Singapore – towards a green future
In Make Annual 13 Henry Woon, Director of Atelier Ten Singapore, speaks to architecture writer Sylvia Chan about what makes Singapore one of the world’s most sustainable cities. The interview focuses on how the concept of sustainability has become so prevalent in Singapore, and how the city-state is continuing to set new and ambitious goals.
“At Atelier Ten, we understand sustainability as a much wider concept that goes beyond benchmarking. A bespoke approach is often required for each project to achieve a truly sustainable design.”
Henry discusses how Singapore reacts to problems such as the limited land for development and the high density of the city. Most of the energy, materials and other resources for consumption are imports, which has driven Singapore to focus on developing high-quality and high-performance projects which are less reliant on imported resources, thereby increasing Singapore’s resilience. Designers and developers have turned the city’s high density into an opportunity, by designing infrastructure in a more centralised way.
“An economy and lifestyle that emphasise sharing can facilitate Singapore’s sustainable development. The city-state is moving towards this direction by embracing a smart city economy.”
Singapore has committed to reducing carbon intensity by 36%, and to retrofitting 80% of its buildings by 2030. To achieve these goals, the Green Mark benchmarking system is seen as essential. A straightforward set of green building regulations; the simplicity of Green Mark helps clarify goals and the success in Singapore’s revolution to a sustainable city demonstrates its effectiveness.