaborates with external experts on sustainability projects. These include pilots to accomplish even greener buildings for specific uses, smart building management systems, and computational design for better transportation planning that incorporates green mobility.
Recently, for example, a team of CPG architects began partnering the Singapore University of Technology and Design to research better ways to adapt buildings for reuse. Mr Tan shares: “One way to reduce carbon emissions is to meet our needs by adapting existing buildings, instead of demolishing them and constructing new ones.”
“While green buildings are becoming the norm in many places, more can and needs to be done. We are already seeing the next generation of green buildings – super low energy ones that are at least 60 per cent more energy efficient than the ones that came before them.”
He says: “To me, the beauty of architecture has always been its ability to provide a conducive environment for people. If we want to thrive in the future, we must embrace sustainable lifestyles, and shape our built environment to support this.”
We The Earth is a partnership between The Straits Times and Rolex and its Perpetual Planet Initiative. Multi-disciplinary infrastructure consultancy CPG Consultants is a stellar example of the many organisations, which are doing their part to solve the issues earth faces.
