Sunray Headquarters wins Design of the Year at President’s Design Award 2015

Sunray Woodcraft Construction Headquarters (Sunray Headquarters), an industrial project at the Sungei Kadut furniture hub in Singapore, has been awarded the prestigious Design of the Year accolade at the President’s Design Award 2015. Sunray Headquarters was one of 13 projects to win this award, now in its tenth year, conferred by the President of the Republic of Singapore, Dr Tony Tan, and recognised in Singapore as the highest symbol of excellence for design.

On the accolade, lead designer and deputy CEO Angelene Chan said, “It is a deep honour and privilege to have our people-centric efforts and design thinking acknowledged at a national scale. As a homegrown firm that has matured together with Singapore for close to 50 years, it is rewarding to receive this recognition as Singapore celebrates its Golden Jubilee of independence. The President’s Design Award serves as a motivation for Singaporean architects to shape buildings that have a positive social impact on people – even in industrial spaces. By ensuring that form and function work well together, Sunray exemplifies design innovation that will not only benefit Singaporeans but also the wider global community.”

The successful concept of Sunray Headquarters lies in its seamless yet clearly articulated manner of merging five different office, factory and lodging functions within a single eight-storey building. The project commercially optimises factory production and business processes while balancing the need for an uplifting workspace situated in a cheerless industrial estate, by locating production space, workers’ dormitories, warehouse, offices and showrooms in ‘stacked boxes’.

Inside the 16,824sqm building, spaces are seamlessly connected to each other to ensure smooth movement of materials, finished products and users. Each box defines the different stages of production without compromising safety, and is enveloped by suitable exterior skins such as large horizontal louvres to allow ventilation and light into production spaces, vertical louvres with checkerboard openings for maximum natural ventilation and privacy at the dormitories, and smaller vertical louvres for offices for shade and privacy. Yellow, Sunray’s corporate colour, was used throughout the façade for a distinctive and refreshing take on an industrial factory.

The judges called Sunray Headquarters “a ray of light in a drab industrial area”. They commended the seamless workflow of spaces with varying functions, and praised the design as a “refreshing and cheery interpretation of the industrial factory building… a welcome departure from the norm that provides a benchmark for future developments of this kind”. Sunray Headquarters is an example of excellence in design that balances efficiency for a client, a living community’s needs and aesthetic appeal.

The awards ceremony was held at the Istana, the official residence and office of the President of Singapore on December 11, 2015.