DPA CEO Ar. Seah Chee Huang Shares Industry Perspectives as Invited Panellist at BCA-REDAS Seminar 2024

At the BCA-REDAS Built Environment and Property Prospects Seminar 2024, DP Architects CEO Ar. Seah Chee Huang joined three other panellists in a plenary discussion chaired by Professor Shantanu Bhattacharya, Lee Kong Chian Professor of Operations Management and Deputy Dean (Education) at the Singapore Management University. The esteemed panellists alongside Ar. Seah were Mr Sathiaseelan Jagateesan, partner and co-head of the construction and engineering practice, Allen & Gledhill LLP; Mr Kelvin Wong, the CEO of BCA; and Mr Koh Ming Sue, executive VP, Engineering & Development at the Changi Airport Group.

Titled “Aligning Minds, Strengthening Ecosystem”, the plenary discussion dove into key threads and trends that were addressed by Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for National Development and Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration in his opening speech and presented by fellow industry leaders; specifically focusing on the challenges and opportunities of cross-disciplinary and inter-firm collaboration for sustainable development and a more resilient BE industry. Each panellist brought key insights and unique use cases from across the value chain. More pointedly, they shared a common view: more authentic collaboration must be fostered within the BE ecosystem for better outcomes.

On the challenges, Ar. Seah shared that inequitable risks, rewards and liabilities leading to lack of trust are among the key barriers. But they are not impossible to overcome. A firm believer that the whole is greater than the sum of parts, he emphasised that meaningful partnerships can take place through dialogue and sandbox environments that nurture a mindset of trust through alignment on goals and interests.

He went on to share how DP is overcoming these barriers as a multidisciplinary design practice through a renewed whole-of-DP approach with its Green-Well-Tech (GWT) thrust. First formulated during the pandemic to encapsulate the challenges and priorities it underscored, GWT has since become a key driver and thread to influence practice-wide mindset alignment within DP, optimise resource allocation and synergise the many aspects of sustainable and wellbeing design; enabling the practice to deliver purposeful and innovative solutions for better-than-sustainable outcomes.

“This is a very exciting time. We have a lot of opportunities to introduce innovation, set the right condition to collaborate and take the idea of transformation for our sector to the next level.”

The ability for the BE sector to address issues of sustainability and achieve circularity requires a whole-of-industry effort and accountability. “Lifecycle view,” Ar. Seah explains, “looks beyond Design & Build to encompass Procurement and Operation, which traditionally sits outside of architectural practice as we know it. Building accountability for it, however, presents opportunities to engage the BE ecosystem.” This will be pivotal in enabling a sector-wide alignment in mindset and actions to the National Climate Change agenda and policies.

Technology, then, can be a powerful tool for cross-disciplinary and inter-firm collaboration, and risk mitigation. “Within DP, we are pushing to accelerate the adoption of integrated planning and system approach with integrated delivery platforms and Cloud technologies such as IDD (Integrated Digital Delivery) and Common Data Environment (CDE),” said Ar. Seah. “To facilitate the holistic and practice-wide adoption of Building Information Model (BIM), our Digital Practice department is tasked to oversee BIM adoption and build up our CDE, educate through curated courses on Revit and BIM training, and ensure a consistent standard of application practice-wide.” To date, the design practice has 12 BSI Certified ISO 19650 BIM Project Professionals with 15 more slated for certification.

Held annually, the flagship seminar is organised by the Building and Construction Authority and the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (REDAS), and aims to share insights and perspectives on the economic outlook of the industry as well as hold plenary discussions on the way forward for the sector. This year, it was attended by 450 professionals from the built environment and real estate sectors.