International architectural firm group8asia has emerged as winner of the Housing & Development Board’s Punggol Waterfront housing design competition. Group8asia teamed up with local firm Aedas to come up with the winning design.
The development, which will be launched in mid-2010, will have about 1,200 mostly four-bedroom apartments and will offer residents an eco-friendly housing experience, HDB said.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan announced the winner at an HDB awards ceremony yesterday.
The design will set the benchmark for other developments along the 4.2km waterway. Mr Mah said: ‘I am glad to note that the private sector has responded enthusiastically to the challenge of coming up with truly innovative design proposals for this highly anticipated housing project.’
More than 100 firms took part in the contest, half of them foreign firms from as far as Spain, the Netherlands, Japan and Hong Kong.
The government’s plans call for about 21,000 homes to be built along the Punggol waterway – comprising 60 per cent public housing and 40 per cent private housing. The waterway is slated to be completed by end-2010.
The winning design will take shape on the first residential plot to be developed along the waterway.
HDB said that the design by group8asia and Aedas stood out from the rest for its sky terrace concepts, with spaces for roof gardens. Other winning attributes include the resort-like design of the development, the ‘functional and workable layout’ of the site, and the refreshing housing forms that could be replicated along the waterway.
Chong Fook Loong, HDB’s deputy director for physical planning, said that homes in the development will be kept affordable. In the same vein, Mr Mah said during the awards ceremony that HDB must be mindful to be cost-effective when designing and building its flats.
The ceremony recognised seven winners with a total of 12 awards in the categories of construction safety, quality and design. Two companies, China Construction and Surbana International, won multiple awards. The other five winners were Thong Huat Brothers, Kian Hiap Construction, Kienta Engineering Construction, Sim Lian Construction and United Premas.
Source: Business Times, 12 Nov 2009
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