DPA Turkey joins dialogue on the future of Singapore-Turkey collaborations in the Built Environment

DP Turkey’s associate director Elif Tuba Oz was part of a strategic business dialogue session jointly hosted by the Singapore Business Federation and Turkish Contractor’s Association to enhance partnership and opportunities between Singaporean and Turkish firms. She discussed how closer collaboration between Singapore and Turkey would be beneficial for the built environment of both countries, primarily through knowledge transfers involving smart building and sustainability architectural practices that Singapore possesses which could be shared with Turkish partners.

She introduced Singapore’s reputation as a “City in the Garden” as well as DPA’s key participatory role in contributing to nation-building as a firm that was founded just two-years post-Independence; highlighting the firm’s perennial committed support to government policies driving sustainability and technological initiatives that has enabled DP to remain one of Singapore’s leading architectural firms.

As an affirmation of DPA’s primary concern and design philosophy being oriented towards environmental sustainability, the Green-Well-Tech department was established to express DPA’s core commitment to making its projects sustainable, liveable and smart. The APD (Attributes of Purposeful Design) wheel, a holistic design tool and practice guide formulated by the Green-Well-Tech department to systematically analyse the sustainability, wellbeing and tech criteria of built environment projects, operationalizes DP’s business and design goals of delivering purposeful evidence-based urban designs that contribute to human, planetary and socio-economic health.

Demonstrating how the APD wheel has practical impacts on DPA’s project design strategy, Elif introduced various typologies such as Bukit Canberra (a new model for community-focused developments) which seamlessly utilises multiple elements within the APD wheel, such as water conservation, resiliency, energy efficiency and decarbonisation, to enhance its sustainability and longevity. Beyond the obvious environmental aspects of sustainability, Elif also raised awareness about the importance of human wellbeing in sustainable design and how buildings can be made to cultivate an enhanced sense of health and wellness in end-users through concepts such as biophilia.

Elif’s talk elucidated upon DPA’s keen appreciation of the many nuances of sustainability to an international audience, generating awareness of how DPA’s services and expertise could prove useful to a Turkish audience.