To reduce its reliance on foreign manpower, Singapore will need to “fundamentally change” the way it builds and adopts high impact, productive technologies upfront, Senior Minister of State for National Development Desmond Lee said on Wednesday.
One way to do so will be for players in the building and construction industries to build capabilities in the building information modelling system to improve productivity, Mr Lee said. The system taps 3D visualisation to “build virtually before building for real”.
“Doing this helps us to anticipate issues and fix problems before actual construction,” said Mr Lee. “This is sensible – it improves productivity, quality and safety.”
He was speaking at the launch of the Architecture & Building Services 2016 Series (ABS 2016) on Wednesday at Marina Bay Sands.
Apart from increasing productivity, industry players were also urged to embrace sustainable principles and values when building.
This is especially pertinent, given that the building sector contributes around one-third of Singapore’s electricity consumption and a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, Mr Lee said.
“With the ever changing environmental challenges, we cannot ignore the significant role that our building sector can play in our collective efforts to deal with climate change,” he added.
A three-day event running from Wednesday to Friday, ABS 2016 is spearheaded by the ArchXpo 2016 exhibition. The exhibition gathers industry specialists in the fields of architecture and built environment design, with the aim of showcasing research and innovation in architectural design, practice and education.