CPG Book 8 Single Pages

CPG 188

First published on

CPG Corporation’s

188th anniversary in 2021

by CPG Corporation Pte Ltd

1 Gateway Drive

#25-01 Westgate Tower

Singapore 608531

CPG 188 © 2021

CPG Corporation Pte Ltd, Singapore

Edited by In Plain Words

Designed by H55 Studio

Printed and bound in Singapore by AC Dominie

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,

electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording

or any other information storage and retrieval system,

without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN APP 2110014

Foreword 4

CPG 188: 8

BEDROCK OF A NATION

TO SOLUTIONS FOR THE WORLD

LAYING FOUNDATIONS 16

Institutional 24

Judiciary 32

Security 38

CONNECTING PLACES

Urban Planning

Transportation Planning

Transportation Infrastructure

Aviation

BUILDING COMMUNITIES

Residential

Commercial

Leisure

ENABLING HEALING

Funerary

Healthcare

SHAPING IDENTITIES

Education

Cultural

Gardens

REDEFINING THE CITIES

OF TOMORROW

Acknowledgements

XX

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4

FOREWORD

From 1833 to date, the evolution of the public works scene in Singapore, which finally

culminated into a legacy that CPG has inherited, has supported the Singapore urban

landscape. Our steady track record has made us an ambassador of the Singapore

brand overseas, with few companies in the built environment industry able to lay

claim to such a storied legacy.

This year, CPG honours our heritage in the built environment sector by presenting

CPG188, a commemorative book of our journey to date, a commemorative book

of our journey to date, particularly the recent two decades in which we have built on

our established capabilities and ventured into new frontiers. Whether we are laying

foundations, connecting places, building communities, enabling healing or shaping

identities, CPG has held firm to its belief in contributing through a spectrum of typologies

to create people-centric cities. Recent global events, however, have challenged

traditional expectations.

Our multidisciplinary teams have long begun incorporating into projects the

three tenets at the heart of CPG’s design philosophy: Resilience, Sustainability and

Technology. These are evident in our recent projects, particularly in Singapore,

where we remain firmly rooted. The National Centre for Infectious Diseases played a

significant role in the nation’s battle against the pandemic and has boosted the resilience

of its healthcare system. Lakeside Garden offers residents in Jurong an expanded

green space for leisure and is another milestone in the ongoing development of Jurong

Lake District into a new and sustainable business district. The State Courts is

the tallest government building in Singapore, a modern high-rise courthouse

equipped with the latest technologies that showcase what the next generation of institutional

buildings can be.

5

“The evolving global environment propels

cities to be more versatile and adaptable.

Leveraging our vast experience to address

emerging challenges, CPG stays ahead as an

industry leader by identifying opportunities

and creating sustainable developments that

work responsibly with the environment.”

These projects and others would not have been possible without our clients and

partners. We are thankful for the opportunities as well as their support and trust in

us as the lead. I must also commend all CPG staff, both past and present, who have

contributed to the corporation’s growth and success.

The evolving global environment propels cities to be more versatile and adaptable.

Leveraging our vast experience to address emerging challenges, CPG stays ahead

as an industry leader by identifying opportunities and creating sustainable developments

that work responsibly with the environment.

As CPG embarks on its next chapter, we aspire to continue redefining spaces

through innovation. It stems from our solid fundamentals in designing our built environment

and a desire to devise better solutions for the people. We look forward to

shaping the cities of tomorrow, together with you, through our perpetual efforts in

innovation and partnership.

Khew Sin Khoon

Group Chief Executive Officer

CPG Corporation

6

188 Years: CPG’s organisational milestones and key projects

1833 1839 1840

Public Works Office was established

in Singapore with the appointment of

George Dromgold Coleman as its first

superintendent.

Singapore Institution

(now Raffles Institution)

Coleman Bridge

(first bridge, now demolished)

CPG 188:

BEDROCK

OF A NATION

TO SOLUTIONS

FOR THE

WORLD

1870 1872 1882

Cavenagh Bridge

Public Works Department,

Straits Settlements, is constituted.

General Hospital at Sepoy Lines

(now demolished)

CPG 188: FROM SINGAPORE INSTITUTION TO GLOBAL CORPORATION

7

1845 1865 1869

Bukit Timah Road

(extended to Kranji in the north)

Empress Place Building

(now the Asian Civilisations Museum)

Government House

(now the Istana)

On Thursday, 1 April 1999, Ar. Khew Sin Khoon headed to work

as usual. Unlike many who were probably looking forward to

the weekend, Ar. Khew’s mind was on something a little further.

He was one of 555 employees who had recently opted to transit

from the civil service to a corporatised entity. Over the previous

few months, it was a period of anxiety and uncertainty as each

employee had to make a decision on whether to move on with

the newly corporatised Public Works Department (PWD) or to

remain in the civil service. From this day, they became private

sector employees in the newly established PWD Corporation

(PWDCorp).

As Ar. Khew and his colleagues filed into the same office inside

the Ministry of National Development Building that morning,

they were greeted with a slew of new changes that would

differentiate them as employees of a corporatised entity. Among

those was a request by the then-CEO for all professional staff to

wear neckties to work.

Ar. Khew knew this small and symbolic gesture was more

than just a work attire change. “We were still in the same offices,

working on the same projects, but the neckties we wore reminded

us that as private sector employees from here on, a

change in mindset is necessary,” he says. (The necktie policy

was later changed to a more practical “dress appropriately for

the right occasion” attire policy.)

From streamlining processes to adopting a more client-centric

outlook, these changes kickstarted a transformation of a

former government agency into what is the CPG Corporation

(CPG) some two decades on.

Through a legacy of 188 years, CPG and its predecessors

have been actively involved in the social infrastructure and built

environment of Singapore. In 1833, the island’s British colonial

administrators appointed the first Government Superintendent

of Public Works to pioneer its development into a trading

port. The role of the superintendent grew over the decades into

the PWD, which engineered and constructed the colony’s essential

infrastructure, ranging from sewers to roads and institutional

buildings.

As the city-state’s leading engineering and architectural government

agency, PWD laid the foundations of a new nation, including

developing a network of expressways, a world-class airport

and social infrastructure such as hospitals, schools,

libraries and public parks. The role of the PWD underwent yet

another change in the late 1980s. The Singapore Government

initiated a remaking of the public sector to become more market-oriented

and to deliver services to its citizens more efficiently.

As state agencies stepped up to a more regulatory role, previously

government-run services shifted to the private sector.

PWD embarked on this strategic transition in 1989 when it was

restructured “from an operations-driven organisation to one

that is market-driven and responsive to the needs of its

clients” 1 . A clearer separation was drawn between its public

functions, namely the divisions handling building control as

well as roads and transportation, and its non-public work,

which included specialists’ services such as architecture and

engineering.

The separation became more distinct in 1995 when the

1887 1909 1910

Raffles Library and Museum

(front block of the present

National Museum of Singapore)

Tan Tock Seng Hospital

Central Fire Station

(first professional fire brigade

headquarters)

Anderson Bridge

8


1929 1933 1934

Municipal Building (now City Hall)

Clifford Pier

Hill Street Police Station and Barracks

(now the Ministry of Communications

and Information and the Ministry of

Culture, Community and Youth)

PWD’s Roads and Transportation Division was transferred out

to merge with three other government agencies to form the

Land Transport Authority (LTA). By 1997, the PWD was deemed

ready for corporatisation and external consultants were appointed

to begin the exercise. It culminated with being transferred

to the government’s investment arm, Temasek Holdings,

on 1 April 1999—the first professional services organisation of

Singapore’s public service to be corporatised.

“We didn’t have a clue of what corporatisation meant. Many

of us were career civil servants,” says Ar. Khew, who is CPG’s

President and Group CEO today. “After the corporatisation announcement,

there was a lot of anxiety. How were we going to

survive? As a civil servant, we never had to worry about whether

our salaries would be paid. This is not the case in the private

sector as the market is very volatile.”

The corporatised PWD retained only its consultancy and

estate management divisions, while its building control division

was spun off to form the Building and Construction Authority

(BCA). As a corporation, PWDCorp would have to compete

for public and private projects like any other private

consultancy company. This was the daunting future facing the

over 1,300 PWD staff when they were presented the choice of either

staying with the corporatised entity or be reassigned elsewhere

in the civil service. In the end, just under half stayed on

with PWDCorp.

One of them was Ar. Khew, who joined the PWD as a government

scholar in 1984. Although he was used to the “iron rice

bowl” in the public service, he was then working on mega-projects

such as the Ministry of Home Affairs & Police Headquarters

Complex and the Changi Prison Masterplan. He was also

intrigued by the prospects of working on commercial and residential

projects, which the PWD did not do. The challenge of

working in the private sector, after 15 years in the public service,

also appealed to him.

Another colleague who made the switch was Er. Yeang

Hoong Goon, a Colombo Plan scholar who had been with the

PWD since 1975. At the point of corporatisation, he was the second-in-command

of the agency’s Mechanical and Electrical Engineering

Division and had to survey how those under his

charge felt about it.

“The main concern was the security of our jobs. In the private

sector, we had to earn our keep. Some people felt that the

new corporation would disappear after five years because we

would not be able get any jobs,” says Er. Yeang.

He recalls wondering what his career would look like if he

stayed on and felt it would be too predictable.

“So, I said: ‘No. I am more ambitious than that.’”

Over the next two decades, Er. Yeang played a significant role

in CPG’s journey to venture into new markets in Singapore and

overseas. He rose up the ranks to lead the Engineering Group of

its consultancy subsidiary, CPG Consultants Pte Ltd (CPG Consultants),

and was eventually appointed its CEO in 2019.

CHANGING MINDSETS OF CONSULTANTS AND CLIENTS

1946 1954 1955

Public Works Department of Singapore,

(PWD) formed.

New Assembly House

(now The Arts House)

PWD placed under the newly formed

Ministry of Communications and

Works.

Paya Lebar Airport


9

1936 1937 1939

Changi Prison Complex

(now demolished)

Kallang Airport

(first civilian airport)

Supreme Court Building

(now part of the

National Gallery Singapore)

In the month after the corporatisation, PWDCorp’s consultants

became increasingly aware that they could no longer work the

same way as they did in a government agency. Previously, every

project was carefully studied and decisions were made only after

a lengthy review process to satisfy the multiple stakeholders

and justify the use of public money. As the government’s engineering

authority, the PWD employees were also used to setting

the design norms and standards. These practices, however,

were less relevant for a corporation that needed to be nimble

and responsive to its clients.

“When in PWD, those who used our buildings were not ‘clients’

but were termed as ‘user departments’. We were the ones

setting the standards and deciding what was good enough, and

we had the authority. For example, we decided how many square

metres a school principal’s office should be. But in the private

sector, it is the clients who make such decisions,” says Er. Yeang.

While government agencies are cost-conscious, corporations

are even more so, he adds.

“When you are a civil servant, it is easy to justify spending

more time on a project to ensure it achieves a certain quality.

But in the private sector, you have to achieve it while balancing

time and profitability for the corporation.”

In addition, Er. Yeang and his colleagues needed new skills

such as pitching for jobs, which was essential for gaining new

businesses in the private sector. In PWD, the government agency

had such a huge volume of projects that it wasn’t necessary.

As a corporation, however, every project was crucial for survival,

A ceremony to mark the corporatisation of

PWD Corporation in 1999.

The opening of CPG Consultants (India) in 2005 was

graced by then Minister of State for Defence and National

Development in Singapore, Mr. Cedric Foo (centre).

1956 1959 1960

Merdeka Bridge

PWD placed under the Ministry of

National Development (MND).

Old National Library Building

(now demolished)

10


1963 1964 1966

PWD logo introduced

(depicted a building, bridge and road

as the agency’s three main works).

Market Street Carpark

(first multi-storey carpark in

Singapore)

Pedestrian overhead bridge at

Collyer Quay (first in Singapore)

Pedestrian underpass across

Connaught Drive (first in Singapore)

Ministry of Education building

(Kay Siang Road)

Television Studio at Caldecott Hill

(first permanent studio in Singapore)

and these had to be earned. Although the government had cushioned

PWD’s transition by guaranteeing a pre-determined

amount of consultancy work and estate management work, this

moratorium would last only five years.

PWDCorp’s consultants realised they needed to change the

minds of clients too. The corporation had a portfolio of significant

national projects stretching over a century, but many private

developers in Singapore were not comfortable with its

branding, says Ar. Khew.

“When we tried to lobby for projects, we encountered some

doubt from potential clients who were sceptical of our abilities

in private development projects. They said: ‘I don’t care how

nice your Tuas Checkpoint is, I’m building a shopping mall’,”

he says.

“I remember one of the local developers telling us, ‘Do you

know we are in the business of designing high-end apartments

for well-heeled clients in Singapore? Can you imagine if I were

to tell my potential customers that this building was designed

by the former PWD?’”

The reception overseas, however, was entirely the opposite.

PWDCorp’s past achievements were regarded as proof of the organisation’s

vital role in developing a modern city-state.

“Singapore as a country is held in high regard overseas. Everything

works, it is clean and cosmopolitan. So, when clients

learn about our long history with Singapore’s development, it

tends to help us open doors,” says Ar. Khew.

Hence, PWDCorp clinched its very first overseas project

barely a year into corporatisation. Its track record in developing

Singapore Changi Airport helped win a contract to design a new

international airport in the East African island nation of Seychelles.

The breakthrough encouraged an overseas push. PWD-

Corp subsequently signed several memoranda of understanding

with other consultants and started various joint ventures to

seek out opportunities together. It also set up a network of overseas

offices. The first opened in Shanghai in October 1999 and

was soon joined by subsidiaries or branches in cities such as

Beijing, Xi’an, Phnom Penh, Dubai, Manila and Bangalore.

The corporation found early success in China as the country

was developing rapidly at the turn of the millennium. PWD-

Corp’s first CEO, Mr. Khor Por Hwa, was instrumental as he was

previously the deputy head of the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial

Park project, a modern industrial township jointly developed

by China and Singapore in the mid-nineties. His stewardship

enabled PWDCorp to leverage its expertise and

experience in Singapore to clinch a string of projects through

design competitions. These ranged from its first master planning

project in China, a 22-hectare downtown revitalisation in

Hebei Province’s Qin Huang Dao, to a S$50-million luxury residential

development in Shanghai. In PWDCorp’s first 20

months in China, the corporation secured over 20 projects in 15

provinces and cities.

The expansive range of projects was exactly what Ar. Peter

How hoped for when he chose to remain with PWDCorp. As the

then Assistant Chief Architect of PWD, he was often requested

1973 1975 1977

National Stadium (now demolished)

Pedestrian mall at Orchard over

Stamford Canal

Central Provident Fund Building

(now demolished)


11

1969 1970 1971

PWD moved into its new

headquarters in MND Building

(Maxwell Building).

National Junior College

(first junior college)

Flyover across Clemenceau Avenue

(first flyover in Singapore)

Pedestrian mall at Raffles Place

(first in Singapore)

Woodlands Complex for Customs,

Immigration and Police

(now Woodlands Checkpoint)

to participate in various government planning committees,

which took time away from the design work he enjoyed.

“After 18 years in the civil service, I was excited by what the

private sector could offer. We often heard from people who left

for the private sector about how good it was on the other side.

Corporatisation was an opportunity for me to try,” recalls Ar.

How, Director of Design (Architecture) in CPG Consultants

today. “The hope was that it would be professionally more

enriching.”

In the corporation’s early years, Ar. How was sent to the India

office where he saw how vastly different it was from Singapore.

Although overseas developers were attracted by PWD-

Corp’s track record in Singapore, one could not simply export

developments without understanding the local context. For instance,

he had to learn how to incorporate India’s traditional

system of architecture principles, known as vastu shastra, and

work with more complex urban conditions than back home.

“In India, there is a painstaking process to acquire plots and

developers may encounter people who refuse to sell. I remember

being very amazed by the sites I was getting for development.

They were more like a spider web of sites. How do you

make your design work with a site like this?” he says. “Whatever

works in Singapore may not work overseas. We have to temper

what is good practice with what is realistic on the ground.”

The signing ceremony for CPG Consultant’s

Van Giang Master Planning project in 2006.

Ar. Tan Shao Yen (third from right) and Special Advisor

Mr. Fang Yuanchao (second from left) with visitors from

the China Construction Technology Consulting Co. Ltd

and the China Survey and Design Association.

1981 1985 1986

Benjamin Sheares Bridge

Pan Island Expressway

Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 1

Bukit Timah Expressway

National University Hospital

Environment Building (Scotts Road)

12


1988 1990 1991

Ayer Rajah Expressway

MacRitchie Flyover

Coleman Bridge (fourth to be erected

at the same location across the

Singapore River and a replica of the

Iron Bridge built in 1886)

Central Expressway


FROM SINGAPORE TO THE WORLD

As PWDCorp’s consultants adapted to the market, so did the organisation.

When the corporation was first set up, it had subsidiaries

for consultancy services, estates management, information

technology services, and real estate investment.

Together, they formed an “integrated service centre capable of

undertaking virtually any type of infrastructural and building

development” . The investment arm, in particular, was a key

strategy for regional expansion. By investing in its own projects

abroad, the corporation would not only stand to benefit financially

but also demonstrate to clients its commitment to provide

technical expertise and solutions to facilitate infrastructure

development. One such project was PWDCorp’s first

design-with-equity residential development in the Suzhou Industrial

Park. The 465-unit Jiacheng Apartments by the Lake

successfully sold out within a year of its launch in 2002.

Besides restructuring, the corporation also expanded its capabilities.

To better meet client demands, PWDCorp started

new divisions in master planning and transportation engineering.

It also incorporated PM Link Pte Ltd to offer project management,

and Construction Professionals Pte Ltd for construction

management. In 2000, it partnered American engineering

company CH2M Hill to enter the then emerging field of environmental

engineering in Singapore and won its first project to

develop the Changi Water Reclamation Plant—one of the

world’s largest wastewater treatment facility.

The efforts to re-orientate both staff and organisation began

bearing fruit in the early 2000s despite an economic downturn

in Singapore. In 2002, PWDCorp’s group financial turnover had

grown year-on-year since corporatisation, and its headcount expanded

to handle the increasing workload. The growth in its

workforce was also due to a merger in 2000 with Indeco Consultants

(Indeco), another development consultancy held by Temasek

Holdings. Indeco was established in 1972 to export Singapore’s

building expertise, and its track record in the region

bolstered PWDCorp’s ability to compete for jobs overseas.

In contrast to the corporation’s success, many local firms in

the private sector were downsizing in the early 2000s. It led the

President of the Singapore Institute of Architects and several

Members of Parliament to question if the government’s fiveyear

moratorium had given the corporation an unfair advantage.

PWDCorp’s CEO set the record straight in the national

newspaper that the real problem lay in the shrinking construction

pie and demand for services in Singapore. That was why the

corporation had aggressively expanded overseas and was working

on projects in 11 countries outside of Singapore.

“We say don’t retrench; we grow. So we went overseas. We

took part in 31 design competitions and won more than half,”

said Mr. Khor then to the national newspaper, The Straits

Times. “We know that the Singapore market is already saturated

and we don’t see it picking up soon. Instead of complaining,

we keep quiet and work hard.”

The corporation’s expansion into overseas markets also at-

1999 2000

Corporatisation of PWD.

PWD Corporation Representative Office

(Shanghai) established.

PWD Investments Pte Ltd established.

PWD-AMEC Facilities Pte Ltd

established.

Parliament House of Singapore

Singapore Racecourse

Tan Tock Seng Hospital redevelopment

Acquired Indeco Consultants,

a development consultancy firm.

Central Fire Station redevelopment


13

1996 1997 1998

Revenue House

The Treasury

Immigration & Checkpoints

Authority

PWD Corporation Pte Ltd

(PWDCorp) established.

PWD Consultants Pte Ltd

established.

PWD EMS Pte Ltd established.

Tuas Checkpoint

tracted a new generation of consultants. Ar. Tan Shao Yen

joined PWDCorp in 2001 after working for close to a decade in

Singapore’s public housing agency, the Housing and Development

Board and a private architecture firm.

“After the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, I knew that I could

not simply stay in Singapore and be comfortable. At that time, I

was attracted to the newly corporatised PWDCorp as it was expanding

into the region. So I joined the corporation and started

venturing into China and Vietnam,” says Ar. Tan, who became

CPG’s Group Chief Innovation Officer in 2019.

Another consultant who joined after corporatisation was

Mr. Tan Cheng Chuah. He had previously worked as a project

manager for different contractors for over a decade and wanted

to gain experience in consultancy work. One of his clients,

PWDCorp, came to mind. In 2004, he joined the corporation as

a resident engineer and subsequently got involved in business

development too.

“Previously, as a contractor or a consultant, you simply built

and handed over a project. I was not able to gain experience in

the project management of any private developments. In PWD-

Corp, I was given a chance to work with new developers and

from them, I learnt how to drive a design from a commercial

point of view,” says Mr. Tan, who is now the Managing Director

of PM Link and Construction Professionals.

By the third year of PWDCorp, the management decided to

rename the corporation to shake off the last vestiges of the past

and better reflect its new status. A two-day corporate retreat was

CPG Consultants receiving the President*s Design

Award Design of the Year in 2011 for its work on

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

A signing ceremony in 2012 to mark the acquisition

of CPG Corporation by the China Architecture

Design and Research Group from Downer EDI.

2001

Ministry of Information,

Communication and the Arts building

redevelopment (formerly known as Hill

Street Police Station and Barracks)

PWDCorp Philippines Inc. established.

PWD Corporation moved into new

headquarters in Novena Square.

Formation of PM Link Pte Ltd.

Formation of PWD Advisory

(Shanghai) Co. Ltd.

Indeco Consultants renamed

Indeco Consortium.

Choa Chu Kang Columbarium

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Headquarters

14


2002

PWD Corporation Pte Ltd renamed

CPG Corporation Pte Ltd.

PWD Consultants Pte Ltd renamed

CPG Consultants Pte Ltd.

PWDCorp Philippines Inc. renamed

CPGCorp Philippines Inc.

PWD-AMEC Facilities Pte Ltd renamed

CPG-AMEC Facilities Pte Ltd.

PWD Advisory (Shanghai) Co. Ltd

renamed CPG Advisory (Shanghai).

PWD EMS Pte Ltd renamed

CPG Facilities Management Pte Ltd.

PWD Investments Pte Ltd renamed

CPG Investments Pte Ltd.

CPG Consultants (India) established.

Formation of CPG Environmental

Engineering (China).

held in 2002 for the senior staff to brainstorm a new name.

“We camped at this hotel, and everyone was dishing out

names. We couldn’t agree on anything. The engineers wanted

something the architects thought was boring. The architects

had names that nobody could pronounce,” says Ar. Khew.

He remembers the PWD CEO being unimpressed with their

shortlist. Instead of exhausting more time on this, Mr. Khor suggested

that they simply go with the “Corporatised PWD Group”.

“The abbreviation is CPG, but it wasn’t interesting when

people asked what it stood for. So, our communications people

came up with the idea that it stood for ‘Creative Professionals

Group’,” Ar. Khew explains.

“CPG Corporation” was unveiled to the public on 2 July 2002.

The announcement came just a week after its owner, Temasek

Holdings, revealed to the public that it was undergoing a restructuring.

Instead of being a holding company for government-linked

firms, Temasek Holdings would build internationally

competitive businesses that leveraged on Singapore’s

competitive strengths. As part of this shift, it would divest noncore

companies with international growth potential. When

journalists speculated if CPG was one such entity, Mr. Khor revealed

that the senior management was keen to buy out the corporation

if this was so.

“I have a lot of faith in this company. We are knowledgebased,

and the way to go ahead for a knowledge-based company

is to get management to be committed,” said the CEO, who had

been with CPG since 1975, at the press conference. “If manage-

ment has no faith in the company, the company can’t go far.”

Temasek did put CPG up for sale in November that year. Mr.

Khor and about 100 management staff promptly formed a company

to put in a bid. However, they were not alone. There were

reportedly multiple offers from companies in Singapore and

overseas, and Temasek eventually shortlisted six candidates, including

the management buyout. In the end, Australian engineering

firm Downer EDI trumped the competition with a

S$131-million bid. Its Managing Director, Stephen Gilles,

pointed out how CPG had consistently maintained strong profits

after corporatisation and was well poised for the future.

“This business [CPG] has been prepared for privatisation

and its order book strongly underpins revenue for the next two

years,” he said in a company press release. “The addition of

CPG will reposition Downer EDI in Asia as a service company

and significantly expand our existing, well-established operating

base in Singapore.”

FROM THE LAND DOWN UNDER AND BACK UP

After the dust settled from the sales, the ownership change

turned out to have minimal impact on CPG’s day-to-day operations.

One reason was that Downer EDI had little in common

with the corporation as it was primarily involved in the construction

and maintenance of heavy engineering and infrastructure

services such as railroads, power and mining.

“We were wondering why they acquired us. It turned out that

2004 2005

Choa Chu Kang Crematorium

Hubin Residential Development,

Suzhou, China

Mandai Crematorium and

Columbarium Complex

Malay Heritage Centre

New Changi Prison Complex

(Cluster A)

Raffles Junior College

Acquired Peridian Asia Pte Ltd,

a landscape architect firm.

East Coast Lagoon Food Village


15

2003

Formation of D’Axis Planners and

Consultants (China).

Henry Park Primary School

Acquired TSG Architects Pte Ltd,

an architectural design and consultancy

firm.

Construction Professionals established.

CPG Corporation acquired by

Downer EDI Limited.

Guangzhou Baiyun New International

Airport Air Traffic Control Tower and

Control Centre, Guangzhou, China

Singapore Embassy, Yangon, Myanmar

The Arts House

Downer EDI had a vision that CPG was the brains of our industry

and they bought us to move upstream into design and consultancy

work,” says Ar. Khew.

As part of this strategy, Mr. Khor was appointed Downer

EDI’s regional director and senior adviser for the Asia-Pacific

region in December 2004. His long-time deputy, Mr. Pang Toh

Kang became CPG’s second President and CEO. However, before

the acquisition could bear fruit, Downer EDI’s management

underwent an organisational restructuring in 2007 due to

a change in business strategy. This was followed by Mr. Pang

stepping up to be President of Downer EDI’s Asian region in

2008 and CPG welcoming its third CEO, Mr. Lye Kuan Loy, another

ex-PWD stalwart. Downer EDI became primarily focused

on CPG’s profitability, which basically left the corporation to

fend for itself.

Such a transactional relationship had its pros and cons. CPG

was allowed to run independently but its financial performance

often came under intense scrutiny.

In addition, while Downer EDI was very concerned about

CPG’s finances, they were unable to help CPG secure new projects.

A CPG Australia and a CPG New Zealand were set up, but

there were hardly any business opportunities.

“We thought that the Australia link might be helpful for CPG

to get work there, but it turned out to be quite a mature market

and was not expanding like China or India,” says Ar. How.

Despite its rather awkward relationship with its parent company,

CPG continued to grow. In 2003, the corporation reported

Directors from Downer EDI with CPG Consultant’s

Ar. Cho Cheong Kong at the ceremony for the Building and

Construction Authority’s Universal Design Mark Awards in

2010. CPG won a gold for its work on Tampines Primary School.

Ar. Lee Soo Khoong receiving the BCI Asia

Top Ten Architects Awards given out to CPG

Consultants in 2013.

2006 2007

Singapore Botanic Gardens Master

Plan (completion of

implementation)

Tiong Bahru Market

and Food Centre

CPG Consultants (Dubai) established.

National Museum of Singapore

redevelopment

CPG-AMEC Facilities Pte Ltd

renamed CA Facilities Pte Ltd.

CPG Consultants (Vietnam)

established.

Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway

16


2008 2009

CPG Consultants (Macau) established.

Nanyang Technological University’s

School of Art, Design and Media

Pan Pacific Serviced Suites


Van Giang Eco Park Township,

Van Giang, Vietnam

Sheraton Shunde Hotel & Condominium,

Guangzhou, China

Changi Water Reclamation Plant

Emirates Financial Towers, Dubai,

United Arab Emirates

a revenue of S$375 million of which a quarter came from overseas

projects. When the government’s five-year moratorium

ended a year later, the corporation proudly declared that it had

secured over 200 projects in 18 countries outside of Singapore.

In 2003 alone, that included international airports in the cities

of Wuhan and Ahmedabad, a 32.6-hectare convention centre in

Suzhou, and a 13.7-hectare mixed development in Jakarta.

By the mid-2000s, CPG’s reputation had also grown beyond

being just a former Singapore government agency. It was consulting

for the World Bank on a series of projects, ranging from

improving the public transportation system in the Chinese city

of Tianjin, to reviewing three highway developments in India.

In Singapore, the corporation also won a series of eye-catching

projects. In 2006, it became one of two watershed managers for

the Public Utilities Board’s S$23 million Active, Beautiful, Clean

(ABC) Waters masterplan, which proposed to integrate the city’s

drains, canals and reservoirs with the surrounding environment.

In 2008, CPG completed Changi Airport Terminal 3 with

a tropical and sustainable design that departed from the more

functional designs in the two preceding terminals before. The

corporation also partnered various foreign collaborators to

clinch a series of projects that would update Singapore for the

new millennium, including Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Gardens

by the Bay and the National Gallery Singapore.

Meanwhile, as its parent company did not appear to augment

business growth, CPG’s management felt that it may be

better to operate independently instead. They began planning

for a management buyout and first raised it in 2010. However,

the top brass at Downer EDI thought otherwise, and refused to

run it by the board. When several members of CPG’s management

continued pursuing the matter, the buyout attempt

spilled out dramatically to the public. In March 2011, The Straits

Times reported that four CPG executives had quit because of

“differences in management views”. Among them was CEO Mr.

Lye, Chief Financial Officer Mr. Lionel Tseng, Managing Director

of CPG Consultants Mr. Kok King Min and Senior Vice President,

Corporate Services Mr. Phua Siew Ming.

Ar. Khew remembers how the key management team’s exit

shocked everyone in CPG, who learnt about it the evening after

the news broke. After the four senior executives were despatched

in the morning, Ar. Khew was called for a discussion

with the management team of Downer EDI.

“I was more concerned about the major projects that I was

working on, for which I was the Qualified Person. I also wondered

how our clients would take the news, if I were to also suffer

the same fate as the key management team”, recalled Ar.

Khew who was then Executive Vice President, Architecture at

CPG Consultants.

“I remembered explaining to the Downer EDI management

that I was the Qualified Person (QP) for several critical projects

and also the Superintending Director for Architecture for CPG

– a statutory requirement for the incorporation of CPG as a consultancy

firm in Singapore.”

To ensure minimum disruption to the on-going projects as

2013 2014

CPG Advisory (Shanghai) renamed

CPG Consultants (Shanghai).

Marina Coastal Expressway

Nanyang Technological University

Learning Hub

SAFRA Toa Payoh

GEMS World Academy Singapore

(now known as XCL World Academy

(Singapore))

Interpol Global Complex for

Innovation

Marmaray Bosphorus Crossing,

Istanbul, Turkey

TSG Architects Pte Ltd renamed

DiHub Pte Ltd.


17

2010 2011 2012

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital

National University of Singapore Yong

Loo Lin School of Medicine – MD6

New Changi Prison Complex (Cluster B)

Solaris @ One-North

The Regency @ Tiong Bahru

GEMS World Academy,

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

GEMS World Academy,

Tianjin, China

Pasir Ris Sports and Recreation Centre

The Rochester

CPG Corporation acquired by

China Architecture Design and

Research Group.

Gardens by the Bay

Phu Quoc International Airport,

Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

well as the continuity of the corporation, Ar. Khew took up the

offer to stay on as the Managing Director of CPG Consultants.

The remaining vacant positions were also quickly filled by familiar

faces. Mr. Pang returned as CEO, Mr. Oliver Quek became

the new Chief Financial Officer while Ar. Tan Shao Yen took

over from Ar. Khew as Executive Vice President, Architecture at

CPG Consultants.

“The main concern was, if all the staff felt their leaders had

been removed and this was a sinking ship, there would be a potential

exodus. Surprisingly, nobody left,” related Ar. Khew. “I

am thankful that there were many of us who were like-minded

and felt CPG should not go down. That was how we eventually

bounced back.”

Just as a sense of normalcy returned to CPG six months after

the saga, Downer EDI surprisingly announced it was selling the

corporation. The 2012 sale attracted numerous bidders again

and CPG was eventually sold for A$147 million (S$194 million)

to the China Architecture Design and Research Group (CAG).

Given how the uncomfortable relationship with Downer EDI

turned out, the ownership change was met with more optimism.

CAG is China’s largest diversified state-owned engineering

design and consultancy services company and saw its acquisition

of CPG as the first step of the group’s expansion overseas.

The new owners had a greater sense of understanding towards

CPG as both companies were in the same field. At the press conference

announcing the sale, CAG’s then president, Mr. Xiu

Long, said the synergy between the two firms was “undeniable”.

Members from CPG Consultants and studioMilou

during the ground breaking ceremony of the

National Gallery Singapore in 2011.

In fact, Mr. Xiu had worked with CPG a decade earlier on the

Singapore embassy in Beijing as a representative of the Local

Design Institute. He fondly remembered the experience and

promised to support CPG’s work in China so that both companies

would grow together in the region.

“This union also marks a significant milestone for us as we

embark on the new journey,” he said. “In the days ahead, we will

work closely with CPG Corporation to leverage on their existing

2015 2016

Binh Duong Integrated Political and

Admin Centre, Binh Duong, Vietnam

Changyang Fangshan Funmix

Shopping Mall, Beijing, China

Jurong Community Hospital

National Gallery Singapore

Ng Teng Fong General Hospital

Pasir Ris Central Hawker Centre

Peridian Asia Pte Ltd renamed VIA+

Signature Pte Ltd.

CPG Corporation moved into new

headquarters in Westgate Tower.

Encorp Puteri Harbour,

Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Formation of PM Link Sdn Bhd.

18


2017 2018 2019

CPG Investments Pte Ltd renamed

CPG International Pte Ltd.

Setia Sky 88, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

VIA+ Signature Pte Ltd renamed

VIA+ Design Pte Ltd.

Formation of Jian Ke Public Facilities

Operation Management Co. Ltd.

Van Don International Airport,

Van Don, Vietnam

Centre for Healthcare Innovation

Indeco Consortium renamed

CPG Signature Pte Ltd.

Lakeside Garden at

Jurong Lake Gardens

expertise and continue to solidify our position as the leader in

Asia’s architecture and engineering industry.”

CONTINUING THE SINGAPORE STORY

Close to a decade since becoming part of CAG (now part of

the China Construction Technology Consulting), CPG has

remained a Singaporean corporation through and through. It is

managed by Singaporeans and headquartered in Singapore.

Since 2012, Ar. Khew has been its President and Group CEO and

he is assisted by a management team of which 80 percent are

Singaporeans. CPG’s over 1,600 staff today come from over 28

countries, which reflects its overseas expansion, but Singaporeans

remain at its core and make up three-fifths of the corporation.

Some 65 per cent of CPG’s turnover from consultancy work

comes from the local market and the rest from overseas—a proportion

similar to peers in the industry.

The corporation has also maintained its close involvement

in the development of Singapore. It has built upon its traditional

areas of expertise with innovative new designs that better address

the changing needs of the city-state. The recently completed

State Courts is part of CPG’s long history of developing

on Singapore’s judiciary buildings, but in a striking new highrise

form that is one of the world’s tallest courthouses. The new

Tropical Montane Orchidetum at the National Orchid Garden is

an addition by CPG to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Singapore

Botanic Gardens, which has blossomed into a site based

on a master plan it developed in the 1980s. Eunoia Junior College,

a high-rise educational institution in a park completed by

CPG in 2020, departs from the hundreds of schools that the corporation

has developed over the decades. Amid today’s uncertain

times, CPG continues to play a vital role in securing Singapore’s

future. Its experience in designing healthcare facilities

led to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, which was

coincidentally completed in 2019, just in time to battle the

COVID-19 pandemic.

The breadth of these projects is a testament to CPG’s

successful evolution from a government agency into a corporation.

It has maintained its track record of reliably implementing

projects on time and on budget and has become more

responsive to the needs of the market and its clients, says Mr.

Seng Joo How, the CEO of CPG Facilities Management since

2014. Having joined the corporation after decades of working in

the public service, he became acutely aware of how challenging

such a transition is.

“Do civil servants make good businessmen? When you

switch over, it requires a paradigm shift in your perception,

attitude and behaviour,” says Mr. Seng.

“If you look at the old PWD logo, it comprises of bridges,

roads and buildings. Without the agency, Singapore’s development

would not have been so rapid. That we continue to contribute

to the city’s development makes CPG truly an icon of

Singapore.”

Another key advantage CPG has today over others is it offers

a whole spectrum of services, from conceptualising to maintaining

a development, says Mr. Seng.

“Not all facilities management companies have supporting

subsidiaries like in CPG where I can tap on my fellow consultants’

expertise. We are able to consult our architects and engineers

when facing design and structural issues, and they can

also seek help from us when looking at projects from a maintenance

point-of-view,” he says.

In recent years, CPG has sought to deepen this capability by

breaking down the silos between its different teams so that they

can work together collaboratively for clients. It is also bolstering

its reputation in Singapore to remain attractive to overseas

clients.

“We should build upon our strengths locally. I always tell my

staff, ‘Let’s be very strong in Singapore so that we can export.’”

Er. Yeang remarks.

For instance, the airport team’s track record of having built

Changi Airport Terminals 1, 2 and 3—which are regarded as the

best globally—is why CPG has successfully attracted clients

from around the world.


19

2020 2021

New State Courts

(tallest government building

in Singapore)

National Centre for Infectious Diseases

CPG Consultants (China) established.

Eunoia Junior College

(first high-rise junior college in Singapore)

ISA Science City, Guangzhou, China

National Orchid Garden

Enhancement

“We are simply striving for a quality that is so good compared

to others, that we become the consultant of choice.

Clients come to us not just because we are the most competitively

priced, but because we deliver better quality, which is

measurable.” acknowledges Er. Yeang.

For CPG to be a lasting business in the next few decades,

agility and consistent improvement in service standards are

also critical prerequisites, says Ar. Khew.

“In short, it is all about building upon CPG’s fundamentals

while keeping abreast with the latest trends and needs of clients.

As a company, you survive on what you know. If we retain

that and continue to nurture and grow this expertise, we will

continue to thrive. Why do clients pay us for what we do? It is

the expertise and knowledge,” he says.

“And it is a continuous quest to be the best. When I was a

student, the term ‘biophilic design’ didn’t exist. But today,

clients ask what is the biophilic strategy in your design. There

are so many new subjects that continue to challenge us and acquiring

expertise in them is core to our business today.”

This desire to learn and adapt to the changing environment

is what led a colonial agency of public works to evolve into a nation

builder and now, a global corporation in the shaping of

cities around the world.

This is the story of the 188-year legacy that CPG Corporation

has inherited; and where it is headed into the future.

Mr Oliver Quek (second from left) and Ar. Khew

Sin Khoon (third from left) with members of the

China Architecture Design and Research Group

after the acquisition signing ceremony in 2012.

—

Over the last 188 years, the organisation that first started out as the Public

Works (Singapore) gradually evolved and changed. From the time of colonial

governance to Singapore’s post- independence, the PWD continued operating

as a government agency until it was corporatised in 1999.

1833–1867: Superintendent of Public Works appointed

1867–1872: Superintendent’s title changed to Colonial Engineer

1872–1946: Public Works Department (PWD), Straits Settlement

1946–1999: Public Works Department (PWD), Singapore

1999–2002: PWD Corporation

Since 2002: CPG Corporation

CPG consultants at Gardens by the Bay

during its construction.

For ease of reference, it will be referred to as “CPG” from here on.

20

LAYING

FOUNDATIONS

Few companies can claim to have a heritage spanning 188 years. It all started in 1833

during the British colonial days. The British formed a public works department, with

Mr. George D. Coleman, as the first Superintendent to help develop the island into a

trading port.

As the colonial public works department constructed roads and designed buildings

for administration and public services, it grew into a department over the next

century and laid the groundwork for the island’s transformation into a thriving

port city.

When Singapore entered a new age of independence in the 1960s, the colonial

public works department was restructured to become the government agency known

as the Public Works Department (PWD) - the predecessor of what would later evolve

into the corporatised entity, CPG Corporation.

Today, Singapore is a flourishing city with solid developments in the essential institutional,

security, judicial, healthcare and community structures representative

of a First World country. Its success is a testament to the excellent foundation set by

the PWD in the days of both the Straits Settlement and post-independent Singapore.

As a descendant of this lineage, CPG, which became corporatised in 1999, carries on

the 188-year legacy. With its roots firmly planted in the city-state that started it all, it

continues to contribute to the built environment and the shaping of the future.

21

22 LAYING FOUNDATIONS

Institutional

The Istana, one of Singapore’s oldest heritage sites and the official

residence of the President of Singapore has been a landmark

for more than 150 years. The 3-storey Palladian-style

Istana building was built by the British colonial government

and completed in 1869. After Singapore gained independence

almost a century later, the building became home to the new

nation’s Head of State; and what was known as the Government

House was renamed The Istana, Malay for “palace”.

Throughout these changes, CPG maintained the building

and its over 40-hectare grounds for successive residents. It is a

role the corporation has continued up till this day as the managing

agent of The Istana’s facilities.

“The Istana is a unique project because it is not only an institutional

building but also a national historical monument with

many years of heritage behind it,” says Mr. Alan Goh, the Deputy

Chief Executive Officer of CPG Facilities Management (CPG FM).

He and his team conduct regular inspection and maintenance

to ensure The Istana retains its stature befitting of a president.

Over the years, they have also worked with CPG’s architects

and engineers to periodically upgrade the building. One of

the most extensive efforts was during the mid-1990s when The

Istana was renovated for state ceremonies. A new 3-storey extension

block was designed to rehouse the store and plant

rooms to free up the main building, which was modernised

with fittings such as mechanically activated louvres and air-conditioning.

The Istana’s original architectural features were also

restored and its front lawn remodelled to provide a stately and

formal frontage.

“We had to be extremely careful in our planning when we

maintained and upgraded the building, ensuring that the modern

equipment would be able to work within the building’s older

constructed environment,” says Mr. Goh. “When it comes to

working on a conserved property like The Istana, we are not just

modernising its services and systems for the occupants, but

also doing our part in conserving its history and heritage.”

The Istana is just one of the many local institutional buildings

built by the British colonial government that CPG has designed,

built, and maintains. Among the others were the Government

Offices (now the Asian Civilisations Museum) and the

Chinese Protectorate (now the Family Justice Courts). After Singapore

gained independence, PWD helped develop a new generation

of offices for a modernising public service. Early examples

included the headquarters for the Ministry of Education,

the Central Provident Fund and the Environment Ministry.

They were developed between the 1960s and 1980s and came in

high-rise towers, the most progressive trends in modern architecture

then. The Ministry of Environment office even adopted

systems furniture and an open plan, which set new norms for

the public service.

“Then, the Public Works Department was the government

engineering authority and hence spearheaded many nationwide

initiatives such as raising the buildability and quality of

INSTITUTIONAL

23

1.1

1.1 PALACE FOR THE PEOPLE

CPG has supported The Istana’s

illustrious evolution over the years.

Among the most significant was a

1990s effort to renovate the building

for state ceremonies and enhance the

experience for the public during The

Istana’s regular open house days.

Image Credit: Ministry of Communications

and Information (MCI)

1.2 A FITTING HOME

Located within The Istana’s grounds

is the Sri Temasek, a bungalow built

initially for the colonial secretary. In

2008, CPG restored the building,

including its intricate timber arcade

featuring a blend of East-West motifs,

and added a heritage gallery.

1.2

24

LAYING FOUNDATIONS

buildings, energy conservation, among others. With knowledge

from our predecessor, these were applied to the many government

buildings that we designed,” explains the Director of Design

of CPG Consultants Ar. Peter How. These were applied to

the many government buildings that we designed,” explains the

Director of Design of CPG Consultants Ar. Peter How.

For instance, Revenue House, the home of Singapore’s tax

agency, was one of the earliest buildings built with an energyefficient

design by CPG’s predecessor. The orientation of the

24-storey diamond-shaped tower allows natural daylight to reduce

the need for lighting, while its green-tinted glass curtain

wall minimises heat gain. The “intelligent” building’s responsive

lighting and the air-conditioning system automatically

comes on and off depending on the rooms’ occupancy. These

features helped the building win the inaugural ASEAN Energy

Efficiency & Conservation Award in 2000.

Another project is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters,

which was guided by a national drive for adaptive reuse of

Singapore’s historic buildings. In 2001, CPG transformed a

1930s British military officers’ mess at Tanglin Barracks into a

modern government office complex for the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs. The 2-storey neoclassical building was restored as a ceremonial

entrance for dignitaries and to house various hospitality

facilities. A new H-shaped, 6-storey office building was erected

behind it, equipped with the latest intelligent building

systems and security control. The 2-storey neoclassical building

was restored as a ceremonial entrance for dignitaries and to

house various hospitality facilities. A new H-shaped, 6-storey

office building, equipped with the latest intelligent building

systems and security control, was erected behind it.

While institutional buildings differ based on each organisation’s

requirements and needs, the designs often dictate that a

building looks dignified while being prudent with costs. The

decades of designing government buildings have helped CPG

become familiar with ways to achieve this balance. Its architects

and engineers work closely with colleagues from facilities

management to review the materials and finishes for such

building projects and consider the long-term maintenance of

their designs.

“Unlike many buildings in the private sector, government

buildings have to be functional and avoid ostentation. The palette

of materials and finishes is controlled and pegged closely to

cost norms,” says Ar. How. “Despite the many restrictions, our

“Descending from a rich

lineage of public works,

CPG has acquired a

wealth of experience in

not just designing many of

Singapore’s government

and public buildings, but

also managing and

maintaining them.”

Mr. Alan Goh

Deputy Chief Executive Officer

CPG Facilities Management

1.3

INSTITUTIONAL

25

1.4

architects have produced buildings for institutions that are distinctive

and certainly not cookie cutter.”

Consider the Parliament Complex, which was expanded

with two new blocks in 1999, linked to a historic 19th-century

building that housed the Attorney-General’s Chambers. The

new buildings project a courtly presence with their grey facade

and sturdy columns, a look inspired by the original colonial-era

parliament building. Inside is a thoroughly modern complex

comprising a stunning 4-storey atrium with a pyramidal ceiling.

The building is also decked with features that was high tech in

its day, such as an electronic polling system that allows Members

of Parliament to vote with the press of a button.

Since CPG’s corporatisation, it has worked on institutional

buildings beyond just the Singapore government’s. In 2015, its

Vietnam office completed the Binh Duong Integrated Political

& Admin Centre, a 23-storey facility in the heart of a city some 30

kilometres away from Ho Chi Minh City. The centre consolidates

various government departments in Binh Duong to create

a one-stop centre for effective governance. Its striking twin tower

1.3 MODERN GOVERNANCE

Singapore’s public service was modernised

with the development of a

series of new office buildings. Among

them was Revenue House, which has

energy-saving features to keep maintenance

costs low in the long run.

1.4 BLENDING OLD AND NEW

The exterior of the Singapore Parliament

House Complex was inspired

by its previous colonial-style building,

creating a stately presence

against the modern skyscrapers of

Singapore’s central business district.


1.5

design also symbolises a new era of collaborative development.

The integration of form and function is expressed differently

in a complex that CPG designed for the International Criminal

Police Organisation (INTERPOL). In 2011, CPG and its collaborator

studio505 won a design competition to create the

INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore for police

officers worldwide to work and research together. The sleek

and curvy design departs from the traditional rectilinear box.

The unusual form is reinforced with an iridescent glass-andmetal

facade—fulfilling the client’s brief for a building that

could metaphorically lead the transformation of INTERPOL

into a forward-looking one. As the complex is part of the Lyonbased

organisation’s command, the design also needed to signal

INTERPOL’s important role in facilitating worldwide police

cooperation and crime control.

“The client’s vision was for something reflective of the transformational

approach towards global law enforcement, serving

not just as an office building but a melting pot for its member

countries to collaborate in operations and research,” explains

Ar. Maureen Soh, Vice President (Architecture) of CPG Consultants,

who led the project.

To complement the lush trees along Napier Road and the

neighbouring Singapore Botanic Gardens, Ar. Soh and her team

integrated greenery with the complex in various ways. Existing

trees were retained and taken into consideration for the building’s

construction, and a landscaped deck was also built on the

second storey. In addition, the building was designed with a

host of hidden features to ensure its safe and smooth operations.

“As this is a secured building meant for maintaining security

around the world, its structure has to reflect strength. Its futuristic

design discreetly integrates various security features for

deterring breaches, making the building friendlier to the public,”

Ar. Soh says.

Be it in the designing of the contemporary INTERPOL complex

or in the facilities management and restoration of a historic

development like The Istana, the ability to weave functional

needs with distinct forms in a building that can be maintained

long-term has distinguished CPG’s institutional work. “Descending

from a rich lineage of public works, CPG has acquired

a wealth of experience in not just designing many of Singapore’s

government and public buildings, but also managing and

maintaining them,” says Mr. Goh.

“Our consultants and facilities management team have

gained the experience, resources and domain knowledge to excel

in working on institutional buildings.”

INSTITUTIONAL

27

1.5 A SECURITY ICON

The curvy INTERPOL Global Complex

for Innovation distinguishes the building

as a forward-looking space where police

worldwide can research and collaborate.

1.6

10 out of 15 ministries in

Singapore operate out of a

building designed by CPG.

1.6 SECURE AND FRIENDLY

The INTERPOL complex integrates

various security features for deterring

breaches so that the building

can remain secure yet projecting a

friendlier image to the public.


Judiciary

In the day, its white open-frame structure welcomes views from

around the city. When dusk falls, it lights up like a beacon that

can be seen from afar. The State Courts is an illuminating symbol

of justice in Singapore.

Completed in 2019, it is also the latest in a line of judiciary

facilities that CPG has developed in Singapore. As a colony, Singapore’s

first criminal courthouse was built along South Bridge

Road in the 1880s, while the original Supreme Court was built

in the 1930s.

The independence of Singapore in the 1960s led to a modernisation

of its judiciary system. The government’s goal to provide

citizens convenient access to justice led to a consolidation

of its different courts into new courthouses. In the 1970s, the

Public Works Department worked with Kumpulan Akitek to develop

the original State Courts (then known as the Subordinate

Courts). This modernist octagon building departed from the

neoclassical courthouses of the past. Two decades later, PWD

Corporation adapted and restored the 1930s Chinese Protectorate

Building into a new Family and Juvenile Court. At the turn of

the new millennium, a new and more significant Supreme

Court was also built. Its design, through partnership with

Foster+Partners, was a reinterpretation of the original neoclassical

courthouse, including the translation of its distinctive

dome into a futuristic disc-like form.

The growing need for courthouse spaces, which had led to

the Supreme Court expansion, also triggered the government’s

plans to develop a new State Courts building. As the “engine

room” of Singapore’s judiciary system handling approximately

90 per cent of all cases in the country, the 1970s court building

was fast running out of space. In the late nineties, CPG’s predecessor

was asked to assist in identifying a suitable site and formulate

a project brief. It led to the proposal to develop the

nation’s first high-rise courthouse on an open car park next to

the original State Courts. With the old building and the

neighbouring Family Justice Courts (renamed from the Family

and Juvenile Court), the trio would form a new judiciary hub for

Singapore.

In 2011, an open design competition was held for the new

State Courts, with CPG assisting the evaluation panel with its

technical and design expertise. Serie + Multiply Architects

emerged the winner with a striking pair of 35-storey “Office”

and “Court” towers connected by a series of link bridges. Instead

of an external glazed facade, the Court Towers have open

frames that support a series of court trays for its 53 courtrooms

and 54 hearing chambers, as well as lush greenery and outdoor

terraces. The design is a metaphor for the transparent and accessible

justice offered by the State Courts.

CPG was appointed the Principal Consultant and Architect

to develop the winning design and make it operational for the

client. It created the main entrance of the State Courts as a triple-volume

space to handle large crowds. A 6-storey podium

was also built at the base of the towers to house a new centralised

registry and chambers. It enabled the creation of a onestop

service centre to register cases, unlike in the previous

building where one had to visit different registries depending

on the type of case.

“In this area, CPG worked with the State Courts to rationalise

its operations and find ways to improve efficiency by introducing

the centralisation of the registry,” says Senior Vice President

(Architecture) at CPG Consultants Ar. Colin Wu, the project

director.

“As compared to the low-rise designs of the original State

JUDICIARY

29

1.7

30

LAYING FOUNDATIONS

1.8

JUDICIARY

31

Courts and the present Supreme Court, the new towers have a

shorter and more direct circulation route to the courtrooms because

of its smaller footprint and high-rise design.”

Even as CPG leveraged the design to improve operations, it

was mindful of traditional needs such as providing separate

pathways for the judges, persons-in-custody and the public. The

State Courts achieves these through its two towers that separate

the courtrooms from the offices. While the public can only enter

the Court Tower, the judges and court administrators traverse

between the courtrooms and the Office Tower via 39 glass

link bridges that connect the buildings. The persons-in-custody

show up in court at the basement, where there are dedicated

lifts to bring them up to the courtrooms.

A major challenge faced by CPG’s engineers was the slender

Office Tower. It needed a structural design that could withstand

high wind speeds, says Senior Principal Engineer (Civil & Structural

Engineering) of CPG Consultants Er. Kulandaivelu Muthu

Kumar.

“We conducted a wind tunnel study of the building model to

capture the forces acting on the towers and the link bridges.

These forces were applied on the 3D structural model, and the

building was designed to ensure that its sway and human comfort

are within acceptable limits,” he explains.

1.7 A 21ST CENTURY COURTHOUSE

Consisting of two 35-storey towers,

the State Courts elegantly addresses

the need for more courtrooms in Singapore.

It replaces its former building

next door, which is being converted

by CPG into a new home for

the Family Justice Courts.

1.8 SLENDER BUT STRONG

The slim profile of the State Courts’

Office Tower (left) is strengthened

by a structural design that CPG engineers

studied extensively to ensure it

can withstand high wind speeds.

At 178 metres high, the State

Courts is the tallest government

building in Singapore and one of

the world’s tallest courthouses.

In addition, the engineering team worked out various innovative

solutions to cool the large, tall buildings more quickly

and efficiently. The State Courts utilises a highly efficient watercooler

chiller plant system that serves its towers with two separate

high and low zones. The main air-conditioned zones were

strategically placed towards the centre of the building, which is

more shaded and thus minimises heat exchange with the external

environment. Each floor also has individual air-conditioning

units for better control when zoning is not used, says Vice

President (Mechanical & Electrical Engineering) of CPG Consultants

Mr. Ivan Poon.

“With these green features and sustainable systems, the

State Courts can meet the Building and Construction Authority’s

Green Mark Platinum certification with great overall annual

energy savings,” he says.

The final challenge for the CPG team came during the courthouse’s

construction. As it sits in a heavily built-up Chinatown

and is near the original State Courts and Family Justice Courts,

both of which are protected historic buildings, CPG’s engineers

had to work closely with their project management colleagues

from PM Link to plan and coordinate the construction. Many

components were prefabricated offsite because of a lack of storage

space, and these had to be properly scheduled and delivered

directly to the floor for installation.

Despite the many hurdles, the State Courts was completed

within a relatively short time of three years. “We achieved it as a

team with close partnership with the client and contractors,

strengthened by the fact that most of the consultants came

from the same corporation,” says Mr. Poon.

“Being able to work as a multidisciplinary team facilitates

better coordination and teamwork. We can understand each

other’s difficulties better, it is easier to communicate, and we

are more open to sharing past experiences and ideas,” he adds.

As a result, schedules were met, and PM Link even obtained

approvals from the building authority for a temporary occupation

permit, although works were still ongoing to reinstate the

1.9


JUDICIARY

33

1.10

external public area around the State Courts, Director of Projects,

Ms. Cheryl Koh

“Since public area reinstatement works were beyond the client’s

property boundaries, we proposed phased stages of works

to maintain safe and sheltered public access while safeguarding

against trespassing into the completed building,” she says.

“It provided the client with valuable time to fully focus and

carry out their in-house migration setup within the building.

Most importantly, the State Courts met their target schedule for

general operations.”

1.9 NOD TO ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD

The State Courts’ distinctive dark

red appearance is made from the pigmented

pre-cast concrete cladding.

It was inspired by the terracotta tile

roofs of the historic shophouses that

the courthouse overlooks.

1.10 DIGITAL JUSTICE

The courtrooms in the new State

Courts are equipped with information

technology, like digital transcription

and video conferencing systems,

to facilitate more efficient work processes.


1.11

JUDICIARY

35

“Being able to work as a

multidisciplinary team facilitates

better coordination and teamwork.

We can understand each other’s

difficulties better, it is easier to

communicate, and we are more

open to sharing past experiences

and ideas.”

Mr. Ivan Poon

Vice President (Mechanical & Electrical Engineering)

CPG Consultants

Having completed the new State Courts, CPG is converting

its former building into a new home for the Family Justice

Courts. The adaptive reuse follows similar transformations the

corporation has carried on other Singapore courthouses, including

turning the former Supreme Court into the National

Gallery Singapore.

Although the new State Courts’ compact, high-rise form is

unlike past facilities, Ar. Wu believes its contemporary design

offers new ideas of what a judicial building can be, not just in

Singapore but around the world.

“As cities continue to grow, land use will be an issue and going

high-rise can be a solution for such judiciary buildings,” he

says. “The State Courts has proven that the high-rise courthouse

approach has many benefits, and this may serve as an inspiration

for other countries.”

1.11 FUTURE MEETS PAST

Completed in 2005, the new Supreme

Court (left) is a modern reinterpretation

of the original 1930s neoclassical courthouse.

Among the new building’s highlights

is the translation of its former

dome into a futuristic metal disc that

houses the Court of Appeal, the highest

court in Singapore.


Security

Spending time in prison is not something most people would

like to remember, but it is a vivid memory in Ar. Khew Sin

Khoon’s career. As the lead architect for Singapore’s Tanah Merah

Prison during the mid-1980s, he spent several hours inside

a cell of the former Changi Prison to understand first-hand

what it feels like to be behind bars.

“It’s not like what you see on television. Two things that

don’t come across are the smell because of the terrible ventilation

and how noisy it sounds,” says Ar. Khew, who is CPG Corporation’s

President and Group Chief Executive Officer today.

Such conditions resulted from prison cells designed with

solid walls and tiny windows high up near the ceiling. He suggested

lowering the windows in the new prison to improve ventilation.

The Singapore Prison Service wardens thought otherwise,

because they believed the traditional design prevented

prisoners from hanging themselves. After visiting prisons in the

United States and Europe and learning how suicide was possible

regardless of the window height, he successfully convinced

the client otherwise. The barred windows in the new Tanah Merah

Prison were lowered to eye level, and mechanical ventilation

was installed in the corridors.

“We directed air into the corridor so it can go into the cells

and escape through the windows. That helps circulate the air.”

he explains. “The change increased ventilation considerably.”

Learning from the world and designing for local needs has

defined CPG’s approach to security developments, as it inherits

the knowledge of its predecessors. During colonial times, Singapore

was kept secured with early police stations and penal

facilities that were often based on British models and adapted

for the tropical conditions. In the 1930s, bigger facilities like

the Hill Street Police Station and Barracks and the maximumsecurity

facility Changi Prison were built. When Singapore

gained independence and sought to modernise its security facilities,

the Public Works Department led a new round of development

as a government agency. Tanah Merah Prison was an

early example completed in 1994. It set the stage for an ambitious

redevelopment of Singapore’s incarceration facilities in

the 2000s when CPG was tasked to create a brand new complex

on a site containing the Changi, Moon Crescent and Jalan Awan

prisons.

The project was an opportunity to redefine what a contemporary

Singapore prison should be. The client’s vital goal was to

free up land for other developments by bringing together its inmates

who were previously housed in standalone prisons across

the city-state. Based on a cluster concept proposed by the prison

commissioner, CPG created a master plan to group the various

prisons into a singular development that offered communal facilities,

while still meeting the different security needs of each.

Instead of sprawling prisons typically found overseas, the new

complex consists of various high-rise blocks of housing cells

that are arranged to radiate out from a central control station.

The design allows for panoptical monitoring, saving land space

and human resources for supervision as compared to previous

“telephone-pole” layouts where blocks of prisons cells branched

SECURITY

37

1.12

“We have been fortunate to

be involved with the Singapore

Prison Service in all their

prison developments and to

have played a part in their

evolution.”

Ar. Shankar N Ramasamy

Executive Vice President (Architecture)

CPG Consultants

1.12 HIGH-RISE PRISON LIVING

The Changi Prison Complex is

designed as clusters of high-rise

buildings to use the limited land

space in Singapore efficiently.


1.13

out from a linear covered corridor.

“Our new masterplan was not just about regrouping clusters,

but also re-examining how a prison can operate in a multistorey

concept. The new complex centralises manpower and

saves cost, but it also means that the prisons operations have to

change,” says Executive Vice President of the Architecture

Group at CPG Consultants, Ar. Shankar N Ramasamy, who led

the project.

He and his team worked closely with the client to align the

building design with its new vision for prisons. While previously

regarded simply as incarceration facilities, Singapore’s prisons

now sought to focus on rehabilitation. The new Changi

Prison complex is designed with spaces to support this. For instance,

its cell blocks are accompanied by buildings with facilities

such as counselling rooms and workshops where inmates

can pick up new skills.

When completed in 2004, the first cluster of the new complex

marked a total change from previous prisons in Singapore.

It served as a prototype for testing many new ideas,

which was improved when CPG developed Changi Prison’s

1.14

SECURITY

39

1.13 A HUMANE ENVIRONMENT

Changi Prison’s design is tailored

for Singapore’s tropical climate,

such as having windows sheltered

by concrete ledges that act as sunshades.

1.14 SECURING MAXIMUM VIEWS

From material choice to its layout,

every aspect of Changi Prison’s interiors

is designed to secure the facility.

Even the staircases come

with open risers to minimise view

obstructions for the staff.

second cluster in 2010. Some changes included facilitating

better movement, switching to more durable materials and resolving

ventilation issues.

“Although the prison’s operational focus was towards rehabilitation,

and thus needed an environment to help with healing

and reintegration, it was equally important to reflect its

function of deterring prisoners from trying to escape,” explains

Ar. Shankar.

“We have been fortunate to be involved with the Singapore

Prison Service in all their prison developments and to have

played a part in their evolution.”

Another type of security facility that CPG has had extensive

experience in is land-border checkpoints. Following Singapore’s

separation from Malaysia in 1965, a border control facility

was set up at Woodlands near the Causeway, the land link

between the two countries, to oversee the movement of people

and goods between them. As traffic flow grew rapidly into the

1970s, PWD develop a new Woodlands Checkpoint. Lanes to

separate buses and lorries from cars and motorcycles were introduced

to ensure a smoother traffic flow, and air-conditioned

drive-in booths were built to improve the working conditions of

border staff. An entirely new complex was also designed to

house additional security features such as narcotics search

dogs.

While the checkpoint built in 1977 was designed to meet the

anticipated 40,000 travellers a day, the traffic volume between

Malaysia and Singapore exceeded this number a decade later

due to their booming economies and had to be upgraded again

in the 1990s. The number of clearance lanes was increased for

faster service and a new complex was introduced to offer more

facilities, including an air-conditioned bus hall. As these new

developments were built on reclaimed land, CPG’s architects

developed a prudent design by stacking the checkpoint’s various

functions into five building clusters that link together as a

single towering megastructure.

“The key features of the checkpoint are its strong architectural

presence and the planning concept of stacking functions

to optimise the use of reclaimed land,” says the Director of Design

at CPG Consultants, Ar. Peter How, who worked on the project.

“We didn’t want it to be too obscure and look like a functional

clearance shed. As a gateway to Singapore, the checkpoint

design also needed to have a certain presence.”

Along with the redevelopment of Woodlands Checkpoint,


1.15

1.15 A SECURE WELCOME

Inspired by its marine setting, Tuas

Checkpoint is roofed over with barrel-vaulted

structures that give the

building a wave-like rhythm. The design

turns a functional border facility

into a welcoming gateway.

1.16 SINGAPORE SENTINEL

The Woodlands Checkpoint stacks its

various functions into five building

clusters linked to form a single megastructure

that is a towering presence

for those entering the country.

1.15

SECURITY

41

Over 400,000 travellers

are cleared daily at the

Woodlands and Tuas

Checkpoints—making

them one of the world’s

busiest checkpoints.

1.16

CPG was also involved in designing the Tuas Checkpoint, which

serves as a new second land link built between Malaysia and

Singapore. The project completed in 1999 adopted many of the

design principles used in the Woodlands project as it was also

built on reclaimed land. Distinguished by a series of articulate

and expressive barrel-vaulted structures, the checkpoint reflects

a wave-like rhythm inspired by its marine setting, transforming

it into a welcoming gateway to Singapore.

The continued growth in traffic between Malaysia and Singapore

over the last two decades has resulted in another round

of expansion in Woodlands Checkpoint—again led by CPG. The

fundamental design for such border control facilities has mainly

remained the same, says Ar. How, but security needs have

tightened significantly since the September 11 terrorist attacks

in the United States some two decades ago. For instance, buildings

must be built to withstand threats such as bomb blasts.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has also called for additional

health screenings at borders. The upcoming checkpoint will be

designed with adequate and flexible spaces to accommodate

these new layers of checks.

Ar. Shankar adds that the demand for secured environments

is no longer limited to traditional facilities such as prisons and

checkpoints. Over the years, CPG has developed a variety of

buildings where security design is an essential ingredient. They

include headquarters for Singapore’s security agencies, such as

the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Traffic Police. The corporation

was also responsible for the Police Cantonment Complex,

which houses various law enforcement units like the

Criminal Investigation Department and the Central Narcotics

Bureau. All these buildings integrate designs to protect from

various threats while adopting modern outlooks that welcome

the citizens they serve.

CPG’s security design team also regularly consults its colleagues

who develop other buildings ranging from offices to

schools and hospitals. The approach is not to turn these buildings

into fortresses, says Ar. Shankar, but to introduce layers of

protection that are more appropriate and economical. For instance,

a building can have some zones that are more secured

than others. It can also use various materials to deter breaching

attempts.

“As the public often uses these buildings, we need to make

sure they are still visually pleasing while maintaining security

with a strong and solid backend operation,” he says.

The satisfaction of resolving the complex challenges of protecting

developments while keeping them functional has kept

Ar. Shankar going in CPG over the last two decades. Since being

assigned to security-related projects, he has never looked back.

“It’s not always the same approach for ensuring that a building

is secure. Every project has a new item for us to learn, and

this is what keeps it interesting.”


1.15














1.15

SECURITY

43



Woodlands and Tuas




1.16








































attempts.












1.15

A WALL TO REMEMBER














Amid the modern Changi Prison complex designed by CPG

are remnants of the original facility that it also worked on

in 1936. A double-leafed steel entrance gate, a 180-metre

wall and two corner turrets were kept as part of the redevelopment

to remember the maximum-security prison,

which the British once boasted as “the most modern institution

of its kind in the East”. The facility, which had a comprehensive

alarm system and electrical lighting in its cells,

also served as a prisoner-of-war camp during the Japanese

Occupation. In 2016, the entrance gate, wall and turrets

were gazetted as a national monument.

1.15

SECURITY

45



Woodlands and Tuas




1.16








































attempts.











46

CONNECTING

PLACES

Infrastructure defines the values of a city through the connections it offers. Since its

establishment, CPG has played a vital role in the development of transportation infrastructure

to support Singapore’s modern development.

The comprehensive network enabled a seamless flow of people, goods and services

from expressways and roads to vehicular bridges and pedestrian walkways. The

convenience, in turn, supported social and economic growth. Singapore’s transformation

into a global city was also accelerated with the development of Changi Airport,

a world-class aviation hub, which CPG plays a part in through both its efforts

and that of its predecessors.

Since corporatisation, CPG has also brought its rich experience gained from its

heritage in transport planning, transportation infrastructure and aviation to other

cities around the world. It has also augmented these capabilities with new ones such

as urban planning. By designing developments where communities and places can

easily collaborate and come together, CPG helps cities stay vibrant and connected in

an increasingly globalised world.

48 CONNECTING PLACES

Urban Planning

Gardens by the Bay is a much-celebrated attraction of Singapore

today. The public park in the heart of Marina Bay draws

residents as well as tourists from around the world to visit.

Wildlife has also returned to the city, including hornbills, otters

and kingfishers. Most importantly, the gardens have helped attracted

multinational corporations and highly skilled global

talent to Singapore.

It started with the National Parks Board (NParks) coming

up with the idea to develop an iconic garden as the Singapore

government was then formulating a new downtown on a piece

of land it had reclaimed from the sea. The agency enlisted CPG

to draw up a business case and master plan for such a development,

which seemed to fly in the face of logic as this was a

piece of prime estate.

“After spending so much on reclaiming the land, it did not

seem to make sense to set aside a huge part of it for nothing but

a garden. However, we calculated and found that the increased

land value of the plots around the garden and other indirect

benefits more than offset the costs,” says the Director of Design

of CPG Consultants, Ar. Peter How, who was part of the team

that conducted the project’s transportation and environmental

engineering studies.

The studies helped NParks successfully convince the government

to take up its plans, and CPG was roped in again to realise

it. The corporation formulated and managed an international

design competition to master plan the 101-hectare development

of three gardens. In 2006, the largest site, Bay South, was

awarded to Grant Associates and Wilkinson Eyre, with CPG appointed

as the local collaborator.

“It was then quite a painful decision for the planners as to

whether they should carry out the plan. But today, we all recognise

the power of greenery to pull in investors and to improve

the liveability of a city,” says Ar. How.

This paradigm shift is evident in the many overseas clients

who have come to CPG looking to carry out a similar development.

One example is in Metro Manila, Philippines, where the

corporation has planned an upcoming urban smart city to be

developed on a new land. CPG worked closely with a consortium

to co-create a resilient and dynamic development. Based on

the client’s key performance indicators for different development

sectors, CPG proposed several interventions to achieve

the desired returns without compromising the cohesive master

plan, says the Senior Vice President of Urban Planning (Architecture)

at CPG Consultants, Ms. Iyn Ang.

“Our approach is not just about providing urban design but

also master planning and a development roadmap. To do something

of this scale, you need a strong business case and an appreciation

of the project’s local context,” says Ms. Ang, who

leads CPG’s urban planning team.

Aside from creating an ecosystem of land development opportunities,

CPG focused on creating seamless connectivity and

ease of transportation as key to the new city’s eventual success.

“If a developer wants a high-density development, it may result

in more people and congestion, which would decrease the

URBAN PLANNING

49

2.1

50

CONNECTING PLACES

value of the land. Often, our job is to resolve the many tradeoffs.

How much density is too much? And where do we draw the

line?” says Senior Principal Urban Designer of Urban Planning

(Architecture) at CPG Consultants Mr. Rodeo Cruzado Cabillan.

“Ultimately, the work of urban planning is to see the bigger picture

so that we can hit the sweet spot.”

While urban planning was not a significant scope of CPG’s

work in its earlier years, it began taking on such projects after

corporatisation to aid its overseas expansion. The corporation

found early success in China and has made inroads into India,

Dubai and Vietnam over the last two decades. CPG’s urban

planners have also worked on projects back home in Singapore.

When the Active, Beautiful, and Clean (ABC) Programme was

introduced, CPG worked with Cardno International to help the

national water agency, PUB, masterplan the city-state’s Eastern

Catchment Area. Through the identification of several pilot

ABC projects, many waterways were transformed into community

and recreational sites.

Several of CPG’s urban planning projects have since turned

into long term-collaborations. One example is the Van Giang

2.1 GREEN TRANSFORMATION

The success of Gardens by the Bay has

confirmed the business case and master

plan that CPG and its partners first

come up with for developing a garden

on reclaimed land in Singapore’s new

downtown. Today, it is a case study of

how green spaces can enhance a city’s

liveability and raise the value of surrounding

developments.

2.2 A MODEL HOME

The over 500-hectare Ecopark in

Vietnam is being developed with

various residences. From high-rise

apartments to landed houses, they

support the growing population in a

fast developing Hung Yen Province.

2.2

URBAN PLANNING

51

2.3 GREEN AND BLUE

Ecopark’s master plan is designed

to bring people and nature closer

together. Its green spaces and water

bodies not only separate its different

zones but also support recreational

needs.

14 years and counting since

CPG first got involved in Van

Giang Ecopark Township—a

long and fruitful partnership

that continues today.

2.3

Ecopark Township in Hung Yen Province, Vietnam. In the early

2000s, Viet Hung Urban Development & Investment JSC (Vihajico)

sought out CPG to master plan an over 500-hectare site into

a sustainable satellite town for 20,000 residences, similar to

those it had seen in Singapore. The rural site was in a province

home to hundreds of rapidly developing industrial projects and

next to the future expansion area of Hanoi’s Central Business

District. CPG’s urban planners proposed a central development

spine consisting of different compartmentalised zones. These

included a central business district, a waterfront district, a

mixed-use district, an old town district, a knowledge and sports

city and a creative zone. While a third of the site was zoned for

residential use, another third was set aside for services, tourism

and commerce. The rest of the land was dedicated to water bodies

and green spaces to realise a “Green and Blue” network that

highlighted the relationship between people and nature.

The outdoor spaces not only separated and defined the different

zones but also supported recreational needs. They were

also carefully designed to be comfortable in the climate, an issue

that is fast becoming a primary concern for urban development

today, says Vice President of Urban Planning (Architecture)

of CPG Consultants Mr. Anucha Chomklin.

“In these few decades, with rapid development in cities, we

witness heavier impacts from climate change. We feel the heat

increasing, see severe floods in many cities or extreme droughts

in agricultural areas and waterways,” he says. “It is critical for

us to preserve or strengthen existing natural resources, plan

and implement ‘Green and Blue’ networks to integrate well

with the communities, and optimise benefits from ecosystem

services.”

After completing Ecopark’s master plan in 2008, CPG’s other

divisions continued working with the client to implement

various projects over the decade. This allowed the urban planning

team to monitor and assess the plan as over 10,000 residents

moved in during the first development phase. Prompt revisions

were made to the master plan in 2016 to meet changing

market demands better. An initial proposal for gated communities

of luxurious low- and mid-rise housing in the southern end

of Ecopark gave way to smaller landed properties and more affordable

high-rise apartments. These homes were also designed

2.4


URBAN PLANNING

53

with public waterfront destinations to support community

building and place-making. Today, the township with green

spaces and café-lined boulevards is well-liked by residents and

even draws in visitors from nearby Hanoi during the weekends.

“Planning has to do with how we live, work and play, so the

master plan needs to change in response to emerging conditions.

While we came up with the master plan, CPG’s other entities

later designed and implemented parts of it and allowed us

to counter check our ideas. It is an example of how we can be

involved in long-term development,” says Ms. Ang.

Such a long-term view of projects comes from CPG’s experience,

adds Mr. Cabillan.

“Through our practice, we have accumulated the know-how

on the critical steps in a successful masterplan: from initial

consultation, seeking funding, to finally realising it. We also

constantly validate the process by referencing Singapore’s stages

of development and lessons learnt from other cities. If a client

asks how we would know if a master plan can be successful,

it is because we are methodical in the roadmap needed for such

a project.”

Besides paying close attention to changing conditions,

CPG’s urban planners also worked closely with the client to cocreate

the master plan. When the client’s internal departments

shared their need for solid waste management facilities and

more parking spaces, the urban planners integrated the solid

waste collection centres and shared car parks with the planned

wastewater treatment plants. Through conversations with potential

school operators, land parcels in Ecopark were also consolidated

to provide them with better amenities to run optimally.

Today, the township is home to several prestigious local and

international schools.

“Ultimately, our evolutionary application of universal principles

of biophilic, cultural, placemaking and resilient design

2.4 LIVEABLE AND LOVABLE

Ecopark’s various districts, such as its

education hub, are carefully planned to

ensure the population is provided with

the appropriate amenities in a fully

functional neighbourhood.


“Clients appreciate CPG’s

long history in Singapore

and our experience in

sustainable urban growth

and development. They

trust that we will be there

with them to turn a master

plan into a city no matter

how long it takes.”

Ms. Iyn Ang

Senior Vice President

Urban Planning (Architecture)

CPG Consultants

2.5

55

2.5 PLANNED FOR SUCCESS

The master plan for a smart city development

in Manila includes different

development zones (far left)

that ensure economic resilience

and a multi-modal transport plan

(bottom left) for seamless connectivity

with Greater Manila.

2.6

2.6 ACTIVE, BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN

As part of Singapore’s efforts to

transform its water bodies in the

mid-2000s, CPG master planned

various water bodies in the eastern

region to enhance them as community

and recreational sites.

2.6

approaches are crafted contextually for the Vietnamese people,”

says Architectural Director of CPG Consultants (Vietnam)

Mr. Benjamin Tan. “Most importantly, we stress on the simple

design philosophy that projects are created as if they are for our

own families and loved ones. Only then can our projects be truly

defined as contributions to the Vietnamese communities.”

To achieve this, CPG’s urban planners are now devising ways

to measure the effectiveness of current and future planning decisions

more accurately. It has created a framework for assessment

across six key enablers, including economy, infrastructure,

environment, living, talent and public sector. Such a

data-driven approach to urban planning is increasingly expected

from clients, says Ms. Ang.

“In the past, clients looked out for subjective matters such

as how lush and green an urban design was. They now expect

evidence-based planning so that they can substantiate their

claims to the government, attract investors and foster community

building,” she says. “We have to develop new ways of thinking

and measurements for the work that we do.”

It helps that CPG’s planning and design efforts are fundamentally

grounded on research. The impact of its work is also

clearly shown in Singapore’s thriving urban landscape.

“CPG’s background in public works have shaped our values.

Our designs are anchored on long-term relevance and goes beyond

transient trends. We have highly experienced in-house experts

who focus on building up knowledge of whether a design

works out and how,” says Ms. Ang.

“Clients appreciate that we are not fly-by-night and that we

will continue to be there with them through the years—and decades—it

takes to turn a master plan into a city.”


Transportation

Planning

A convenient journey via public transport. Smooth delivery of

goods and services. A pleasant stroll and ride across the city.

The seamless ways one can get around Singapore are by design.

Singapore’s development in transportation planning began

in the colonial period when the then colonial public works

department paved dirt roads to connect the city centre with

other parts of the island. As a government agency in the fledgling

nation-state, it then built up a modern transportation network.

The island-wide network of expressways, roads and public

transport infrastructure accelerated Singapore’s growth

into a bustling metropolis.

The success of this track record is why as a descendant of

the lineage of public works, CPG continues advocating for the

transformative impact of good transport planning. Regardless

of how space usage has been envisioned, any urban development

can only realise its true potential if there is appropriate

transport infrastructure to offer convenient access to people,

goods and services.

“Building transportation infrastructure is often seen as a

cost, but if it is not done well, the full potential of a city including

its real estate value cannot be realised as nobody can get in

and around easily,” explains the Executive Vice President of the

Infrastructure Group at CPG Consultants, Dr. Mak Chin Long.

Over the last two decades, CPG has worked on a range of

transport planning projects in Singapore. These include transport

studies for the International Business Park, the Woodlands

Checkpoint and the National University Hospital. Since 2008,

CPG has also worked with the Changi Airport Group on numerous

airport transport studies, both landside and airside, for

Changi Airport Terminals 1, 2, 4 and 5 and its Jewel transit hub.

A recent project completed in 2019 is a traffic impact assessment

for the Jurong Innovation District. The upcoming advanced

manufacturing hub in the west of Singapore is envisioned

as a workplace of the future and home to researchers,

innovators and businesses. It connects the existing Nanyang

Technological University and industrial estate CleanTech Park

with upcoming developments in the surrounding Bulim, Bahar

and Tengah areas.

As the site is bound by major expressways and arterial roads,

which are congested and constrained by space, there were considerable

challenges in achieving the development quantum

envisaged by the client, JTC Corporation. CPG’s transport planning

team conducted a comprehensive multi-modal transport

study to understand how they might impact the proposed

mixed-use developments. They then proposed various transportation

infrastructures to support the forecasted demand.

One example is an elevated 11-kilometre sky corridor free

from cars. Instead of driving, visitors get around the district by

walking, cycling or hopping on an autonomous passenger vehicle

around the community. Another was for an underground

TRANSPORT PLANNING

57

2.7


district logistics network, which would centralise and automate

the movement of heavy cargo without disrupting business activities

above.

“These innovative solutions aim to optimise the last-mile

connectivity and envision the reduction of a significant portion

of road traffic within the development,” explains Senior

Principal Transportation Engineer at CPG Consultants Ms.

Buddhi Abeyweera.

Beyond infrastructural solutions, the transport planning

team also drew up policies and strategies to manage the flow of

people and traffic within the district, adds Dr. Mak.

“As the transportation infrastructure could not support the

intensification of developments requested by the client, we

came up with ways to influence the demand to fit the existing

infrastructure,” he says.

“By outlining strategies to intensify the development and

aligning them with Singapore’s goal to become car-lite, we

supported the client to achieve the optimal development mix

and quantum.”

While the project marked one of the first times CPG has

formulated guiding principles together with the client, Dr.

Mak believes that it is the way of the future for transport planning.

It can expand the practitioner’s toolkit beyond simply

relying on infrastructure solutions to manage demand. Such

was the case in CPG’s recently completed roadway traffic consultancy

study for the upcoming Changi Airport Terminal 5

(T5) and its neighbouring Changi East Industrial Zone (CEIZ)

in Singapore. In 2019, the airport handled over 68 million passengers,

and the figure is expected to grow in the future. CPG’s

transport planners also developed new conceptual roadway

layouts besides assessing the adequacy of external and internal

roads and layout for T5 and the industrial zone.

“One of the key challenges in this project was the site restrictions

and high traffic performance targets set by the Changi Airport

Group. A key feature we proposed was the demand forecasting

with a unique methodology for exploring strategies to

encourage more staff and visitors to use public transport,

hence, reducing traffic contribution to the nearby roads,” Ms.

Abeyweera explains.

Another area the team reviewed was how the future airport

could better accommodate private-hire vehicles (PHV), which

was then a relatively new mode of transport. Unlike traditional

taxis that pick up and drop off passengers in a predictable fash-

2.7 FUTURE FORWARD

The transport plan by CPG enables researchers,

innovators and businesses in

Jurong Innovation District to meet,

connect and create an ecosystem for

Singapore’s up-and-coming advanced

manufacturing hub.

TRANSPORTATION PLANNING

59

ion, such vehicles operate on-demand and often cruise around

the existing Changi Airport to wait for passengers.

“We worked closely with multiple parties: client, authorities,

relevant stakeholders, multidisciplinary consultants and contractors

to develop a sustainable, efficient, safe and affordable

road network system for Changi East. It covers the design of a

multi-modal transport network with a unique taxi and PHV dispatching

system, an enhanced car park layout for T5 and an advanced

checkpoint system for CEIZ,” says Ms. Abeyweera.

Developing new kinds of transportation infrastructure in

cities will be crucial as cities increasingly seek alternatives to

the automobile. Active mobility options such as cycling and

walking are becoming increasingly popular because they are

perceived as better for the environment and healthier for citizens.

They require governments and developers to plan and

provide well-integrated transport systems so that getting

around the city remains seamless, says Dr. Mak.

“Singapore’s transport system works because it is planned

2.8 INTEGRATED TRANSPORT

Various features have been proposed in

Jurong Innovation District to create a

car-lite environment. They include constructing

an 11-kilometre sky corridor

that offers multiple connections to the

development and an underground district

logistic network that centralises and

automates the movement of heavy cargo.

Image Credit: JTC

2.8

2.9



61

“Good transport planning

helps to unlock the full

potential and value of a

development by facilitating

the safe and smooth flow of

people, goods and services.”

Dr. Mak Chin Long

Executive Vice President (Infrastructure)

CPG Consultants

2.9 SELF-SUFFICIENT CITY

An integrated approach to transport

planning, including catering

for extensive underground connections,

ensures that the upcoming

Maluanwan New District Central

Island in Xiamen can support the

development of a high-density city.

62

CONNECTING PLACES

2.10

as one. For instance, each MRT station is integrated with development

and other modes of transport,” he adds. “We carry out

transport planning at a very detailed level, such that we are now

even looking to improve the ‘travel experience’ of commuters.”

Such an integrated approach is evident in CPG’s latest master

plan for an upcoming city in China. The Xiamen Maluanwan

New District Central Island saw its transport planners working

with the corporation’s urban planning team. Besides studying

and supporting the road network proposed by the urban planners,

Dr. Mak and his team explored ways to optimise design


63

1964 was the year of many firsts in

transport for CPG. It completed

Singapore’s first multi-storey car

park (Market Street), pedestrian

overhead bridge (Collyer Quay)

and pedestrian underpass (across

Connaught Drive).

2.10 SKY CONNECTIONS

Among various transportation

infrastructure planned for Maluanwan

New District are sky

bridges between buildings that

allow pedestrians and cyclists to

travel around the city safely and

efficiently.

and connectivity throughout the development. It included examining

the feasibility of underground connections such as a

train system and pedestrian mall. They also proposed creating

sky bridges on the second and third levels between key buildings

to ease traffic congestion.

“To support the high-density development, there was no way

we could plan a regular road system. The reduced travelling

time and short trips between the planned developments allowed

us to reconsider the relationship between developments

and how land is used—creating a self-sufficient township where

most activities are kept within sustainably,” says Dr. Mak.

The close collaboration between teams helped CPG beat six

other acclaimed international design teams and clinch the project,

says the Senior Vice President of Urban Planning (Architecture)

at CPG Consultants, Ms. Iyn Ang.

“Transport planning has been integral to the success of the

design and development carried out by CPG,” she says. “Such

a holistic approach to urban planning is our unique value

proposition.”

Dr. Mak believes that CPG’s multidisciplinary setup will become

increasingly essential as cities seek to create adaptable

transportation infrastructure that can maximise the accessibility

of a city. For instance, infrastructure could be designed to allow

for different uses throughout a 24-hour cycle such that

when traffic dies down at night, a road could be turned into a

public square.

“By working with architects, planners and engineers from

CPG’s other teams, our transport planners can come up with solutions

that take care of many different concerns and requirements,”

he says. “It has allowed us to perform our duties better

and come up with more innovative solutions.”


Transportation

Infrastructure

Be it from Changi Airport in the east or Tuas Checkpoint in the

west, driving to Singapore’s new downtown in the south, Marina

Bay, takes less than half an hour.

One reason is, obviously, the island’s compact size. The

second is the network of 10 expressways that covers the entire

city-state. From the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) to the latest

Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE), CPG has had a hand in the

designs through its heritage. Expressways are just one of the

transportation infrastructures that CPG has extensive experience

in. In addition to the expressways, CPG has also contributed

to much of the city’s roads, vehicular bridges and pedestrian

walkways.

“Before CPG’s corporatisation, most roads and bridges in

the country were designed or managed by the then government

agency,” says the Director of Projects (Civil and Infrastructure

Engineering) at CPG Consultants, Er. Tan See Chee.

In the 1960s, the government agency introduced a new kind

of road in Singapore. “Expressways” enabled automobiles to

“fly” over traffic on the ground and speedily travel areas across

the island. They helped spread urban development to once farflung

areas and accelerated the government’s ongoing efforts to

modernise Singapore. As expressways grew aboveground in Singapore

over the decades, newer ones were constructed underground

instead to free up land for development.

One example is the 12-kilometre Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway

(KPE), of which two-thirds run underground. CPG

worked on half of this infrastructure planned by Singapore’s

Land Transport Authority (LTA) to link the city’s south to its

northeast. The corporation’s engineers oversaw a series of

deep excavations some 20 metres below ground. What made it

particularly challenging was that the expressway ran through

an area that was historically a river but has since become heavily

built-up. The tunnelling works had to bypass many obstacles,

including viaducts of the existing Mass Rapid Transit

(MRT) system, to link the expressway with existing ones such as

the PIE.

“The soft ground made it difficult to maintain stability during

excavation. There were also many issues of proximity, which

were potentially dangerous,” recalls the Deputy Chief Executive

Officer of CPG Consultants, Er. Chuck Kho.

He was part of the project team which devised stiffer designs

to hold the ground up during excavation. They also had to plan

the installation sequence of the new dual three-lane expressway

to minimise disruption to the traffic and keep construction

costs economical.

“We had to divert the PIE several times to build the tunnel

and the viaduct. The goal was to do it in the least number of

steps, so we coordinated with our contractor to avoid unneces-

TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE

65

2.11

66

CONNECTING PLACES

sary work. Although there were multiple diversions, we were

able to merge them seamlessly with minimal impact on navigation,”

Er. Kho says.

The KPE was completed in 2008 and celebrated as one of

Southeast Asia’s longest underground road tunnels. By then,

CPG was venturing into new depths and working on Singapore’s

first undersea road, the MCE. The dual five-lane expressway

planned by LTA along the city-state’s southern coast is a vital

transport link between its new downtown, Marina Bay, and the

rest of the island. Although just five kilometres long, over twothirds

of it runs below ground, including a portion designed by

CPG that runs through a stretch of land reclaimed just for it.

CPG’s engineers came up with an innovative solution to reclaim

in conditions of up to 12-metre deep of soft marine clay in

the sea. Instead of the traditional method of installing individual

caissons in the sea, the transportation infrastructure team

adapted a pipe-box caisson—typically used for building bridges

across oceans—to create a rigid “seawall”.

“The pipe-box caisson is a well-used construction tool, but

it had not been utilised in the way that we did. If we had used

the traditional caissons, we would have had to excavate away

the marine clay,” explains Er. Tan, who was part of the project

team. “But the site was too deep. There was no way we could

have done that.”

2.11 UNDER THE SEA

The Marina Coastal Expressway is Singapore’s

first undersea road. Part of it

was built on land reclaimed using a pipebox

caisson method by CPG engineers.

The innovative approach simplified the

construction process and resulted in

substantial cost savings.

2.12 TWISTS AND TURNS

Some two-thirds of the KPE runs underground

through soft clay and a

highly built-up area. Such conditions

required CPG engineers to take extra

precautions in their design and installation

to minimise disruptions to the

traffic aboveground.

2.12

TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE

67

2.12

“Before CPG’s

corporatisation, most

roads and bridges in the

country were designed

or managed by the then

government agency.”

Er. Tan See Chee

Director of Projects

(Civil and Infrastructure Engineering)

CPG Consultants

CPG’s solution significantly simplified the construction process

and gave its construction partner, Hock Lian Seng Group,

an edge over the competition, adds Er. Kho. They won the contract

with the lowest bidding price without having to compromise

on quality.

As Singapore has expanded into new modes of transport over

the decades, the Expo and Changi Airport train stations in Singapore

were developed to offer a convenient and economical connection

between the aviation hub and the city. The Circle Line

which consisted of six underground stations was later added.

The knowledge inherited from these local projects helped

the corporation successfully make inroads overseas in 2004,

when it was appointed the lead consultant of a multinational

team to design and construct the Marmaray Bosphorus Crossing

in Turkey. The 13.6-kilometre railway line spans both sides

of the Bosphorus Strait, which forms part of the boundary separating

Europe and Asia, and is the first physical underground

link between the two continents.

As the line travels across one of the world’s most active geological

faults, it presented CPG’s engineers with new kinds of

challenges compared to its projects in Singapore. It was crucial

to engineer an impeccable smoke control and ventilation system

for the line serving passenger and freight trains. This was

68

CONNECTING PLACES



Er. Kho says.





















have done that.”

2.11 UNDER THE SEA
















2.12


69

2.12

“Before CPG’s






Er. Tan See Chee



CPG Consultants





on quality.



















70

CONNECTING PLACES



Er. Kho says.





















have done that.”

2.11 UNDER THE SEA
















BRIDGING SINGAPORE

2.12

Walk along the Singapore River today, and one will encounter a

variety of bridges by CPG. As a colonial department and a government

agency, it developed over ten pedestrian and vehicular

bridges to stitch together what was once the city-state’s economic

lifeline. Among the most storied is the Coleman Bridge, which

was first completed in 1840 and named after its founding director

George D. Coleman. Over the next century, the bridge was redeveloped

four times to improve its construction and design. The

latest transformation in 1990 incorporated elements in its previous

format, including the arched support, cast-iron lamp posts

and iron balustrades.


71

2.12

“Before CPG’s






Er. Tan See Chee



CPG Consultants





on quality.




















2.13

achieved with strategically placed ventilation fans housed in

specially designed buildings aboveground. To withstand earthquakes

of magnitudes up to 7.5, the railway tunnels were built

with shells of steel, reinforced concrete and seismic joints. A

1.4-kilometre stretch of the line that runs undersea required

the team to work at a depth of some 60 metres, resulting in one

of the deepest immersed tube tunnels in the world. This was

constructed on land at dry docks before being towed to the site

and sunk in precisely using global positioning systems, multibeams

and 3D ultrasound.

In addition to the crossing, CPG was also involved in designing

four new stations and two ventilation buildings along the

line. The construction intersected across historic parts of Turkey’s

capital, Istanbul, and required the team to navigate many

preserved historical structures and archaeological sites.

“The city is so rich in history that wherever we dug, we encountered

ancient graveyards, old harbours where ships were

buried and even ancient habitats,” says Er. Kho, who took part

2.13 LINKING CONTINENTS

The Marmaray Bosphorus Crossing

in Turkey spans across the

two continents of Europe and

Asia. For over a decade, CPG led a

multinational team to connect

the two with the 13.6-kilometre

railway line comprising four stations,

including one on the Asian

side in Uskudar (bottom right).


73

in the project. “That is why the project took over 10 years to

complete.”

The completion of the crossing in 2019 has helped reduce

traffic congestion and air pollution in Istanbul. It is an example

of how cities are rethinking their transportation infrastructure

for more sustainable development, says Er. Kho. In Singapore,

the government’s plan to expand its mass rapid transit

network has led to new projects for CPG, such as the recently

completed Gali Batu MRT Depot. The corporation led the design

and construction of this 25-hectare facility that supports

the city’s Downtown Line with amenities such as a locomotive

workshop, warehouses for storing trains and even a building to

wash them. Another project CPG is working on is Singapore’s

11th and latest expressway, which brings together various

modes of transport. When completed, the North-South Corridor

will serve private vehicles and feature continuous bus lanes

and cycling routes—becoming Singapore’s first “integrated

transport corridor”.

“As more cities push for sustainability such as becoming carlite,

there may be a lesser need for more roads, bridges, expressways

and car parks. Spaces will be freed up, and the question

then is what new kinds of transportation infrastructure will be

needed,” Er. Kho says.

Transportation Infrastructure

remains a key typology, with a

portfolio of 11 expressways,

including the upcoming North

South corridor.

At CPG, the transportation infrastructure team works closely

with colleagues in other divisions to envision how the city

may evolve with emerging modes of travelling such as autonomous

vehicles. At the same time, they are also keeping pace

with the latest advancements and technologies in construction

to improve their designs, adds Er. Tan.

“Over the last two decades, road infrastructure has increasingly

adopted sustainability requirements in design and construction.

There are also new engineering materials being introduced

to the construction industry. Because of these

changing criteria, our transportation infrastructure team

strives to remain at the forefront of staying ahead, “says Er. Kho.

“What gives me the most satisfaction about working on such

projects is knowing we played a key role in the development and

realisation of major infrastructure that will benefit a country

and will be used by many generations to come.”

2.14

2.14 TUNNELING INTO HISTORY

As the Marmaray Bosphorus Crossing

runs through the historic city

of Istanbul, the construction works

frequently uncovered many historical

structures and archaeological

sites which had to be protected and

preserved.


Aviation

Airports today are no longer just all about function and being

fraught with engineering requirements. Singapore Changi Airport

has progressed from being created as a product in the

1970s to articulating a standard of service in the 1980s and one

of experience in the 1990s. The experiential became the dictum

of design at Terminal 3, calibrated on expanses of daylighted

garden scape integral to the organisational logic.

Enter Terminal 3, and one is greeted by a 4 -storey vertical

garden that presents itself as a piece of “living art”. Hovering

above and multiplied 919 times across the terminal’s roof is a

vast pattern of glazed apertures. Each is a sensor-operated “butterfly”

shade with daylight re-directing parabolic reflectors that

illuminate even the lowest levels of the terminal. In both form

and function, In both form and function, Terminal 3 is unlike

airports of the past—and a stunning welcome to a city-state renowned

for its futuristic outlook and love of nature.

The design by CPG was driven by the need to anticipate and

advance the passenger terminal as a memorable gateway to destinations.

It is an approach honed from years of involvement in

developing Singapore’s aviation infrastructure and also from

knowledge passed down by its predecessors. The island’s first

civil airport in Kallang was built during the 1930s. As air traffic

in Singapore grew across the decades, the development of bigger

and more modern aviation infrastructure resulted in a new

airport completed at Paya Lebar in 1955. By the 1970s, the airport

was handling more passengers than its built capacity. The

government then drew up plans to convert the military airbase

at Changi into a new civil airport. Changi Airport was completed

in 1981 and quickly established a reputation as the world’s

best airport.

Part of the winning formula is the highly efficient, functional

and operational ease-of-use designs of Changi’s first two terminals,

which are also imbued with spatial qualities that impart a

sense of comfort and convenience. When CPG was appointed to

design Changi’s third terminal in 1997, its team set out to build

upon the success established by its forerunners while addressing

the changing expectations of passengers and pushing the

envelope of what an airport is in the new millennium.

“Terminal 3 is a dialogue between continuity and change,

and was designed to push the ‘Changi Experience’ further. It is

modern and expressive, bold in its simplicity, yet friendly and

sensitive to human needs,” says Ar. Teng Wai Man, Director of

AVIATION

75

2.15


Strategic Planning and Design at CPGairport, a division of CPG

Consultants.

The “Changi Experience” was thus redefined with an emphasis

on keeping Terminal 3 at the cutting edge of design and

focusing on strategies to create light-filled and landscape-accented

interiors. The result is a dramatically open and strikingly

transparent glass box, which provides spatial continuity with

the clarity that passengers seek in transit while warmly receiving

its visitors into the sunny tropics. The terminal’s sky-lit

main roof stretches from the kerbside to the airside and features

expanses of planting that rise through different levels.

Since its opening in 2008, Terminal 3 has further enhanced

Changi Airport’s reputation and ranking as the world’s best,

consolidating Singapore’s edge as an aviation hub. It has become

a standard that other airports aspire to and launched

CPGairport’s capabilities overseas. To date, the division has

completed over 50 airports and airport-related projects, most of

which were clinched through design competitions. Notable

among them are the Ahmedabad International Airport in India,

as well as the Wuhan Tianhe T1 and the iconic Air Traffic Control

Tower of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, both in

China. There is also the Danang International Terminal and the

Phu Quoc International Airport, both in Vietnam, and the new

Islamabad International Airport in Pakistan. The division is

also nearing the completion of Terminal 2 and the VIP Termi-

2.15 CHANGI REDEFINED

Completed in 2008, Changi Airport

Terminal 3 departed from the

concrete boxes of the past and set a

new standard for contemporary

airport design. Its huge volumes

are enlivened through the interplay

of voids and spaces, a feeling

of openness and transparency, as

well as the presence of water and

abundant greenery.

AVIATION

77

2.15


CPGairport has completed over

50 airport and related projects.

2.16

AVIATION

79

nal of the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia.

In Vietnam alone, CPGairport has designed over 16 domestic

and international airports. Several have won awards, including

the CanTho and CamRanh International Terminals,

which clinched the 2018 National Architecture Awards given

out by the Vietnam Association of Architects. That year,

CPGairport also completed the Van Don International Airport

in Quang Ninh province. It is the first greenfield airport in Vietnam,

developed by a private company that is also the airport

operator. Built to attract more visitors to the special economic

zone and the UNESCO World Heritage site, Ha Long Bay, the

airport can handle 2.5 million passengers a year. The design

also includes a provision for doubling the airport’s capacity in

the future.

The team from CPGairport spent time on the ground to discover

Van Don’s unique qualities, including its magnificent

limestone outcrops and the traditional construction of the sailboats

that dot Ha Long Bay. These inspired the architecture of

the terminal. It has a distinctive jaunty sail-like roof at the airside,

while at the kerbside are struts and ties projecting from

the pier-like feature columns of the generously glazed canopy.

Supporting the long-span roof is an ingenious structural design

executed by a team of engineers led by the Senior Vice President

(Airport Infrastructure) at CPGairport, Er. Kueh Lip

Kuang. They devised an innovative solution for the roofs to be

sturdy enough to withstand seismic and strong wind loads.

2.16 VAN DON BECKONS

The landside forecourt of Van Don

International Airport is an inviting

light-filled space under a vast canopy

propped up by rugged stone columns

recalling the limestone outcrops

of Ha Long Bay. Its suspended

timber trellis cast interesting

patterns on the stone floor, Koi

pool, landscaped planters and timber

deck seats.


2.17

AVIATION

81

2.17 OASIS OF GREEN RESPITE

The new 9-mppa Islamabad International

Airport started operations

in May 2018. Wing courtyards

welcome visitors into the spacious

and airy sky-lighted terminal,

which wraps around a large, landscaped

courtyard creating a sundappled

interior.

2.18 DISTINCTLY DHAKA

The upcoming Hazrat Shahjalal International

Airport has a striking

composition of arched volumes under

a filigree-like multi-coloured

arched ceiling. It responds to the

Bangladeshis’ sensibilities for colour

and is reflective of the vibrant

local textiles industry.

“We carefully modelled a structural system comprising a series

of tapered I-beams with specially-designed struts and connections

to enhance structural stability and stiffness for the

kerbside canopy. These are also sufficiently strong and achieved

a tighter congruency between surface and structure, thereby

imparting a lightness to the steel and glass composition,” says

Er. Kueh.

In 2019, Van Don was named “Asia’s Leading New Airport

2019” by the World Travel Awards (WTA) Asia & Oceania.

“It is a testament of the know-how of CPGairport’s multidisciplinary

team of airport planners, architects and engineers,

which is the cornerstone of its ability to plan and design to

world standards,” says the Executive Vice President (CPGairport)

at CPG Consultants, Ar. Rohani Baharin.

As a leading player in the aviation sector, CPGairport takes

on more than just design projects. The division also deployed a

project advisory and site supervisory team to support the client

in implementing the Hamad International Airport in Qatar,

which was completed in 2014. Today, it continues to develop

airports that function efficiently and satisfy the need for physical

convenience and comfort, underlined by the notion of

“place-making”. In the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, works are

underway to expand the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport

2.18

2.19


AVIATION

83

“CPGairport will continue

to create designs that will

distinguish from generic

solutions yet possess

qualities to stay relevant in

the future.”

Ar. Rohani Baharin

Executive Vice President (CPGairport)

CPG Consultants

2.19 SHADES OF MEKONG

Long Thanh International Airport

in Vietnam features a roof inspired

by the palm trees that proliferate

the Mekong Delta. Its gracefully

folded radiating segments flare out

towards the airside like sheltering

foliage, supporting a design that

won first prize in a competition.


2.20

with a new 3-storey terminal. It is designed with a tribute to

arches prevalent in Islamic architecture and culturally current

in the Muslim country. The main roof ceiling forms large spanning

arches supported by fluted columns that extend elegantly

upwards to form an intricate latticework ceiling reminiscent of

the locally produced textile patterns. The vaulted surfaces extend

from the kerbside to the airside, unifying the entire terminal

with a distinctive visual presence that becomes an integral

experience of the interior and the exterior form.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has momentarily disrupted

the aviation industry, CPGairport is forging ahead to complete

projects it recently won. In Malaysia, it has finished the

design for the expansion of the Penang International Airport.

Its design, which won an international design competition,

blends the existing and the new with coherence and unity while

boosting the airport’s ability to handle a higher capacity than

projected. The expansion introduces an updated terminal with

a new image, yet with sympathetic proportions to the existing

one. Other projects underway include the Xiamen Xiang’an International

Airport in China, which has a capacity of 45 million

passengers per annum (mppa), and the new 20-mppa Terminal

AVIATION

85

3 of Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Vietnam’s Ho Chi

Minh City.

Regardless of their size, future airports will be held up by designs

that enable passenger experience to be both seamless and

touchless, says Ar. Rohani. With people becoming more connected

with technology, especially personalising experiences

via mobile devices, the designs by CPGairport will strive for

greater flexibility to adapt to new technologies through a customer-centric

approach. As airports remain a statement of local

prestige, she also believes that a distinct architecture will remain

the essence for each airport.

“Paramount to future airport designs would be the flexibility

in the physical structures of airports to respond to new challenges

that are emerging all the time. Our airport division has

the accumulated and collective intelligence in airport planning

and design to inform future projects,” Ar. Rohani says.

“CPGairport will continue to create designs that will distinguish

from generic solutions yet possess qualities to stay relevant

in the future.”

2.20 BEYOND THE REQUISITES

The latest addition to Vietnam’s

Tan Son Nhat International Airport

is this 20-mppa Terminal 3.

It will create a new identity for the

airport with its outward, gentle

and sweeping arched form. The

dynamic geometry of roofs and

linear skylights animate the spaces

within the terminal.

2.21 ‘JIAGENG’ STYLE

Xiamen Xiang’an International Airport

in China won first prize in a design

competition with a long low

tiered-roof terminal in deference to

the Xiamen vernacular design style

known as “Jiageng architecture”.

2.21

86

BUILDING

COMMUNITIES

After Singapore’s independence, the government spent much of the nation’s early

years building up its functional needs. In the early days, public projects were often

supported by public funds and subjected to the rigour of prudence and cost performance.

As the island transformed into a global metropolis, the scope of such public

projects have also evolved to cater to society’s rising aspirations.

As a corporation in the new millennium, CPG has ventured into residential, commercial

and leisure projects to broaden its capabilities as an urban solutions provider.

Having contributed in making Singapore a sustainable and liveable city, CPG distilled

a distinct approach to designing green and people-friendly environments that

are more relevant to the current world.

88 BUILDING COMMUNITIES

Residential

The corporatisation of CPG in 1999 opened new markets and

opportunities for the former government agency. Among them

was the design and management of residential projects, which

it started pursuing to become a total urban solutions provider.

Over the last two decades, the efforts have paid off in the form of

its wide-ranging residential portfolio in Singapore. They range

from public housing developments like Park Central @ Ang Mo

Kio to condominiums such as The Regency @ Tiong Bahru. The

corporation has also completed upmarket residences such as

Verdure, and over 20 bungalow projects in Singapore’s prestigious

oceanfront residential enclave, Sentosa Cove.

“We were latecomers to residential design in Singapore, but

we built up knowledge and experience by growing regionally,”

says CPG Corporation’s Group Chief Innovation Officer, Ar. Tan

Shao Yen.

Since joining CPG in 2001, the former public housing architect

has spearheaded many residential projects, which have

grown to overseas markets such as China, Vietnam and Malaysia.

The corporation has found particular success in China

where there has been a growing appetite for property and

homes. In almost every city in China—be it Shanghai, Wuhan,

Tianjin or Beijing—there are residences designed by CPG, says

Ar. Tan.

“In the process, we have served a diverse range of clients

from multinationals to local Chinese developers. We have also

covered a wide variety of projects, from luxurious villas to super

high-rise apartments and even innovative products such as

mixed-used villas,” he adds.

In the early years, what attracted many Chinese clients to

CPG was how it intuitively integrated landscape and connectivity

into a residential development. The design approach led to

early breakthrough projects, Huzuoan and Jiacheng Apartments

by the Lake, which introduced waterfront living in modern

high-rise towers to Suzhou. More recently, CPG introduced

the idea of “vertical zoning” in the capital of Hunan by developing

the Changsha Beichen Super High-rise Condominium. The

fenceless development amid a densely urban commercial setting

comprises three apartment towers with large garden areas

and is divided into two distinct zones. A commercial zone at the

street level consists of shops that provide convenience to the

residents while adding vibrancy to the city. Above it, the apartment

blocks are connected by bridges to offer a green and pedestrianised

community zone for the residents’ leisure needs.

Changsha Beichen also shattered the city’s traditional

140-metre height limit for buildings. Its 170-metre super highrise

design with a dense 5.2 plot ratio was achieved by CPG

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3.1


3.1

3.1 PIONEER IN CHINA

In 2004, CPG broke new ground in

China’s private residential market

with the Huzuoan development.

The contemporary design of the

residences was unlike traditional

high-end developments in the country

that opted for pseudo-European

styles. The residences are also connected

with the neighbouring Jinji

Lake to create a green and liveable

residential.

3.2

3.2 HOMES WITH VIEWS

The Regency’s two 35- and 34-storey

towers stand out in the low-rise

estate of Tiong Bahru in Singapore.

Over 80 per cent of its 158 units enjoy

spectacular 270-degree views of

the city, the Central Business District

and its harbour.

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91

working closely with the developer and local authorities. The

resulting development reached optimal real estate returns for

the developer, established a new icon for the city and offered

residents a liveable home with panoramic views of Hunan’s famous

Xiang River.

“The strength of CPG’s residential design team is our ability

to integrate efficiently and effectively the local cultural context,

including regulatory and market conditions, with modern international

ideas,” says Managing Director of CPG Consultants

(Shanghai) Ar. Lee Joon Shin.

In Malaysia, the corporation has employed a similar approach

to developing the second tallest residential tower in Johor

Bahru, Setia Sky 88. The super high-rise development completed

in 2014 is made up of three towers between 55 to

60-storeys and stands out not just for its height but also its design.

The apartments are designed as semi-detached homes in

the skies with views of Singapore and Johor. They are complemented

with over 50 different amenities, ranging from pools

and spas to gourmet kitchens.

“Designing the first super high-rise residential development

in Johor, where preferences at that time were for landed property,

was a great challenge,” says the Managing Director of CPG

Signature, Ar. Kuan Chee Yung, who led the project then. “But

we branded it as a new lifestyle, and it worked. The first phase of

the twin towers sold out over its launch weekend.”

Beyond standalone residences, CPG has ventured into designing

townships too. As the key brand and design advisor for

Malaysian developer Eco World Development Group Berhad,

the corporation master-planned and designed various townships

in Johor, Selangor and Perai. In 2015, CPG also partnered

with the Titanium Group to develop and brand the Saradise

Kuching Township in the capital of Sarawak. By collaborating

with the local community, the design team created commercial

facilities such as a shopping mall featuring the best food concepts

in Kuching. It also ran a “Kuching for Me” campaign to

engage residents and those living in the vicinity.

“The most fulfilling aspect was the strategic engagement of

the local community,” says Ar. Kuan. “Such co-development of

master plans and products with the Malaysian developers and

other stakeholders has allowed CPG to expand our design planning

to encompass the community as community solutionists.”

Supporting CPG’s residential team is the corporation’s subsidiary,

CPG Facilities Management (CPG FM), with its longstanding

experience in managing estates and townships in Singapore.

Since 2000, CPG FM has looked after numerous public

housing towns, where over 80 per cent of the residents in the

city-state live. It has maintained as well as rejuvenated estates

such as Ang Mo Kio and Choa Chu Kang. As part of the latter’s

3.3 LUXURIOUS INTEGRATION

Verdure @ Holland Park turns a

linear strip with a steep terrain

into a quiet landscaped oasis offering

housing in the form of

3-storey semi-detached houses

and 5-storey apartment blocks.

3.3


3.4

Some 482 residential

units designed for the

Gurka Cantonment in

Singapore during the

early 2000s were one of

the earliest residential

projects by CPG.

efforts to become an Eco-Town, for instance, environmentallyfriendly

initiatives such as installing LED lamps and solar panels

are being implemented around the estate. Choa Chu Kang

residents are also encouraged to participate in community gardening

and recycling.

“Our team has two decades of experience in township management

and have developed expertise in providing top-notch

services to create a clean, comfortable, quality and safe environment

for residents and the greater community,” says the Chief

Executive Officer of CPG FM, Mr. Seng Joo How. “Many overseas

delegates who have visited our estates were very impressed with

the quality of work that we have put in to manage, maintain and

transform the living environment.”

With capabilities in the entire spectrum of residential development—from

planning towns to designing residences as well

as managing and maintaining them—CPG has been able to offer

a holistic approach. Consider the Shenzhen Longhua Talent

Housing, which the corporation is undertaking in China to develop

high-quality and affordable housing to help the country’s

“Silicon Valley” attract and retain talents. CPG and Shenzhen

Mingrun won an international design competition by proposing

a compact, green and liveable residential estate based on

insights from the Singapore housing experience.

The Shenzhen apartments sit on a 14.3-hectare brownfield

site, which comprises a former bicycle factory atop a small hill

and a series of terraced ground plains. Surrounding the development

is also a community park and several schools, which

have generated traffic growth beyond what the existing narrow

and heavily used roads can accommodate. CPG’s multidisciplinary

team of architects, urban designers, landscape designers,

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3.4 INTEGRATED LIVING

The Park Central @ AMK turns the rooftop of its

multi-storey car park into an over 100-metre

landscaped community deck for residents living

in the four blocks of 30-storey residential towers—an

integrated solution that overcame the

tight 1.68-hectare site.

3.4

3.5


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95

“The strength of CPG’s

residential design team is our

ability to integrate efficiently

and effectively the local cultural

context, including regulatory

and market conditions, with

modern international ideas.”

Ar. Lee Joon Shin

Managing Director

CPG Consultants (Shanghai)

traffic planners, transport engineers and facility managers

worked closely with the client and local authorities to resolve

such complex conditions.

To address the critical issue of heavy traffic stemming from

the new residences, they proposed a transit-oriented development

comprising a bus interchange and car parks for residents

and the rest of the neighbourhood. The apartment towers will

also be connected to the surrounding community through various

environmental decks, a popular concept in Singapore. These

will seamlessly integrate the development’s semi-private communal

green spaces with the public park and the neighbouring

school field. Finally, a neighbourhood centre will be part of the

multi-modal transportation hub to provide retail, food and services

for the residents and the larger community. In this way, the

3.5 A GREEN LIFE

The upcoming Shenzhen Longhua

Talent Housing seamlessly blends

a public community park with the

surrounding residential blocks,

creating a green and biophilic environment

for living.


development would serve as a hub to nurture community

interactions, says Senior Vice President of CPG FM Mr.

Clarence Tan, who oversees facilities management for

townships.

“Armed with our experience in maintaining and managing

towns in Singapore, we ensured that community

spaces are located and built meaningfully to meet the

needs of individuals as well as the community living nearby.

It also fosters better bonding among residents and tenants

of the shops,” he says.

Such awareness for community building is what makes

a CPG residential project more than just a real estate development

with beautiful apartments, Ar. Tan adds.

“As new developments are added to an existing community,

the design must not only overcome the challenges

of the site and optimise the opportunities, but it should

also contribute by shaping and improving the urban characteristics

of the local community,” he says.

Such an approach is why residential developments in

Singapore are so successful. Ar. Tan and his team also

strive to achieve similar success by weaving together different

aspects of an urban system in their projects.

“We have successfully exported planning and architectural

ideas, well-validated by generations of public housing

estates and residential communities in Singapore, to

create liveable environments overseas,” he says.

“We believe CPG’s residential developments have

strengthened Singapore’s standing as a model of highdensity

living for the world.”

3.6 CONNECTED COMMUNITIES

A neighbourhood centre at the Shenzhen

Longhua Talent Housing will

provide residents with retail, food

and beverage as well as essential services.

It will also be linked to the

neighbouring public park to create a

hangout space for the surrounding

community too.

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97

3.6


Commercial

Serviced apartments as a small home office. An office tower

wrapped with greenery from ground to roof. A shopping mall

where the community comes to gather and bond. These projects

exemplify how CPG designs commercial developments

with more than numbers in mind. By strategically integrating

different functions and types of spaces, the corporation has

continually created innovative designs that bring new value to

its clients and users.

Consider the Pan Pacific Serviced Suites, a 16-storey tower

that offers a “live-and-work” concept just a five-minute walk

from Singapore’s retail street, Orchard Road. In the mid-2000s,

UOL Group hired CPG to replace its ageing office tower with a

new development suited for its prime location. Ar. Tan Shao

Yen and his commercial team proposed blending the small-office,

home-office (SOHO) concept with services such as housekeeping

and laundry. They believed such a development would

attract the growing number of overseas professionals coming to

Singapore for consulting work or to start a business. Instead of

renting separate offices and apartments, the new arrivals could

live and work in the same place.

The 120 luxury suites and six penthouses in the 16-storey

tower are designed for easy reconfiguration to suit this dualuse.

Each apartment features movable partitions and adaptable

furnishings for both work and living. They also have access to

everyday amenities such as a boutique spa, health club, fitness

centre and gym, and “urban living rooms” with vertical green

gardens at different tower levels that offer city views. The entire

building comes wrapped in a meticulously crafted facade lined

with LED to add another distinction to the Orchard-Somerset

Road skyline.

“This was when the live-and-work concept was completely

novel. It was a tight and challenging site, but we developed a

product targeted at a very niche and growing market,” says Ar.

Tan, who is CPG Corporation’s Group Chief Innovation Officer.

As the suites were built over a brownfield site and adjacent

to an existing underground train system, CPG engineers had to

overcome various challenges to realise the design. Instead of relying

on the piles from the previous buildings, which had questionable

integrity, the team worked around them while being

mindful not to transfer loads to the train tunnels. The project’s

then supervising engineer, Er. Tan Cheng Chuah, recalls how

arduous the process was.

“I was on-site every day for five months in case anything went

wrong. Because the Somerset station tunnel was only three metres

below our site, we had to be very careful about demolition

and construction,” says Er. Tan, now the Managing Director of

CPG subsidiaries, Construction Professionals and PM Link.

But the project was an exciting one as it was one of the earliest

commercial developments for the newly corporatised CPG.

Unlike typical public sector projects, which focused on functional

purposes, workflows, security and cost-effectiveness, private

developers are more sensitive to optimising commercial

values and their customers’ experience, adds Ar. Tan.

“When we worked on Pan Pacific, the developer arranged for

their operators to provide inputs so that we can understand

their needs. The design would then seek to optimise both their

performance and enhance customer experience,” he says.

One example was shifting the check-in lobby of the suites

from the ground floor to the Sky Lounge at the tower’s 11th storey.

The change was prompted by the government’s planning

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3.7

3.8


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101

3.7 LIVE, WORK AND PLAY

Pan Pacific Serviced Suites pioneered

the live-and-work concept in

Singapore’s Orchard Road. The serviced

apartments for short- and

long-term stays are designed for

both living and working. The tower

is located just five minutes away

from the surrounding retail and entertainment

amenities.

3.8

3.8 A GREEN WORKHORSE

Solaris is a pioneering example of

how biophilic design can benefit

the workplace. The office tower in

one-north brings abundant natural

daylight and offers workers

views of the surroundings. The

15-storey building is also wrapped

in greenery, including a 1.5-kilometre

terrace garden that starts

from its ground and spirals to its

rooftop.

requirement of a through-block link in its neighbouring development,

which constrained the available space on the ground.

Ar. Tan and his team turned the need to travel to the lobby into

a welcoming experience by using a series of compact, dark-coloured

spaces with restraint lighting.

“The experience grants visitors a respite from the hustle and

bustle of Orchard Road. As you finally step out of the elevator

into the Sky Lounge, and the space suddenly opens up, there’s a

sense of arriving at an urban living room, a home away from

home,” explains Ar. Tan.

In Solaris, CPG redefined another type of commercial development.

This office tower looks nothing like the typical steeland-glass

variety. Instead, it marries nature and the workplace

in a biophilic design to serve the info comms, media, science,

engineering research and clean-tech development industries.

The proposal by CPG and T.R. Hamzah & Yeang won a competi-


tion organised by industrial developer JTC Corporation to create

a new kind of office building for Singapore’s high-tech industrial

park at one-north.

Completed in 2012, Solaris was the first building in Singapore

to exceed a green plot ratio by more than 11—the number

of times the development’s areas occupied by greenery is more

than its site. Such a high density was attained through various

green features, including a 1.5-kilometre spiral terrace garden

that runs from the basement of the 15-storey tower to its rooftop.

The continuous landscaping enhances biodiversity by allowing

different species to move within the building. A series of

green terraces cascading towards the ground serves as an extension

to the neighbouring one-north Park.

The lush environment of the building is supported by a

facade that is designed with a “cloak of louvres” to help the

greenery thrive while reducing solar heat gain. A large skywell

also connects its two towers with louvres that are controlled by

rain sensors to let in natural light and ventilation. Such an open

environment, coupled with the open-plan offices inside, demonstrate

how workspaces can be designed to be welcoming,

creative and productive, says the Managing Director of CPG Signature,

Ar. Kuan Chee Yung, who worked on the project.

“Our approach was to bring nature into the indoors so that

people are never quite detached from the outdoors,” says Ar.

3.9

“The new expectation of

commercial developments is

to envision environmental and

social agendas that can bring

in multiple benefits for all.”

Ar. Tan Shao Yen,

Group Chief Innovation Officer

CPG Corporation

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3.9 NATURALLY PRODUCTIVE

The large sky well between the two

towers of Solaris has louvres activated

by rain sensors. The design brings

in natural daylight and ventilation,

creating an open and welcoming environment

for more productive work.

11 times the green areas as

compared to the original site—

is what makes the design of

Solaris sustainable and a 2009

winner of the BCA Green

Mark Platinum Award.

Kuan. “Solaris set the stage where the restorative power of daylight,

natural ventilation, verdant flora and vibrant fauna can be

brought into the work environment.”

CPG’s insights from its commercial projects in Singapore

have been exported overseas to China, Vietnam, Dubai and Malaysia.

The corporation has gained considerable success in Chinese

cities where rapid urbanisation has led to a growing demand

for developments ranging from residences to commercial

facilities. Of particular interest to Chinese developers are

mixed-used developments such as Joy City, a CPG project in

Beijing’s retail district of Xidan. In 2008, the corporation

brought together a hotel, offices, cinemas, retail and a theatre

into a single development—a pioneering model that has become

popular across the country with the growth of residential

towns, says Ar. Tan.

“In China, many earlier residential districts were not adequately

supported by commercial and social facilities because

the investment returns were not as quick, and commercial

pressure overshadowed any understanding of their importance,”

he says.

Over the past two decades, Chinese government officials

and developers began looking outside of the country for ideas

to improve its towns, and CPG was able to introduce one-stop

commercial facilities that would address economic, social and

recreational needs.

“We introduced the success of Singapore’s public housing

towns, in which the residential developments were well sup-


3.10

3.10

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ported by a town centre and several neighbourhood centres.

Many developers were convinced and took up the ideas,” Ar.

Tan says.

A recent example is the Changyang Funmix Shopping Mall

completed by CPG in 2014 for the Fangshan residential district

in Beijing. It consists of two 4-storey buildings that are linked by

a naturally-lit internal atrium and two basement car parks. Inside

the mall are a mix of district outlets and seven anchor tenants—including

a hypermart, cineplex, sports department

store and furniture store—making it a one-stop, family-oriented

recreational hub. Around the development are a series of

outdoor spaces, including gardens, plazas and playscapes,

which encourage residents to hang out and socialise.

The mall is an example of a socially-driven commercial development

that will increasingly be a future model, Ar. Tan predicts.

As cities look towards sustainability and how to use their

limited land better, projects are increasingly being assessed by

how they can catalyse urban growth and social health, rather

than simply being inward-looking spaces for commercial activities.

This is especially so in China, where developers must

convince the state to obtain access to land and resources for

their projects.

“The Chinese government sees real estate developments as

a financial means to do social good. A new development has to

benefit the city, be it creating jobs or providing social services

like healthcare,” Ar. Tan says.

CPG’s extensive experience in public projects offers an edge

in producing designs that are not just commercially viable but

can also serve the greater good.

“Gone are the old days when developers would simply compute

the returns and ask architects to design a desirable building,”

concludes Ar. Tan. “The new expectation of commercial

developments is to envision environmental and social agendas

that can bring in multiple benefits for all.”

3.10 A NEIGHBOURHOOD HUB

The Changyang Funmix Shopping

Mall in Fangshan, Beijing, injects

vibrancy into the surrounding residential

district. Its retail facilities

and landscaped outdoor spaces attract

families to hang out, akin to

heartland malls and neighbourhood

centres in Singapore.

3.11

3.11 A VIBRANT MIX

Completed in 2011, The Rochester

is a mixed-used development that

combines a variety of residences—

from a 37-storey residential tower

to a 4-storey block of apartments—

with an 8-storey commercial podium

and a 25-storey hotel.


Leisure

At this clubhouse in Singapore, it is not just about playing a

sport or lounging by the pool. There are also enrichment spaces

such as a dance studio and a childcare centre, and entertainment

options like restaurants, cafes and shops. Such “Learn”

and “Enjoy” elements combine with traditional “Play” facilities

in a clubhouse to create a leisure centre for “Edutainment”.

The unusual concept behind the SAFRA Toa Payoh Clubhouse

is the work of CPG. In 2012, it completed this new complex

to replace the first such permanent recreational facility for

Singapore’s national servicemen and their families. As SAFRA’s

members’ interests have changed over the last three decades,

CPG set out to develop a next-generation clubhouse for SAFRA

to better meet current needs.

The new 4-storey building in Toa Payoh has three times the

floor area, allowing for double the number of enrichment facilities

and quadruple the dining options. They are organised

around a central space where the swimming pool is, and the facilities

are enclosed by a feature wall with a circulation spine.

The different facilities for “Learn”, “Enjoy” and “Play” are arranged

along the spine to generate synergies between different

users.

“One of the key concepts for SAFRA Toa Payoh is to promote

family bonding through the design. By organising the indoor

facilities around the swimming pool and through clever juxtaposition,

we created visual connections between spaces used by

grandparents, parents and children,” says the Director of Projects

(Architecture) at CPG Consultants, Ar. Lee Soo Khoong,

who was part of the design team.

This approach proved to be immediately popular with the

community, and its success led to SAFRA leaning on the same

concept for the refurbishment and development of its other

clubhouses.

SAFRA Toa Payoh adds to CPG’s growing portfolio of leisure

developments since its corporatisation in 1999. Such projects

were few and far between in its early years when the then government

agency was preoccupied with building up Singapore’s

functional infrastructure. However, as the demand for recreation

and leisure grew with the city-state’s development, CPG began

venturing into such projects. An early example was the Singapore

Racecourse, a venue for horse racing completed in 1999.

The project in Kranji offered the corporation a rare opportunity

to work on a variety of building forms, from a 13,000-seater

grandstand to stables for more than 1,000 horses. CPG also designed

several clubhouses for government agencies, including

the Bukit Batok Civil Service Club and the SPANS-JOM Clubhouse

for the country’s police officers.

In the 2000s, the corporation was one of several consultants

commissioned by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to

upgrade Singapore’s food centres, popularly known as hawker

centres. These complexes house many individual cooked food

stalls and were originally set up by the government from the

1970s to resettle the many hawkers that roamed the city streets.

Most came in utilitarian designs that offered a sanitary environment

but little more. A few exceptions offered an al-fresco

dining atmosphere within a garden setting, as seen in the original

Newton Circus and East Coast Lagoon food centres de-

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107

3.12

108

BUILDING COMMUNITIES

signed in the 1970s - a concept of placemaking that CPG has

since adopted from its predecessors. They proved to be a hit

and even became part of Singapore’s tourism campaigns.

As part of NEA’s upgrading programme, CPG returned to rejuvenate

both these food centres and others like the Commonwealth

Crescent Market & Food Centre. It was also asked to design

two brand new ones in Tiong Bahru and Taman Jurong.

“The government wanted a quantum leap in improving the

hawker centre in three main ways. Firstly, to improve the physical

environment with better weather protection and ventilation.

Secondly, to improve back-of-house facilities such as working

spaces and hygiene levels. Finally, to enhance community facilities

including seating configurations and barrier-free access,”

says the Director of Design (Architecture) at CPG Consultants

Ar. Peter How, who was involved in the project. “While a

general approach was taken to resolve these issues, each hawker

centre was also designed in response to its unique context.”

The Tiong Bahru Market & Food Centre, for instance, has a

low-rise design that takes after the neighbourhood’s historic

and distinctive public housing, which bears an aerodynamic

design that was characteristic of modern architecture built

3.12 PLAY, LEARN, ENJOY

The SAFRA Toa Payoh Clubhouse is

designed around an “Edutainment”

concept that brings a variety of enrichment,

entertainment and leisure

elements—including sporting and

gaming facilities; seminar rooms and

childcare centres; as well as restaurants,

barbecue areas and shops—

around a swimming pool.

3.13 A STAR TRACK

The Singapore Racecourse was

built to rehouse the country’s oldest

horse racing club. One of the

key features of this modern complex

in an 81.2-hectare site in Kranjii

is a 5-storey grandstand with a

dramatic stainless steel roof profile

that symbolises powerful horses.

LEISURE

109

3.13

3.12

“With an ageing population and

our recent pandemic experience,

leisure facilities play a crucial role

in overcoming inactivity. More

emphasis is being placed on the

need for open spaces and better

ventilated indoor spaces for

people to feel safe within them.”

Ar. Lee Soo Khoong

Director of Projects (Architecture)

CPG Consultants


3.13

during the 1930s and 1940s. CPG’s new 2-storey building holds

a market with 255 stalls on the ground floor and a food centre

with a seating capacity for up to 1,050 on the second. The latter’s

85 stalls are positioned around a large open seating area to

cater to the hawkers’ request for equal visibility. Meanwhile, the

roof deck serves as a car park.

CPG’s transformation of food centres into leisure destinations

takes another form in the revamped East Coast Lagoon

Food Village next to the sea. The centre is inspired by tropical

vernacular architecture, housing pavilions with overhanging

roofs, open-sided cabanas and lush landscaping in a beach resort-like

setting. Even the tables and seats are finished in natural

timber tops, and they can accommodate the large crowds

who gather at the beach.

“East Coast is not in a residential area like the other food

centres, so we envisioned it as a destination. Our design celebrates

its beach resort setting and makes a visit there an occasion,”

says Ar. How.

As food centres have become a part of Singaporeans’ every-

In the recent two decades,

CPG led and completed

design and upgrading works

for 5 hawker centres.

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111

3.14 COMMUNITY DINING ROOMS

Hawker centres designed by CPG

serve as more than functional spaces

for eating but are expressions of

its place and community. The

Tiong Bahru Market & Food Centre

adopts a modernist design similar

to its surrounding public housing

blocks that were developed in the

1930s and 1940s.

3.15

3.15 BEACHSIDE MEALS

Inspired by its seaside location,

the East Coast Lagoon Food Village

adopts a tropical vernacular

design, with overhanging

roofs and lush landscaping. It offers

visitors a resort-like experience

of beach side dining.

3.15

3.14


3.13


















says Ar. How.

As food centres have become a part of Singaporeans’ every





LEISURE

113










1930s and 1940s.

3.15









3.15

3.14


3.13


















says Ar. How.

As food centres have become a part of Singaporeans’ every

A NATIONAL LEISURE PARK





In the 1970s, Singapore set out to realise a

grand vision of building a leisure park at the

mouth of the Kallang River. The centrepiece

was the National Stadium designed by CPG, a

Brutalist style sporting facility that was the

largest in Southeast Asia when it was completed

in 1973. The over 50,000-seater stadium

subsequently became the venue for many exhilarating

sporting events and gave birth to

the “Kallang Roar” as Singaporeans cheered

its athletes. It also hosted many cultural events

as well as 18 rousing National Day Parades. In

2010, it was demolished to make way for a new

sports complex.

Image credit: PWD Annual Report 1974

LEISURE

115










1930s and 1940s.

3.15









3.15

3.14


3.16

LEISURE

117

day lives, he and his team sought to capture the heart of the community

through distinctive architecture. Their efforts have contributed

to hawker culture becoming inscribed on the UNESCO

list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2020.

“Hawker centres have come a long way from the time when

they were just functional permanent facilities for itinerant

street hawkers to where they are now—a focus for the community

offering more than just food for sustenance,” says Ar. How.

“They should have an inviting look and evoke the community’s

heritage, acting as visual icons in the urban environment of the

neighbourhoods they serve.”

Such an approach continues today in CPG’s latest food centre

in the public housing town of Pasir Ris. The fan-shaped facility

completed in 2015 comes in various nature-inspired finishes,

including timber, raw concrete and greenery. Its facade is

largely porous to maximise natural ventilation. Studies were

3.16 DINING IN A PARK

The architecture of Pasir Ris Central

Hawker Centre is inspired by

its location in a park. Its envelope

maximises natural ventilation;

there are multiple links to the surrounding

parkland; and it is made

with materials such as timber to

connect with nature.

3.16


also done to verify the impact on airflow from construction-related

changes, such as increasing the wall height behind hawker

stalls. The top floor of the 2-storey Pasir Ris Central Hawker

Centre was specifically catered to encourage a younger generation

of hawkers to serve up fresh ideas on Singapore’s hawker

culture so that this national heritage can be nurtured to evolve

and adapt for the future.

Accompanying the hawker centre just next door is the Pasir

Ris Sports Centre. It is an earlier work by CPG, which opened in

2011 as Singapore’s first “green” sports complex. The 1.4-hectare

site contains a range of facilities, including swimming

pools, a 2,000-seat multipurpose sports hall, a gymnasium and

tennis courts. These facilities are kept cool with environmentally-friendly

features such as sunshades to reduce heat gain and

solar panels for energy generation.

Both centres were also designed to seamlessly integrate into

the existing Pasir Ris Town Park that they are a part of. The

hawker centre has landscaping rather than perimeter fencing

LEISURE

119

3.17

3.17

to allow visitors to enjoy “dining in a park”, while its neighbour’s

vertical green walls and lush tropical landscaping support

the concept of “sporting in a park”. By weaving the two facilities

together with the green space, CPG has created a

one-stop leisure destination for residents, says Ar. How.

“The future trend is towards greater integration of these developments

with other uses,” he says. “Although this is a planning

strategy to deal with land scarcity, it also opens up a whole

slew of design possibilities.”

These include offering a diversity of experiences as well as

offering more vibrancy, choices and 24/7 uses. Ar. Lee adds that

these changes will ultimately bring about greater community

bonding and interaction, particularly in the coming future.

“With an ageing population and our recent pandemic experience,

leisure facilities play a crucial role in overcoming inactivity,”

he says. “More emphasis is being placed on the need for

open spaces and better ventilated indoor spaces for people to

feel safe within them.”

3.17 READY, SET, GREEN

Pasir Ris Sports Centre draws inspiration

from its natural green surroundings to create

Singapore’s first “green” sports complex. It

has various environmentally friendly and energy-saving

features such as sunshades, vertical

greenery and high ceilings to create a naturally

cool environment.

120

ENABLING

HEALING

“From the cradle to the grave” is a phrase frequently used at CPG to describe

its wide-ranging work that covers the entire cycle of life in a city. It also describes

the many healthcare and funerary projects that the corporation has undertaken in

Singapore.

As the corporatised entity of the former Public Works Department of Singapore,

CPG has as a part of its heritage, inherited the experience of its predecessors, who

pioneered developments ranging from the city-state’s first hospital to some of its earliest

public crematoria and columbaria. Although serving different functions, they

share a common goal of enabling care by design. Such facilities originally had utilitarian

designs for tackling the logistical needs of nursing the sick or managing the

deceased. However, in recent years, CPG has spearheaded an effort to transform the

once clinical and mournful environments into healing spaces for the body and soul.

Such a shift will become more vital as cities increasingly face an ageing population

and seek to become pandemic resilient. CPG’s wealth of experience in fulfilling

the stringent operational requirements of such facilities, while being people-centric,

helps cities care for their population from the cradle to the grave.

122 ENABLING HEALING

Funerary

Singapore is one of the most liveable cities today, but this would

not have been possible without the state taking care of its deceased.

Since the 1960s, the city has overcome its limited land

size by redeveloping many of its sprawling cemeteries into spaces

for the living. This was made possible by the government encouraging

cremation over burial through the development of

modern funerary facilities.

The first state-owned crematorium was built in 1962 at

Mount Vernon to serve all religions and races. When the demand

for cremation rapidly doubled in the early 1970s, Mount

Vernon was expanded as there were only two other privatelyowned

crematoria. More cremators were added, along with a

new columbarium holding 3,000 niches. The latter came in the

form of 15 simple concrete blocks connected by footpaths surrounded

by a peaceful and green landscape. By 1987, with almost

two-thirds of Singapore’s deceased being cremated,

Mount Vernon was upgraded once again. Two “high-rise”

columbaria for different religions—a 9-storey pagoda and a

2-storey church-style building—were built to increase the number

of niches by over 13,200.

In the late nineties, the Singapore government’s efforts to

make the cremation process more convenient led CPG’s predecessor

to conceptualise and design a funerary for the next generation.

The National Environment Agency commissioned the

corporation to expand the existing Mandai Crematorium and

Columbarium, which was first completed in 1982, and develop

a new crematorium in Choa Chu Kang. Ar. Colin Wu, Senior

Vice President (Architecture) of CPG Consultants, recalls the

brief specifying for more compact developments compared to

Mount Vernon, where the different funerary facilities were

sprawled across a 7.1-hectare site.

“The client had a plan to house everything under one roof.

The need to scale up and accommodate new functions and requirements

meant a breakaway from the old model in Mount

Vernon,” says Ar. Wu, who was then relatively new to CPG as he

had joined in 1995 after graduating from architecture school.

He was part of the team that completed the Mandai Crematorium,

which consists of three different halls to streamline the

cremation process. The first is a Service Hall where families and

friends would arrive with the coffin to hold their final rites.

Thereafter, the coffin is sent through a private corridor to the

Transfer Hall, where the bereaved can continue observing the

procession as they make their way out. At the Viewing Hall

above, the coffin can be viewed for the final time as it is mechanically

transported into the insertion chamber and crematory.

Such a design allowed the crematorium’s four Service Halls to

be quickly vacated while still offering a dignified experience.

“Funerary facilities are unique because we have in mind in-

FUNERARY

123

4.1

4.1


FUNERARY

125

4.2

dividuals who are going through the toughest moment in their

lives,” he says. “The challenge is not just in terms of planning

functions, but also how to engage the next of kin and to give

emotional support.”

Reminiscent of places of worships such as churches and

mosques, each Service Hall in Mandai is designed with a tall

ceiling that culminates with a skylight to maintain a connection

with nature. The halls, which can seat an average of 110 persons,

are clad in natural materials such as wood and stone too.

The Viewing Halls share a similar material language and have

soft furnishings and sound absorbent materials. These details

lighten the feeling of sombreness and offer the bereaved a sense

of comfort and privacy.

“We wanted to allow individuals to see beyond the cremation.

The skylights help direct them to look out and above,” Ar.

Wu explains. “If we keep the halls enclosed, everyone will focus

on the sad moment.”

He witnessed the power of its design during his uncle’s last

rites at the crematorium. The atmosphere in the Service Hall

momentarily lifted his aunt out of her grief, and she commended

Ar. Wu for his “wonderful” work.

4.1 A NEW MODEL

The designs of Mandai Crematorium

and Columbarium in Singapore departed

from previous funerary facilities

such as the sprawling Mount Vernon.

The integrated development comprises

a crematorium with four service halls,

and a columbarium consisting of six

4-storey blocks that house approximately

77,000 niches.

4.2 UPLIFTING THE SOUL

A tall ceiling topped with a skylight

transforms the Service Halls of Mandai

Crematorium and Columbarium into a

comforting space for the bereaved. The

use of natural materials, such as stone

and wood, offers a contemporary interior

appropriate for any religion.

4.1


FUNERARY

127

4.2

dividuals who are going through the toughest moment in

their lives,” he says. “The challenge is not just in terms of planning

functions, but also how to engage the next of kin and to

give emotional support.”


















4.1 A NEW MODEL









77,000 niches.










4.1

RISING TO THE HEAVENS

Singapore’s first state-owned columbarium at Mount Vernon

was designed in 1976 by CPG. It consisted of 15 utilitarian

concrete blocks offering 3,000 niches for storing ashes. As

the demand for cremation grew over the decade, it expanded

Mount Vernon with newer and taller columbarium designs.

In 1987, two “high-rise” columbaria were introduced in

Mount Vernon, including a two-storey church-style design

and nine-storey pagoda tower inspired by Chinese temple

architecture. The latter’s striking design even became an

icon of the area. Mount Vernon was eventually closed in 2018

to make way for a new residential estate and an upcoming

park—the latter designed by CPG.

FUNERARY

129

4.2

dividuals who are going through the toughest moment in their

lives,” he says. “The challenge is not just in terms of planning

functions, but also how to engage the next of kin and to give

emotional support.”


















4.1 A NEW MODEL









77,000 niches.










“To be able to help a next of kin at a tough time like this was

reassuring,” he says.

Next to the crematorium is an equally tranquil columbarium.

It consists of six 4-storey blocks housing 77,000 niches surrounded

by lush greenery and reflecting pools. Ar. Wu and his

team also employed a similar biophilic design for the Choa Chu

Kang Crematorium, which has open-to-sky reflecting pools

weaved into its spaces to bring the connection between heaven

and earth even closer. Both the Choa Chu Kang and Mandai crematoria

won accolades at the Singapore Institute of Architect’s

Architectural Design Awards in 2006.

4.3 ONE WITH NATURE

Lush landscaping helps soften funerary facilities,

turning what are essentially industrial-like

buildings into healing spaces. At

Choa Chu Kang Crematorium, the different

areas were integrated with nature, such as

an open-to-sky reflecting pool to create a

tranquil environment.

4.3

FUNERARY

131

There are 246,000 niches in CPG-designed Mount Vernon,

Mandai and Choa Chua Kang columbarium.

4.3


4.4

FUNERARY

133

Although the need for comfort in funerary facilities is universal,

those in Singapore must also cater to its multi-racial and

multi-religious population. The facilities in Mount Vernon borrowed

architectural styles that overtly referenced different religions,

such as the roofs of Chinese temples and Christian

churches. The designs in Mandai and Choa Chu Kang adopt a

more contemporary language to be more inclusive. However, a

closer look reveals details for serving the funeral traditions of

each religion. These include incense holders in front of niches

for Buddhists and Taoists, and a shower facility in the Service

Hall for Hindus whose rites involve water.

Almost two decades after completing the Mandai Crematorium

and Columbarium, CPG is currently building an extension

to its north. Due to Singapore’s ageing population, the Mandai

North Crematorium addresses the growing demand for better

funerary facilities. Its design follows the guiding principles of

the original facility to ensure a safe, efficient yet dignified cremation,

says Vice President (Architecture) at CPG Consultants

Ar. Pauline Ang.

“On the one hand, a crematorium is similar to an industrial

building. On the other, it is like a place of worship, serving more

than its basic function,” says Ar. Ang, who is leading the project.

The new crematorium will similarly have three different

halls, which will be planned in a more intimate manner. The

Service, Transfer and Viewing Halls will be placed closer together

to reduce walking from one to the next, especially since many

of its visitors are elderly. The proximity is also due to the smaller

site, although the crematorium will have 50 per cent more capacity

than the existing one.

“All the services are on the same level. So, instead of a Viewing

Hall that overlooks the charging in of the coffin into the cremator,

as in the existing Mandai Crematorium, it will be next to

it,” Ar. Ang says.

The new crematorium is also designed to make work easier

for its workers too. It will incorporate a vacuum system to ease

4.4 A PLACE FOR THE LIVING

Choa Chu Kang Columbarium is designed

with courtyard spaces between its 16

blocks to offer intimate and private spaces

for visitors.


the cleaning and gathering of ashes and accommodate automated

guided vehicles (AGVs) to reduce the load of moving coffins

through the building. CPG’s architects worked closely with

its engineers to ensure that these new technologies would be

seamlessly integrated with the design. The AGVs were customised

to meet the hearse and coffin size while ensuring that the

building’s lifts had sufficient clearance for the vehicles to operate

and be maintained, says Vice President (Mechanical & Electrical

Engineering) at CPG Consultants Ms. Ong Yan Xiang.

“Our M&E engineers worked with our architects on the considerations

of providing maintenance via the minimum space

available inside the lift car. We designed and specified the AGVs

to be bi-directional and to come with a towing device in both

directions in case it breaks down inside the lift cars,” she says.

The integration was easier because CPG is handling both

the architecture and engineering aspects of the project, says

Ms. Ong.

4.5 BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH

Modern funerary facilities such as

Choa Chu Kang Crematorium provide

a sense of tranquillity for the

bereaved. Its inspiring design won

a Design Award from the Singapore

Institute of Architects in 2006.

4.6 TO THE SKIES

The light and uplifting steel roof

forms of buildings in Choa Chu

Kang Columbarium hint at the

presence of a world above.

4.5

FUNERARY

135

“Funerary facilities are unique

because we have in mind

individuals who are going

through the toughest moment

in their lives. The challenge is

not just in terms of planning

functions, but also how to

engage the next of kin and to

give emotional support.”

4.6

Ar. Colin Wu

Senior Vice President (Architecture)

CPG Consultants

“Being in the same corporation, we can always consult our

management to achieve a consensus if there is a difference in

views,” she says. “This benefits the project not only in terms of

efficiency but in instances when we encounter issues. We can

resolve them through internal discussions and formulate feasible

solutions.”

Besides enhancing Mandai’s crematorium’s capacity, the

new facility also introduced new ways of managing the deceased.

An inland ash scattering facility within a garden setting

allows the cremated remains to be handled in a dignified manner

similar to sea burial. It is a relatively new process in landscarce

Singapore that eliminates the need for storage.

As urbanisation spreads around the world, Ar. Wu believes

the Singaporean way of caring for the deceased will become

more relevant. The modern funerary facilities developed by

CPG demonstrate how cities can manage their decreased in an

efficient yet dignified manner and ultimately free up land for

more alternative uses.

“As land becomes more expensive in cities, funerary facilities

may increasingly be relocated to remote places or go highrise,”

he says. “What we have done here in Singapore is an excellent

example from which other cities could consider.”


Healthcare

It appeared in media reports almost daily during the COVID-19

pandemic. At the forefront of Singapore’s effort to contain the

pandemic was the National Centre for Infectious Diseases

(NCID)—a building proudly designed by CPG.

The genesis of this containment facility goes back to the

mid-1990s when the government first announced plans to replace

Singapore’s colonial-era Communicable Disease Centre.

Years of deliberation followed, and its design took shape after

2003 when Singapore was hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome

(SARS). CPG was enlisted to assemble temporary isolation

facilities, and the experience proved valuable when it was

appointed to design the NCID, a 330-bed facility capable of containing

a variety of pathogens.

“After the SARS outbreak, many questioned what if it happened

again. The Ministry of Health had the foresight to build

the new centre, whose design was built upon the SARS experience

and our learning from overseas,” says Senior Vice President

(Architecture) of CPG Consultants Ar. Jerry Ong.

Ar. Ong is part of the healthcare team at CPG, which has a

rich heritage of healthcare design lineage for more than a century.

Ar. Ong is part of the healthcare team at CPG, which has a

rich heritage of healthcare design lineage for more than a century.

It stretches back to the late 19th century, with the construction

of the island’s first General Hospital and later, its first privately

funded Tan Tock Seng Hospital. After Singapore gained

independence in 1965, the Public Works Department had

played a crucial role in developing a comprehensive public

healthcare system by designing more hospitals such as the National

University Hospital, as well as the Changi General Hospital

and a network of polyclinics and nursing homes across the

city-state.

The corporation also started designing specialist healthcare

facilities in the 1980s, ranging from the National Skin Centre to

the National Heart Centre. The NCID, completed in 2019, is one

of the most recent additions. It houses 17 isolation wards, including

Singapore’s first High-Level Isolation Unit (HLIU) for

treating high-risk pathogens like haemorrhagic fevers caused

by the Ebola and Marburg viruses, as well as bio-threat agents

such as smallpox and anthrax. The unit mitigates the spread of

infections with a layout designed to segregate the flow of people

and materials. It is also equipped to manage the flow of air-conditioning

through systems for controlling air pressure and has

dedicated pipes for sanitary waste.

As outbreaks are often sudden and differ in impact, NCID’s

wards are flexible in design and can be reconfigured to house

patients of differing severity. They can even be converted into

HEALTHCARE

137

4.7


regular wards during non-pandemic times to support the operations

of the adjacent Tan Tock Seng Hospital. NCID is also

connected to the hospital by a linkway and offers access to the

nearby Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. These connections

are landscaped with greenery and designed to convert to restricted

access areas during a pandemic without affecting

NCID’s operations.

“We have designed each ward in NCID to be modular so that

they can be easily converted from isolation wards to naturallyventilated

rooms. This prevents the facility from becoming a

white elephant in more peaceful times. It also has to be adaptable

because we do not know what an outbreak will throw at

us,” says Ar. Ong.

The complexity of such a design saw CPG’s architects and

engineers collaborating closely to ensure it could still meet the

facility’s strict operational requirements. For instance, areas

had to be identified to design and implement containment features,

including exhaust ducts and high plume fans to process

and expel noxious fumes.

“Although isolation facilities are normally provided within

healthcare facilities such as hospitals, the entire NCID is meant

for isolation. Hence, the air supply and exhaust for the wards,

clinics, screening centre and the mortuary are designed with

this in mind,” says Senior Consultant (Mechanical & Electrical

4.7

HEALTHCARE

139

4.7 CRISIS READY

The National Centre for Infectious

Diseases (NCID) is designed with

wards that can be adapted for various

outbreaks. During non-pandemic

times, they also serve spillovers from

the neighbouring Tan Tock Seng Hospital

that is connected to it through

an aboveground linkway (left).

4.8 HEALTHCARE INNOVATION

NCID was co-developed with a 9-storey

Ng Teng Fong Centre for Healthcare

Innovation consisting of an auditorium,

seminar rooms, training

spaces and laboratories. The building

also serves to screen the infectious

disease facility from the adjacent

condominiums across the road.

4.8

Engineering) of CPG Consultants Er. Patrick Lam.

There was a need for adequate redundancy in case things

went wrong too, he says.

“Not only did we test out the air pressure regime for normal

operations, but also different scenarios of failure to make sure

that the air from the patient areas will be contained even if there

is an equipment malfunction.”

These efforts were put to the test less than four months after

NCID officially opened in September 2019. The centre began

admitting patients the very next day after Singapore reported its

first COVID-19 case. Over the following months, NCID played a

vital role in helping the country contain the pandemic, said Sin-


gapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on the centre’s first

anniversary.

“Never was the opening of a medical facility so timely and fortuitous,”

he wrote in a post on his Facebook page. “Without this,

our response to the pandemic would have been very different.”

Besides supporting Singapore’s healthcare system in developing

new capabilities to stay resilient, CPG also endeavours to

design hospitals that keep up with the times. In 2005, its healthcare

team participated in a competition to design a new hospital

in Yishun. The corporation tasked its young architects to

build upon its legacy by reimagining the typology for the future.

“We realised, after taking up the task, that our senior colleagues

had already done a scheme. However, it was not pushing

boundaries, and our leadership team encouraged us to be

bolder in our approach with fresh perspectives,” recalls Ar. Ong,

who had then joined the corporation barely two years after finishing

architecture school.

After visiting previous hospitals designed by CPG, he and the

team realised how the typology needed to evolve with Singapore’s

ageing population. Growing demand for more extended

rehabilitation periods meant hospitals had to become more

hospitable—which aligned with the client’s vision too.

“The CEO of Alexandra Health always says the way healthcare

is practised today is like a repair workshop where people

come with a thousand and one problems to fix,” says Ar. Ong.

“But he believes healthcare should be about promoting health

4.9

HEALTHCARE

141

4.9 HEALING WITH NATURE

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) opens to

the existing Yishun Pond to create “A hospital

in a garden, a garden in a hospital”.

The design embraces the belief that nature

can help create a healing environment.

KTPH is home to 66 species

of birds, 70 species of plants,

83 species of butterflies, 26

specifies of dragonflies and

100 species of fish.

4.6

4.10


HEALTHCARE

143

“At CPG, we believe healthcare

facilities should contribute to a

healing environment. Medical

staff and equipment are crucial

to the recovery of patients, but so

is the surrounding environment.”

Ar. Jerry Ong


CPG Consultants

and wellness so that people will adopt healthy habits and lifestyles

and have fewer health problems.”

On a 3.4-hectare site next to Yishun Pond, CPG collaborated

with RMJM Hillier to design a “nature would nurture” hospital.

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) departs from conventional facilities

that are closed for infection control by orienting the

buildings to overlook a central garden courtyard and keeping

them open towards the pond. Verdant greenery is found across

the hospital from basement to rooftop to realise the vision of “A

hospital in a garden, a garden in a hospital”. The landscaping

extends to the communal areas along Yishun Pond, transforming

the concrete stormwater catchment pond into a central feature.

The hospital’s garden elements also include “audible water”

ponds as part of the healing experience—leading some to

dub KTPH a “Medical Shangri-La”.

The green credentials are bolstered with environmentallyfriendly

designs. Louvres on the facade direct sunlight and

channel prevailing winds through the interior to create a wellventilated

building. At the same time, the internal courtyard

4.10 GROUND UP GREEN

Unlike previous hospitals in Singapore that

are enclosed around an air-conditioned

atrium, KTPH embraces greenery from

landscaping to building design. There is

even a rooftop community garden, which is

maintained by volunteers living nearby.


gardens are cooled with cold air from the hospital’s operations.

These features do away with the need to air-condition public

areas, saving on energy costs. In addition, there are solar panels

on the roof to heat water for the hospital’s use, and its autoirrigation

system for the landscaping utilises water from Yishun

Pond.

“The healing experience should not be limited to the four

walls of the hospital,” says Senior Principal Landscape Architect

of CPG Signature Ar. Glenn Bontigao, who worked on the

project.

He adds that KTPH’s landscaping has benefitted its patients

and the many residents who live around it.

“The gardens of KTPH have created more community engagement

by attracting nature enthusiasts and students looking

for conducive study environments,” says Ar. Bontigao.

4.11 HEART OF A DISTRICT

Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH)

and Jurong Community Hospital connects

their dense urban context with an

aboveground walkway that links to the

nearby train station, shopping malls and

office towers. This inclusive design turns

the hospitals into community assets.

4.11

HEALTHCARE

145

Since its official opening in 2010, the hospital’s groundbreaking

design has been widely celebrated, receiving Singapore’s

most prestigious design accolade, the President’s Design

Award in 2011. CPG has since explored this model further with

other projects such as the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NT-

FGH) and Jurong Community Hospital. The two-tier facility

completed in 2015 is a collaboration with HOK and studio505

to address an ageing society’s need to traverse between acute to

step-down care. However, while KTPH is in a scenic residential

estate, NTFGH is part of a high-density commercial hub in the

west of Singapore.

“The challenge was to bring some of the ideas from KTPH

into this project that was in a high-density urban setting,” says

Senior Vice President (Architecture) of CPG Consultants Ar.

Frankie Lim Lip Chuan, who was part of the project team.


4.12

HEALTHCARE

147

CPG once again turned conventional wisdom on its head. Instead

of the traditional rectangular ward where only two of the

five or six beds faced the windows, the healthcare team came up

with a herringbone layout so that every bed would have its own

window.

Besides its unusual design, NTFGH harnesses the innate

power of nature for healing as manifested in KTPH. Facade

planters on the towers enhance the window view offered to every

patient. They also double up as simpler and sustainable access

for the cleaning and maintenance of the facade. The building

itself houses several gardens so that patients can be wheeled

out for fresh air, sunlight and greenery. Finally, the hospital is

connected to the neighbouring train station, shopping malls

and office towers via an overhead walkway—transforming it

into the heart of the district that bustles with life and activities.

“If you imagine that a hospital is a place where sick people

are treated, then who will dare to use the overhead bridge that

connects the hospital to the nearby buildings? It could have

been a challenge, but KTPH showed Singaporeans that the hospital

could be a community asset while being a place for healing,”

says Ar. Lim.

Such a reinvention of hospitals is part of a paradigm shift in

the healthcare sector from simply providing “healthcare” to

creating “healthy cities”. Rather than singular health facilities,

developers and governments increasingly recognise the importance

of designing environments to support people’s health

and wellness. For instance, CPG is working with FARM Architects

on an upcoming nursing home in Singapore that is adjacent

to a new public housing precinct, a secondary school and a

park connector. To counter public stigma against such facilities,

the West Coast Link Nursing Home will have a fenceless

ground floor to encourage nearby residents and students to interact

with seniors in its daycare centre.

Another ongoing CPG project in China brings together different

communities in a healthcare setting. The Kunming

South High-Speed Rail Station Health City offers a comprehensive

range of wellness amenities—an acute hospital, a rehabilitation

hospital and multi-generational community care programmes.

These are connected to a commercial mall, a hotel, a

rail station and a university campus.

“To create a healthy community, it has to start from the

homes,” explains Ar. Lim. “At CPG, we started with designing

hospitals and are now moving into community care and healthy

living.”

Regardless of the type of healthcare development, the COV-

ID-19 pandemic has demonstrated a need for adaptable designs

to meet a variety of scenarios, Ar. Ong says. It requires architects

and engineers to address a dizzying array of technical

complexities, but one should not forget that they must ultimately

benefit the well-being of people.

“At CPG, we believe healthcare facilities should contribute

to a healing environment. Medical staff and equipment are crucial

to the recovery of patients, but so is the surrounding environment,”

he says.

“Having access to daylight, views, ventilation, landscape,

the tactility… These are all important because we are human

beings.”

4.12 VIEWS FOR ALL

NTFGH’s unique herringbone layout

is designed to “give every patient a

window” in this 700-bed facility. The

design offers patients a view and lowers

the chances of cross-infection.

148

SHAPING

IDENTITIES

Singapore is widely regarded as a liveable city. It is not just the nature that is everpresent

across the entire island, but also the rich and diverse culture it offers that

gives it a distinct sense of place. This is further enhanced by the nurturing learning

environments that help people realise their full potential.

In the early years, national efforts were put into the mass construction of schools

and the greening of the city, as well as the conservation and adaptive reuse of historic

buildings as cultural institutions.

Today, as part of the legacy of the former Public Works Department of Singapore,

CPG continues to undertake projects which support the growth of people, culture

and nature in the hopes of further shaping Singapore’s unique identity: a tropical oasis

with a distinctive skyline that is home to a multicultural society.

150

SHAPING IDENTITIES

Education

If you attended school in Singapore, it would likely have been

one designed by CPG or its predecessors from the public sector.

The hundreds of educational facilities across the city-state,

from primary and secondary schools to junior colleges and tertiary

institutions, are an integral part of the nation’s development

of a comprehensive public education system to nurture

the nation’s only resource: its people.

From the 1940s to the 1960s, Singapore went through several

phases in the development of public education. Schools had

to be built quickly and economically, hence their designs were

modest and modular for mass production. After independence

in 1965, bigger and better-equipped schools were built to train

a new generation. Their designs expanded in size and were

equipped with new facilities for craft, vocational and technical

training. Once cookie-cutter designs also gradually gave way to

distinctive schools that offered memorable spaces for learning.

As Singapore’s education system diversified over the decades,

so has CPG’s school building programme. The expansion

of tertiary education is evident in a slew of new education facilities

that the corporation has worked upon in recent times. They

range from the pod-like towers of The Hive in the Nanyang Technological

University, which encourages collaboration, to the

marine-inspired Deepwater Ocean Basin Building in the National

University of Singapore (NUS), where researchers can

simulate extreme sea conditions for their projects. CPG is also

behind several new institutions for medical studies, including

the expansion and modernisation of NUS’s Yong Loo Lin School

of Medicine and the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, the

first American-style graduate programme in Singapore.

While ensuring that schools in Singapore are designed to

support the objectives of the education system, the team at CPG

remains cognizant of more significant national issues, such as

land scarcity. Its recently completed Eunoia Junior College

(EJC) is the first “high-rise” junior college that responds to the

emerging need for land-use optimisation in the increasingly

built-up city.

“The land size of EJC is a third smaller than existing junior

colleges. We had to plan the facilities vertically while ensuring

that student movement between various levels does not compromise

curriculum time,” says Ar. Tan Pheng Chee, Senior

Vice President (Architecture) at CPG Consultants.

He led CPG’s education team to work with the Ministry of

Education on a new type of campus that would fit the tight

4.2-hectares site. The junior college in Bishan integrates various

facilities into two connected 10- and 12-storey towers and

comprises “elevated learning” platforms organised into three

zones. The “Forum”, made up of the first and second storeys, is

for community and social enrichment with facilities such as the

EDUCATION

151

5.1

152

SHAPING IDENTITIES

5.2

5.1 A GREEN SCHOOL

The facade and internal courtyard of

Eunoia Junior College (EJC) is designed

to maximise natural ventilation

and daylight while ensuring thermal

comfort. Appropriate plants

were selected for the building facades

facing east and west so that they

would flourish.

5.2 ELEVATED LEARNING

The vertical campus has three thematic learning

platforms. The first and second storeys, comprising

the canteen, are for community and social enrichment;

the elevated running track and field on

the fifth storey supports physical and sporting activities.

The ninth and tenth storey promotes

knowledge enrichment with a resource library

that also offers views of the park.

EDUCATION

153

“A good school design can

meet different needs and

provide students with a varied

palate of educational spaces.”

Ar. Tan Pheng Chee


CPG Consultants

hall and studios for music and dance. Supporting the raised

track and field is a set of 23-metre tree-like columns designed by

CPG’s engineers.

“Construction was a challenge because part of the elevated

track and field overhangs above the Kallang River. It was also

built over the future Cross Island Line rail networks, which

will run underneath,” says Er. Kulandaivelu Muthu Kumar,

Senior Principal Engineer (Civil & Structural Engineering) at

CPG Consultants.

“We had to cater for the future train tunnels by installing

tension piles and carry out geotechnical analysis on the pile

foundation to ensure that it would not be impacted by ground

movement and loss in volume.”

Despite its small site, EJC overcame the constraint by integrating

its surroundings into the design. A community club is

co-located within the college—the first in Singapore, allowing

residents in the neighbourhood to access the school’s facilities

and for students to interact with them. The campus also welcomes

the adjacent Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. Its canteen is

placed along the park such that the green landscape seemingly

flows in, while the library is positioned to take in the views of the

park. A new bridge was also built across the Kallang River to

connect the school with the green space and enable “learning

in the park”.

“We capitalised on the strategic advantage of the school being

close to nature and greenery by seeing the park as an extension

of the learning spaces,” says Ar. Tan.

The symbiotic relationship with nature extends into the

building design. EJC is lushly landscaped and has various sustainable

design features. CPG’s engineers reduced the use of

air-conditioning, which makes up a significant part of energy

consumption in schools, by running simulation studies to gencanteen.

The “Arena” on the fifth storey is for physical activities,

with a running track and field raised above the ground. Finally,

the “Curia” on the ninth and tenth storeys house spaces for

knowledge enrichment, including a resource library and breakout

spaces for collaboration.

The elevation of the sporting facilities overcame planning

challenges to achieve an optimal north-south orientation spanning

over the neighbouring Kallang River. It also allowed for facilities

to be built below, including the canteen, parade square,

multipurpose hall, a 900-seat lecture theatre, an indoor sports

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SHAPING IDENTITIES

118 schools in Singapore—

from primary, secondary

to tertiary—have been

designed by CPG since its

corporatisation.

erate a building facade that maximises natural ventilation and

daylighting throughout the campus while ensuring thermal

comfort. The school also has a centralised chilled water cooling

system that is more efficient than conventional ones. Finally,

the classrooms and a third of EJC’s facade is built with mass engineered

timber (MET).

“The use of MET provides materiality to the space and gives

the interior a natural warmth,” says Ar. Cho Cheong Kong, Senior

Consultant at CPG Consultants who was part of the EJC project

team.

Good site and project management were essential when using

materials such as MET, as best practices for processes such

as shipping, transportation and delivery of materials were important

for timeliness. CPG’s architects and engineers were

well supported by the corporation’s project managers from PM

Link, such as Mr. Chung Chai Wee.

“We worked closely together by going through numerous

meetings with the clients, contractors and relevant authorities

to understand the product, their installation and delivery

schedule,” he says. “Through such effective communication,

5.3

EDUCATION

155

5.3

5.3 LEARNING IN THE PARK

While EJC sits on a smaller site

than other junior colleges in Singapore,

it creatively extends the learning

environment into its neighbouring

park. Various facilities in the

school are strategically placed near

the park, and a bridge physically

connects the school to it.

5.4

5.4 NATURAL AND SUSTAINABLE

Tutorial rooms in EJC are installed

with mass engineered timber to

provide natural warmth and a connection

to nature.

156

SHAPING IDENTITIES

5.5

5.5 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION

ISA Science City International

School takes advantage of its location

on a hill to offer various levels of

learning platforms. The design

draws inspiration from its surroundings

to create a biophilic, conducive

and memorable campus.

5.6

EDUCATION

157

we were able to better coordinate the flow of information with

our colleague from the different divisions.”

With its vast experience in developing schools, CPG has successfully

exported its design concepts—sustainability, efficiency

and integration with nature—over the last two decades. The

most recent example is ISA Science City International School,

which caters for 1,800 students ranging from kindergarten to

Grade 12 in China. Completed in 2020, the campus in Guangzhou

takes advantage of its hilly site with a progression of learning

platforms at different altitudes. The sports field is positioned

as a mid-level datum on the hill to accommodate shared

facilities below. These include an 800-seat auditorium, an

Olympic-sized swimming pool and an indoor sports hall. The

different school blocks, library and boarding facilities for 500

students encircle the field, and the entire 7.8-hectare site is woven

together with greenery all around. In many ways, the design

echoes what CPG created for EJC, with site and climatic adaptation

to address the local conditions.

“Being from Singapore, we constantly address the challenges

of building efficiently and optimising land use,” says Ar. Tan,

who was part of this project too.

The architect and his team leveraged their Singapore experience

and the other international schools they have worked on

5.6

5.6 VARIED LEARNING SPACES

A mix of enclosed and semioutdoor

spaces in ISA Science

City offer its students a varied

environment for education, be

it to collaborate in groups or

provide conducive spaces for

self-directed learning.

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SHAPING IDENTITIES

5.6

EDUCATION

159

in recent years. These include the Suzhou-Singapore International

School in China and three GEMS World Academy in

Dubai, Tianjin and Singapore. These experiences gave the

CPG’s architects a good understanding of the needs and curriculum

of educational operators, as well as the confidence to

collaborate with ISA Science City’s educators and administrators

in formulating the final design brief, Ar. Tan says.

“It is most meaningful when the educators are involved in

the design development as this ensures that the school will

meet students’ educational needs.”

Moreover, CPG’s architects were able to tap into the knowledge

of the corporation’s facilities management arm. As they

have taken care of many schools in Singapore over the decades,

they are well acquainted with what is required to upkeep such

institutions, says Mr. Goh Kheng Leng, Vice President of CPG

Facilities Management.

“As a corporation offering a one-stop service, we can render

very close support to enable the success of projects,” he says.

“For instance, the facilities management team often had discussions

with CPG’s architects and engineers on solutions for

the maintainability of materials and designs.”

CPG is currently exploring how educational facilities will

evolve in response to the emerging new norm. The recent COV-

ID-19 pandemic, for example, has led to students increasingly

receiving education through digital platforms and from home.

But rather than spelling an end to physical schools, it means

their design needs to be even more thoughtful, Ar. Tan says.

“With varied education models, the time spent at school has

to be maximised with a pedagogy that cannot be provided online.

Emphasis will be made for one-on-one teaching, collaborative

and hands-on learning, as well as physical activities,” he

says. “Thus, the design of schools will require a new model that

can fit into this curriculum and pedagogy.”

This translates to more flexible and adaptable spaces in

schools that can be reconfigured for different forms of learning

when necessary. Beyond the traditional classrooms, seminar

rooms and lecture theatres, schools are also expected to have

more pockets of spaces for group discussions and self-directed

learning.

“A good school design can meet different needs and provide

students with a varied palate of educational spaces,” he says.

“After all, people learn different things at different times

and in different ways.”

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SHAPING IDENTITIES

Cultural

One was a government office, the other a judicial court. Today,

the Municipal Hall and the Supreme Court have been repurposed

into the National Gallery Singapore, which oversees the

world’s most extensive public collection of modern art from

Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Both buildings were first developed to house the expanding

British administration in colonial Singapore. Municipal Hall

was completed by the colony’s municipal architects in 1929, followed

by the Supreme Court a decade later. As was popular with

civic structures in Britain then, it adopted the neoclassical style

with an impressive facade of Ionic and Corinthian columns.

Standing side-by-side, the two buildings projected a stately

presence over the open field in front known as the Padang. They

served as the backdrops for many momentous events leading

up to and after Singapore’s independence. Both City Hall and

the Supreme Court also witnessed Singapore’s early National

Day Parades, which were held annually at the Padang to commemorate

the birth of the young nation.

In 2007, the government launched an international design

competition to convert both buildings into a national art gallery.

It was won by studioMilou Architecture, which partnered

CPG to integrate the two buildings while retaining their distinctive

historic character.

“Both these buildings are part of our heritage, so in a way, we

see ourselves as torchbearers of the generations of architects

who came before us. To have been able to work on a project that

our predecessors had brought forth during colonial times is

quite significant as we have continued the lineage,” says Director

of Design at CPG Consultants, Ar. Peter How.

The wealth of experience that CPG has built up in conserving

and adapting buildings in Singapore also helped it with the

National Gallery project. In the late 1980s, a local conservation

movement gathered momentum in response to the massive redevelopment

happening across the city-state. The government

realised the need to preserve the nation’s architectural heritage

to give its people a sense of history and rootedness. The conservation

of historic buildings would also make the city unique

and attractive to overseas tourists.

Among the earliest historic buildings gazetted for conservation

were colonial-era structures owned by the state. For in-

CULTURAL

161

5.7

162 SHAPING IDENTITIES

5.8

CULTURAL

163

5.7 A HOME FOR MODERN ART

Decades after designing the Supreme

Court and renovating its adjacent

City Hall, CPG converted both

into the National Gallery Singapore

in 2015. It created modern spaces

suitable for displaying art while retaining

the historic character of

these early 20th century buildings.

5.8 A SENSE OF HISTORY

Much of the National Gallery’s original

interiors were conserved as part

of its conversion into a museum. For

instance, the flooring and ceiling of

the former Supreme Court’s lobby

were carefully removed, restored

and re-installed.

“The National Gallery project is

among the most complex conservation

projects in Singapore. CPG

had accumulated extensive conservation

experience before this

project, and we were ready to take

on such a gigantic task.”

Ar. Lee Soo Khoong

Director of Projects (Architecture)

CPG Consultants

5.9 HALLS OF HISTORIES

Historic parts of the National Gallery

were meticulously restored and

adapted for its new use as a space for

art exhibitions, such as this former

courtroom in the Supreme Court.

5.9

164

SHAPING IDENTITIES

5.10

CULTURAL

165

5.10 NATURAL CONNECTION

A linear canopy brings together the two

disparate buildings that make up the

National Gallery. It is draped over a

space between them and supported by

tree-like columns. The design filters out

direct sunlight while bathing the rooftop

spaces in soft, natural light.

5.10

stance, the Central Fire Station, Singapore’s oldest functioning

fire station dating back to 1908, was sensitively renovated to

keep its distinctive red-and-white facade. Part of its oldest block

was also turned into a museum, while a new extension was added

to continue serving its role effectively. Another example was

the Old Hill Street Police Station that CPG completed in 1934 as

a colonial entity. The neoclassical building was restored and upgraded

into a modern headquarters for the Ministry of Information,

Communications and the Arts in 2000. Both adaptive reuse

projects were recognised with an Architectural Heritage

Award by Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

5.10

166

SHAPING IDENTITIES

5.11

“The government wanted to take the lead in conservation

because nobody wanted these old buildings as the perception

was one had to spend a lot of money to restore and live with its

constraints,” says Ar. How. “As a government agency then,

CPG’s predecessor was tasked to take on many of these projects,

and we were able to make an early mark in this area.”

Among them was the conversion of old buildings into Singapore’s

first generation of cultural institutions during the nineties

and noughties. Former schools were turned into the Singapore

Art Museum and the Asian Civilisations Museum, while

the old Parliament House became The Arts House. A former

Malay palace in Kampong Glam was also renovated to serve as

the Malay Heritage Centre. Today, these buildings form the

backdrop of the city-state’s vibrant arts and cultural scene, of

which the National Gallery is the latest addition.

“It went from zero to what you see today. I’m proud of the

pioneering work that our people did together with the URA’s

guidance in the adaptive reuse of this whole slate of historic

buildings. We have shown that even for a small nation state

such as Singapore, it was possible not to knock down old buildings

but give them a new lease of life instead,” says Ar. How.

5.12

CULTURAL

167

16 National Monuments in

Singapore—from the Old

Parliament House to the

Former Ford Factory—have

involved consultants from

CPG over the years.

This did not come easy for our consultants, who had to figure

things out on their own as the field of conservation was relatively

new in Singapore then. While this was similar to the addition

and alteration works that had been periodically carried

out, conservation requires a familiarity with the history of the

building and methods of historical restoration. The insertion of

new uses must also be done with care as it may not always be a

natural fit.

Such was the case with the National Gallery. Its two historic

buildings were disparate and unconnected but had to be joined

as a seamless whole. Both were also designed initially for natural

ventilation, but a gallery requires stringent air-conditioning

and humidity control. The buildings’ traditional function as an

office and a courthouse also had to be modified to handle a

much heavier structure load.

The design solution by studioMilou was to elegantly bring

both buildings together at the roof level with a linear draped

canopy and tree-like columns supporting it from the ground.

The buildings are also linked at the basement, which would

become the gallery entrance. CPG’s engineers worked hard to

realise these features while protecting as much of the historic

building as possible, says Vice President (Civil and Structural

Engineering) of CPG Consultants Er. Leong Meng Sun. As there

was initially a lack of information about the structures, the

team conducted a survey before proposing economically

feasible structural designs that ensured minimal intervention

to the existing building.

“The choice of the structural system was also based on the

practicality of the site work, while maintaining as many of the

5.11 FIT FOR THE KING

The Malay Heritage Centre is housed

inside an 1840s building which was

the royal seat of the Malay sultans in

Singapore. In 2005, CPG converted

the 2-storey palace into a museum

and added new buildings around the

extensive grounds.

5.12 PAST IN PRESENT

Singapore’s oldest functioning fire

station, the Central Fire Station, was

restored and upgraded by CPG in

2000. The main block was returned

to its original 1908 design, and part

of it was converted into a heritage

gallery.

existing structures and minimising demolition in the spirit of

conservation,” explains Er. Leong. “Unlike the usual new building

projects, we also had to state clearly to our contractors the

requirements for various construction methodologies so as not

to impact the existing buildings.”

As the buildings were originally built on a shallow foundation,

it was a feat to construct a 16-metre-deep basement under

the existing structures.

“The entire 2,000-tonne building was suspended in ‘mid-air’

on the third-storey level while we removed the lower floors to

add the new basement structures beneath,” recalls Er. Leong.

“We were worried sick for months because the slightest miscalculation

meant a piece of history will be shattered.”

Fortunately, this never happened, and the National Gallery

Singapore opened to much fanfare in 2015. Much of this success

can be credited to CPG’s multidisciplinary setup, adds the

engineer.

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SHAPING IDENTITIES

5.11






















5.12

CULTURAL

169






CPG over the years.








natural fit.





























extensive grounds.








gallery.

















engineer.

170

SHAPING IDENTITIES

5.11






















SINGAPORE’S OLDEST MUSEUM

One of the earliest cultural institutions in Singapore was the former Raffles

Library and Museum that CPG completed in 1887 as a colonial entity. The

building, distinguished by its dome and the central portico flanked by two

equal length wings, housed Southeast Asia’s natural history, ethnology, and

archaeology. Over the next century, the building underwent numerous additions

and alterations works to accommodate an expanding collection. One of

the most significant was a 2003 renovation by CPG and W Architects, which

turned the grand dame of Singapore’s architectural heritage into the National

Museum of Singapore today.

5.12

CULTURAL

171






CPG over the years.








natural fit.





























extensive grounds.








gallery.

















engineer.

172

SHAPING IDENTITIES

5.13

CULTURAL

173

5.13 A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

CPG converted the Old Hill Street Police

Station and Barracks designed in

1934 into offices for the Ministry of Information,

Communications and the

Arts in 2000. While the spaces inside

were upgraded for modern-day use,

the building’s facade and louvred timber

windows were restored and given

a coat of vibrant, rainbow colours.

the original image is like this

“Having different disciplines in-house means discussions

can be much more fruitful and as easy as simply walking over to

one another’s work desk,” he says. “This would be difficult to

achieve if each of the disciplines were to come from different

companies.”

Ar. Lee Soo Khoong, Director of Projects (Architecture) of

CPG Consultants, who was also part of the project, agrees the

corporation has the right mix of skills to make conservation

work.

“The National Gallery project is among the most complex

conservation projects in Singapore. CPG had accumulated extensive

conservation experience prior to this, and we were ready

to take on such a gigantic task,” he adds. “While there is hard

work, the satisfaction in being able to restore our heritage is

great.”

While conserving buildings and adapting them for new uses

is certainly not for the faint-hearted, Ar. How adds that he and

the team find joy in showing clients how they can completely

turn a once dilapidated building anew. As the world rapidly urbanises,

he believes that such adaptive reuse will offer cities

more sustainable means of development and make them more

distinct.

“Cities will be immeasurably poorer without their old buildings

and ethnic districts. It would be a bland modern city that

could be anywhere else in the world. There would be no identity

or history,” says Ar. How.

“Conservation allows us to preserve the sense of history and

rootedness for a young nation like Singapore. It is immensely

satisfying that this is part of the work that CPG does.”

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SHAPING IDENTITIES

Gardens

Singapore’s reputation as a “City in Nature” was seeded in 1967,

when a Parks and Trees Unit was established to realise the government’s

vision to turn it into a “Garden city”. The unit planted

trees and developed parks across the island for close to a decade

before becoming a separate department in 1975. The renamed

Parks and Recreation Department, which later became the National

Parks Board, works closely with CPG, which supports it

with master planning, architecture and environmental engineering

services. The long history of collaboration continues to

this day, most recently in upgrading Singapore’s National Orchid

Garden.

In 2015, CPG won the design competition to enhance the attraction

located within the Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG). It

was a homecoming project as the same team had designed the

original orchid garden over two decades ago before CPG’s corporatisation.

The team proposed retaining many existing features,

while expanding the attraction almost threefold to house

some 1,500 varieties of orchid species and 3,000 orchid hybrids.

The pioneering Cool House facility, which simulates a tropical

highland cloud forest, was integrated with a brand new Tropical

Montane Orchidetum to form a single space for displaying

orchids from high-elevation forests. Connecting the various

buildings is a “Secret Ravine”, a long and winding path that

overcomes the site’s steep terrain while offering an experience

similar to being deep in the mountain valleys, where many of

the rare orchids and ferns are found.

Being able to blend old and new in the garden was a very

meaningful exercise for Senior Consultant (Architecture) at

CPG Consultants Ar. Wong Wai Ying, who led the project that

officially opened in 2021.

“The most outstanding of them all was the Cool House.

Working past the site constraints, it is now more than double

the size, with meandering paths to keep visitors in suspense on

what will come next as they walk along and view the orchid displays,”

she says.

“We also had to come up with innovative strategies to work

out the construction packages and methodology so that the

project could be completed with the limited resources and in

time, amid the difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Her team benefitted from the experience of senior colleagues

such as Ar. Peter How, Director of Design (Architecture)

at CPG Consultants, who was involved in the design of the original

structures during the revamp of the Singapore Botanic Gardens

(SBG) in the 1980s. Ar. How felt it was important that the

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175

5.14


redevelopment retained a sense of history.

“The Cool House was very much loved and well-visited, but it

suffered in terms of performance because a lot of the technology

we used then has since become obsolete,” he says. “It was a

big challenge to retain the Cool House in our design, but we decided

to do so. While its demolition to make way for the new

was an obvious approach to adopt, the Cool House was a piece

of heritage to us and reflected the evolution of the garden.”

The National Orchid Garden started merely as an orchid enclosure

inside SBG, which was established by the British in 1859

for scientific research on tropical botany and horticultural sciences.

As SBG grew into a popular tourist attraction for the newly

independent Singapore and an essential resource for its drive

to become a Garden City in the 1980s, the government enlisted

CPG to work with Jones and Jones to formulate a new master

plan to guide the national garden’s development into the future.

A key strategy Ar. How and his team came up with, was to

expunge a road that used to separate the long, linear garden

into two tracts. The more established section was near Tanglin,

while the other stretched to Bukit Timah. The new master plan

stitched them together into a 51-hectare site which was grouped

into three “cores”, each with its own attractions. While the Tanglin

Core would focus on heritage, botanical research and public

outreach, the Bukit Timah Core would cater to education

and discovery. The Central Core between them was a new visitor

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177

5.14 CORE ATTRACTIONS

The master plan for Singapore Botanic

Gardens divides it into three distinct

“cores” that each has its attractions. While

the oldest Tanglin Core retains many historic

structures, new ones were developed

at the Bukit Timah Core and Central Core.

5.14

5.14


centre with supporting amenities developed on land created

from the road expunction.

“Given the Gardens’ unique long and linear shape, the issue

was was how you would encourage visitors to see its entirety.

The core concept meant visitors could pick and choose different

areas to visit based on their interests,” says Ar. How.

This strategy also allowed the Gardens’ heritage in the oldest

Tanglin Core to be retained, such as the “English-styled” gardens

and a 1930s bandstand. A slew of new attractions was built

in the other cores. An existing concrete-lined stormwater retention

pond in the Bukit Timah Core was turned into a naturalistic

Eco-Lake for the public to learn about ecology and nature.

5.15

GARDENS

179

The Central Core became home to a symphony stage for outdoor

performances and an existing orchid enclosure was upgraded

into the National Orchid Garden, which has blossomed

into a world-renowned attraction.

In 2003,CPG was tasked to update the master plan when the

Gardens acquired a new 11.7-hectare site around the Bukit

Timah Core. Attractions like the Healing Garden were created

to showcase medicinal plants, and a new car park had ecofriendly

features such as bioswales to naturally drain off rainwater.

These were seamlessly integrated into the Gardens because

of the flexibility of the core concept. Even as SBG has continued

to expand in recent years, it has retained much of its original

5.15 AN ORCHID OASIS

In 2021, CPG completed the expansion

of the National Orchid Garden,

which it first created over two decades

ago. The original Mist House

(left) and Cool House (right) were retained

and sensitively expanded to

display a wider assortment of species

and strengthen the appeal of

the world-renowned centre.

5.15


“Gardens by the Bay has

set the standard for a new

generation of parks and

gardens in Singapore,

spurring its shift from a

‘Garden City’ into a ‘City

in a Garden’.”

Ar. Wong Wai Ying

Senior Consultant (Architecture)

CPG Consultants

5.16

5.16 A CITY IN NATURE

Gardens by the Bay showcases Singapore’s

vision of becoming a “City in

Nature”. The green development in

the heart of Singapore’s new downtown,

Marina Bay, has raised the value

of urban developments in the district

by making it an attractive environment

for work and leisure.

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181


16 million kilowatt-hours of

energy savings are generated

annually by the Gardens by

the Bay’s conservatories, an

amount equivalent to S$4.2

million, 8,400 tonnes of

carbon dioxide emissions

and 42,000 trees.

5.17

form and was successfully inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage

Site in 2015. The accolade recognised how the Gardens has

grown into a prominent research hub for tropical botany and

horticultural sciences over the last 150 years—while maintaining

much of its original environment and heritage buildings.

“An appreciation of history and heritage influenced our

masterplan design significantly. If we had designed something

more interventionist, there would be very little left to show for

the original Gardens and its history,” says Ar. How. “Our master

plan has undoubtedly helped establish the Singapore Botanic

Gardens as a UNESCO World Heritage site.”

CPG has gone on to develop more national gardens in Singapore.

The Gardens by the Bay was an unusual proposal first conceived

by the National Parks Board (NParks), which envisioned

an iconic green attraction in the city-state’s new downtown, Marina

Bay. CPG supported the agency with a feasibility master

plan that laid out the design parameters, including the location

of two conservatories on a 101-hectare site. The plan convinced

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183

the government to allocate precious reclaimed land for the project

and also formed the brief of an international design competition,

which CPG helped to market to world-class landscape designers

to participate.

“NPark’s vision was to create a premier urban outdoor recreation

space to enhance the value of Marina Bay as a quality

living environment and leisure destination for Singaporeans

and visitors. Gardens by the Bay has set the standard for a new

generation of parks and gardens in Singapore, spurring its shift

from a ‘Garden City’ into a ‘City in a Garden’,” says the project’s

lead architect, Ar. Wong.

An international team, including Grant Associates and

Wilkinson Eyre, eventually won the competition, and CPG was

appointed to be its local collaborator. Together, they developed

the region’s two largest man-made conservatories, the “Cloud

Forest” and “Flower Dome”, which are complemented by 18 “Supertrees”

that rise to 50 metres above ground to offer a bird’s eye

view of Marina Bay. Underpinning this stunning futuristic attraction

are various sustainability efforts, such as generating

electricity on-site from horticultural waste for energy conservation,

and using specially-coated glass to allow in optimal light

while reducing heat. Since the Gardens by the Bay was completed

in 2012, Singapore’s second national gardens has become a

global sensation and won much attention and accolades.

“The project has been recognised with many local and international

awards, but one that is worth mentioning is the pres-

5.17 SUSTAINABLE BY DESIGN

The conservatories in the Garden by

the Bay may be 24-hour air-conditioned

glasshouses, but various features, including

glass panels with a special coating

to bring in optimal light, allow them

to save substantial amounts of energy.


tigious Building and Construction Authority’s Green Mark Platinum

Awards for the conservatories that net an annual energy

savings of 16 million kilowatt-hours,” Ar. Wong says.

“This totally changed the impression that 24-hour air-conditioned

glasshouses could not save energy. It also demonstrated

CPG’s commitment to design environmentally sustainable

buildings for the 21st century.”

The corporation has continued developing this approach in

Singapore’s third national gardens in Jurong, its upcoming central

business district in the west. The Jurong Lake Gardens consists

of three existing gardens, with the largest being the 53-hectares

Lakeside Garden that CPG worked on. Inspired by the

area’s past life as a swamp forest, the corporation worked with

5.18 NATURAL WELCOME

The arrival pavilion of Lakeside

Garden comes in a thin roof slab

and columns, a design inspired

by the hanging aerial roots of the

Ficus trees found in the garden.

5.18

GARDENS

185

Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl to restore an existing freshwater

swamp forest and develop a 300-metre scenic boardwalk for

visitors to get up close to it. The garden’s original drainage was

replaced to overcome previous waterlogging in the area, while

swales with vegetation and gravel help drain water in a more

biophilic manner to preserve biodiversity.

As the park is part of a residential neighbourhood, the team

turned the water’s edge into a recreational and community

hub. A water play area mimics a natural water treatment system

for children to learn while having fun. An existing singlestorey

boating house was transformed for water sports. The

new 2-storey facility has large, open spaces for breezes to flow

in from the lake naturally. An elevated public promenade of-


fers views while allowing boating activities to take place

smoothly underneath.

To ensure that such developments did not impact the lake

that also serves as a reservoir, CPG’s engineers implemented

various precautionary measures. For instance, a slit turbidity

curtain was installed along the reservoir prior to construction to

prevent silty water discharge. A full precast system was also

adopted for the floors of the recreational facility to do away with

massive concreting work.

“The challenges were to come up with innovative systems

and ways that could speed up construction while minimising

the impact on the water body during construction,” says Mr.

Stephen Ko Chee Hong, Principal Engineer (Civil and Structural

Engineering) at CPG Consultants.

He and the team also worked closely with the architecture

team to realise their designs, such as the arrival pavilion, which

was inspired by the hanging aerial roots of the Ficus trees found

within the gardens. Mr. Ko and his team came up with the thinnest

structural roof slab and columns to mimic the trees.

“There were often different suggestions for solutions in resolving

issues. However, we were able to discuss and communicate

effectively with the client as it was easier to work out the

differences internally,” he says.

The completion of Lakeside Garden in 2019 marks another

milestone in the ongoing transformation of Jurong Lake Gardens.

It is envisioned as a catalyst for urban development in the

area, just as how Gardens by the Bay helped transform Marina

Bay. Having worked on all three of Singapore’s national gardens,

the CPG team has become very familiar with how gardens

and greenery can be strategically incorporated to create attrac-

5.19

GARDENS

187

5.19

5.19 LIVING BY THE LAKE

Lakeside Garden has various amenities

for its surrounding residential

community to enjoy. The Rasau Walk

is a 300-metre scenic boardwalk for

visitors to get up close to the lake,

while a 2-storey PAssion WaVe facility

supports a host of water sports and

lifestyle activities, including paddle

boating and kayaking, as well as health

and wellness programmes.

tive and sustainable developments, says Ar. How. Be it master

planning developments or designing hospitals, a biophilic design

approach is often beneficial and even increasingly sought

after by clients, he adds.

“When our planners get involved in overseas projects, there

will invariably be requests from clients to bring in the people

who were involved in the planning of projects such as Gardens

by the Bay,” Ar. How says.

“There is a growing awareness and demand for green spaces

to complement the cityscape. Singapore has become a model in

the power of using gardens and greenery to pull in visitors and

to create a liveable city for our communities, which CPG is intimately

familiar with.”

188

REDEFINING

THE CITIES OF

TOMORROW

It is often said that the only constant in

Singapore is change. The city-state is relentless

in its pursuit to offer its people

the best urban environment to live, work

and play in. Over the last 188 years,

through a continued legacy, CPG has been

part of this common pursuit, having embarked

on various projects that supported

Singapore’s growth into a global city.

Reflecting on the corporation’s journey,

Group Chief Innovation Officer, Ar.

Tan Shao Yen, sees CPG’s growth and development

as a reflection of Singapore’s

phases of development. “Despite facing

many adversities and inherent constraints,

the city-state has demonstrated

the spirit of resilience and innovation

through its decades of transformation.

Likewise, we have overcome various challenges,

while remaining faithful to the essence

of our legacy.

Today, Singapore and other global cities

continue to evolve to meet a rapidly

changing world. The growing global population

and the increasing spread of urbanisation

calls for a more sustainable

form of development. From the rise of

digital technologies to the recent pandemic,

various disruptions have profoundly

impacted live-work arrangements

and mobility patterns which

brought unprecedented challenges to cit-

189

ies. As CPG continues its work with the

surrounding landscape, it believes firmly

that the solution lies in designing better

and more adaptable cities.

“Despite being in a time of turbulence

and disruption, we are also at the brink of

a period of great transformation. Cities

and their urban environment and communities

will be at the forefront in meeting

many challenges. Regardless of how

cities develop in the future, we believe

that they will be underpinned by three

important trends: resilience, sustainability

and technology,” highlights Ar. Tan.

While resilience is the ability of cities

to maintain continuity through all shocks

and stresses, it also underpins their capacity

to develop sustainably and meet

current needs without compromising the

ability of future generations to grow. Both

trends are being accelerated by the rise of

technologies that integrate the digital and

physical worlds. Although CPG has long

been addressing these three drivers of

change in its projects, the ongoing climate

crisis necessitates a renewed focus on

them. Many cities now realise they must

balance the previously unquestioned

quest for efficiency with resilience to

achieve long-term sustainability.

190

REDEFINING THE CITIES OF TOMORROW

The Power

of Integration

6.1

The new outlook has led urban planners and developers to relook

the traditional model of cities. The previous approach of

dividing them into the Central Business District (CBD) for work

and peripheral residential communities for housing created

problems such as long, congested commutes. It also proved

untenable during the pandemic in containing the transmission

of viruses. As a result, the need for pandemic resilience

will require workplaces to be closer to where people live. Working

remotely from home will become part of a hybrid arrangement

too. Such shifts will lead to the creation of more integrated

and mixed-use districts and developments, and even new

types of CBDs.

One example is the future Maluanwan New District Central

Island in the west of Xiamen, China. In 2020, CPG led a consortium

with Hordor Design Group to develop a winning master

plan for it. At the island’s core is a Central Park which is surrounded

by five axes of experiential corridors and open-space

structures. They link the entire island to the city’s various spaces

and form a vibrant leisure and activity belt for residents.

These green spaces are landscaped to provide a dose of visual

relief and to distinguish the different districts and neighbourhoods.

They support an ecological environment and urban resilience

too. For instance, the island’s network of water bodies

is planned with a water-sensitive urban design to retain high

levels of surface runoffs. Plants will also be carefully selected

and placed for typhoon resistance by reducing the harsh winds

from the bay while allowing a light breeze from the sea to flow

through the city.

Finally, a network of shaded green corridors across the island

will mitigate the urban heat island effect and create an environment

well suited for active mobility—including walking

and cycling—so that residents can get around easily. The increasing

desire for a 15-minute lifestyle radius will drive the demand

for downtown living. Health and wellness will be an essential

factor for workplaces and public places.

Maluanwan New District achieves this via an integrated and

efficient design supported by the Transport Oriented Development

concept that balances economic viability and liveability.

The CBD core is planned with attractive public spaces at strategic

nodes for people to meet and interact. The district’s Bayfront

brings together a contemporary ambience with local cultural

and architectural elements. Along with a series of retail

corridors, the iconic bay will reflect Xiamen’s cultural diversity

and heritage.

“As local communities increase, CBDs and business parks

will cease to be ghost towns on weekends. New services, groundup

initiatives and local culture will emerge, enriching the sense

of place,” Ar. Tan says. “Furthermore, as the qualities of CBDs

and business parks are enhanced by natural elements, they will

help to foster love and community stewardship of nature.”

THE POWER OF INTEGRATION

191

6.1 Smart-eco built environments of tomorrow

will enable resilient and

self-sustained local communities.

The environmental and air quality of

a district can be actively monitored

with smart sensors. A significant

amount of food and products will

also be produced locally through

smart farming and 3D printing. This

reduces land and air travels, hence

lowering carbon footprint.

“As many of the urban and built

environment challenges are complex

and intertwined with layers of

economic, social and environmental

issues, we firmly believe in taking a

collaborative and transdisciplinary

approach to co-developing solutions.

We see CPG as the built environment

integrator of such solutions.”

Ar. Tan Shao Yen

Group Chief Innovation Officer

CPG Corporation

192


Nurturing

Resilience

Through Nature

6.2

NURTURING RESILIENCE THROUGH NATURE

193

The reinvention of cities is closely followed by efforts to create a

more climate-resilient urban environment. In Singapore, the

climate crisis means coping with the threat of flooding as sea

levels rise and rainfall gets heavier. CPG has assisted the citystate’s

national water agency in recent years to engineer various

flood mitigation projects. In 2019, the corporation completed

the Stamford Diversion Canal and Stamford Detention Tank to

protect its famous retail street, Orchard Road. The 2.2-kilometre-long

canal and the 0.5-hectare tank work as a system to divert

rainwater during heavy rainfall into the nearby Singapore

River.

Beyond infrastructural solutions, CPG believes in the approach

of replacing, replenishing and regenerating nature. The

corporation has embraced biophilic design in many of its projects

from the Gardens by the Bay to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

Since 2006, it has also been involved in the ongoing transformation

of Singapore’s water infrastructure via the nation’s Active,

Beautiful, Clean Waters Programme (ABC Waters). Most recently,

CPG enhanced the climate resilience of a 1.8-kilometre canal,

where the Kallang River runs between Bishan and Braddell.

Its capacity was increased by 80 per cent by doubling the canal’s

width and increasing its depth. The water flow was also turned

into a meandering stream interspersed with planter islands,

cascading steps, naturalised “banks” and even a community

deck. These nature-inspired features ensure that the canal can

better prevent flooding and improve the treatment of rainwater

runoff, as well as bring people and nature closer.

An ongoing CPG project that harnesses nature for climate

resilience is the Bidadari Park, slated to complete in 2022. The

corporation has harnessed its intra-disciplinary capabilities to

integrate an underground stormwater retention tank with

Alkaff Lake, a reservoir that stores and supplies drinking water

to the surrounding residential estate. The water body will be

landscaped with serene greenery, including 350 mature trees

conserved from the original forest. Efforts to support the natural

biodiversity also led to the creation of a hillock that will act

as a stopover site for migratory birds. The Park will be supported

by recreational facilities such as a five-metre-tall treehouse

and a memorial garden honouring Bidadari’s past as one of Singapore’s

largest cemeteries. This biophilic design approach

helped the project clinch an “Innovative Design Award” at the

Housing & Development Board’s Design, Construction and Engineering

Awards in 2020.

In the coming years, CPG will further develop and apply its

knowledge on environmental engineering and nature-based solutions

to the eastern part of Singapore. It was appointed in

2021 to formulate a climate resilience master plan for the island’s

City-East Coast stretch, which houses critical infrastructure

such as Changi Airport, a water reclamation plant and a

naval base. The estimated four-year study will investigate new

ways to protect the almost 60 kilometres of coastline and ensure

Singapore is ready for the future.

“We are honoured to undertake and lead this important

study and thrilled to have the opportunity to combine our extensive

knowledge with teams of expert personnel from both CPG

and international partners,” says Er. Yeang Hoong Goon, CEO of

CPG Consultants. “Being able to pioneer solutions for this purpose

and to strengthen the country’s climate resilience abilities

will also allow Singapore to be positioned as a climate change

adaptation solutions hub to serve the region in the long run.”

6.2 The Bidadari Park will offer various

shared facilities to bring the neighbourhood

together. In addition to incorporating

sustainable solutions

such as stormwater management

into the estate designs, there will

also be increased efforts to support

biodiversity for nature conservation.

194


Smarter Facilities

&

Cities for People

The various efforts to create more sustainable and resilient cities

are being shaped by the rise of digital technologies that have

ushered in new ways of urban living. From e-commerce to

shared services, they are enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT),

artificial intelligence, robotics and other emerging technologies

that are increasingly part of our everyday lives. In Singapore’s

built environment, the government and industry have been

championing a digital transformation through various initiatives

too. The Design for Manufacturing and Assembly involves

creating buildings to facilitate mechanised, clean and safe construction

in factories. At the same time, the Integrated Digital

Delivery brings together the entire construction value chain

with digitisation, info-communications and IoT technologies.

CPG too, has embraced these initiatives to design “smarter”

developments that can support the growing demand for more

efficient and seamless workflows. For example, CPG Consultants

has set up a design team of youthful talents with intra-disciplinary

skillsets straddling built environments and computational

coding. The team has developed customised scripts and

algorithms that use computational design methodologies and

generative design tools to help clients optimise their operational-spatial

planning. It can also generate flexible designs using

visual scripting tools and low code platforms to rapidly integrate

building geometry data, simulations and performance

targets. They allow the design professionals and stakeholders

to visualise the interrelated factors of considerations in a project

during its feasibility design phase to enhance the decisionmaking

process for clients and various stakeholders. The

scripts may also be continuously optimised in response to further

queries, automating the generation of many iterations to

arrive at the most optimal solutions.

For over a decade, CPG has also deployed innovative technologies

and digitalised processes in the operation and maintenance

of buildings and development. The most recent iteration

is its Integrated Facilities Management System (iFMS) co-developed

with an IT partner. The unified digital operation and command

hub harnesses technology to monitor estate and facilities

performance and activities. Since the system’s deployment in

2019, the digitalised management of processes such as initiating,

tracking, managing and closing work has improved quality

and productivity.

“Even as we gear up for a technologically advanced future,

the emphasis of smart cities also lies with the human aspect of

the ‘cities’ themselves,” says Mr. Oliver Quek, Group Chief Operating

Officer (COO) of CPG Corporation. “While technology

enables smart cities, it is the better functioning of places, people

and interactions that is the main objective.”

SMARTER FACILITIES & CITIES FOR PEOPLE

195

6.3

6.3 Future district centres are envisioned

to be high-density, mixeduse

developments with low-density,

spaced-out activities. Co-working

offices, retail, education, healthcare

and other facilities that meet

the people’s needs are co-located in

the district centres within short

travel distance by personal mobility

devices. Robotics and automation

will help to reduce reliance on human

labour.

“Even as we grapple with the

macro challenges, we remain

grounded in managing the

myriads of day-to-day details of

every project, so that the final

look, touch and feel of the

environment we create enriches

lives in many ways.”

Ar. Chu Lik Ren

Design Consultant (Architecture)

CPG Consultants

196


Fundamentals

for the

Future

Just as the corporation helps cities prepare for the future, CPG

constantly upgrades itself to stay as the partner of choice. It is

building an agile workforce based on improving productivity,

digitalisation and sustainable practices. In addition, the corporation

is enhancing its fundamentals. Its traditional multidisciplinary

capabilities are being strengthened with a transdisciplinary

approach that brings different branches of knowledge closer

than before. This is increasingly necessary for solving problems

given the multi-faceted nature of today’s issues, explains Design

Consultant (Architecture) Ar. Chu Lik Ren.

“As we look into the major challenges that the world faces, we

know that they can only be tackled with a whole-of-society effort.

In our profession, it means a lot more inter-disciplinary collaborations

and approaches,” he says.

While CPG has learnt to be more consultative with project

stakeholders, it remains clear-eyed about what its eventual design

solution must achieve.

“We have never lost our focus on what the innate needs of any

individual will be, whether it is a sense of well-being or having

variety and choices. The work we do, whether it is offering convenience

or maintaining the balance in the natural and built environment,

is ultimately for the end user,” Ar. Chu adds.

Another fundamental CPG is leveraging on is its lineage and

its strong association and track record with the Singapore brand.

“We believe that by anchoring in Singapore, CPG can successfully

export the Singapore brand defined by our rich heritage with the

city-state. It also helps us expand overseas by growing and acquiring

new capabilities and collaborating with partners across our

regional built environment ecosystem,” says Mr. Vincent Loh

Weng Seng, CEO of CPG International.

While remaining rooted in Singapore, CPG has continuously

evolved and helped cities redefine themselves by staying ahead.

As CPG celebrates 188 years of heritage, it will continue to build

upon the fundamentals of these essential ingredients, which

have helped contribute to its successes, and further redefine

spaces to whatever shapes tomorrow’s cities may take.

198

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks and appreciation to

all who were involved in the projects mentioned in this

book, and who have contributed to its production.

Former Public Works Department (Singapore)

3HPArchitects Pte Ltd

Acviron Acoustics Consultants Pte Ltd

AHS Architects Sdn Bhd

Airport Design and Construction Consultancy One

Member Limited Liability Company

Airports Authority of India

Airports Corporation of Vietnam

Ang Mo Kio Town Council

Arcadis Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Arcop Pvt. Ltd.

Arup Singapore Pte Ltd

Aurecon Singapore (Pte.) Ltd.

Baroque Interiors Events PLC

Bartenbach L’chtLabor GmbH

Beca Group

Becamex IDC Corporation

Binh Duong Province People’s Committee

BNP Associates, Inc

Building Façade Group

Bukit Sembawang View Pte. Ltd.

Cam Ranh International Terminal Joint Stock Company

Carter Gold Lee and Associates

CCW Associates Pte Ltd

CH2M HILL Companies Ltd.

Changi Airport Group

China Architecture Design & Research Group Co. Ltd.

China Communications Construction Company Ltd

China Vanke Co., Ltd.

Chua Chu Kang Town Council

Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh

Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore

Civil Aviation Guangzhou Integrated Trading Company

Danang International Terminal Investment and

Operation Joint Stock Company

Development Design Consultants Ltd

Eco World Development Group Berhad

Engineers India Ltd

Ethiopian Airports Enterprise (EAE)

Evan Lim & Co. Pte Ltd

Expand Construction Pte Ltd

FARM Architects

Foster + Partners

Grant Associates

Greatearth Developments Pte Ltd

Gurkha Contingent

Hock Lian Seng Group

HOK Group, Inc.

Hordor Architecture & Engineering Design Group Co., Ltd.

Hugh Dutton Associates

Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co Ltd

Immigration & Checkpoints Authority of Singapore

Incorporated Builders Pte Ltd

Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore

INTERPOL

ISA Science City International School

JTC Corporation

Jurong Health Services

Kajima Overseas Asia Pte. Ltd.

Kimly-Lian Ho Lee Joint Venture

Kim Seng Heng Engineering Construction (Pte) Ltd

Kothari & Associates

Kumpulan Akitek

Land Transport Authority of Singapore

Lea+Elliott Asia Pte. Ltd.

Lian Soon Construction Pte Ltd

Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad

Meinhardt Infrastructure Pte. Ltd.

Ministry of Communications and Information

Ministry of Education, Singapore

Ministry of Finance, Singapore

Ministry of Health, Singapore

Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore

Ministry of Law, Singapore

Ministry of Manpower, Singapore

199

MOH Holdings Pte Ltd

Multiply Architects & Engineers LLP

National Arts Council, Singapore

National Environment Agency, Singapore

National Gallery Singapore

National Healthcare Group

National Heritage Board c/o Malay Heritage Foundation

National Heritage Board, Singapore

National Parks Board, Singapore

National University of Singapore

New Doha International Airport Steering Committee

Nippon Koei Co., Ltd

Oriental Consultant Global Co., Ltd

PAE Limited

Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority

Peridian Asia Pte Ltd

Precise Development Pte. Ltd.

Public Utilities Board, Singapore

Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl Pte. Ltd.

RMJM Hillier

SAFRA National Service Association

Samsung C&T Corporation

Sato Kogyo (S) Pte. Ltd.

SemCorp Daewoo JV

Serie Architects

Setia Indah Sdn. Bhd.

Shenzhen Mingrun

Singapore Civil Defence Force

Singapore Engineering & Construction Pte. Ltd.

Singapore Prisons Service

Singapore Turf Club

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Skyparty Vietnam Co. Ltd.

SoilBuild Group Holdings

Southern Airports Corporation

Sport Singapore

State Courts of Singapore

Studio 505

studioMilou

Supreme Court, Singapore

Suzhou SIP Planning Bureau

T.R. Hamzah and Yeang

Taisei Corporation

Taisei-Gama-Nurol JV

Takenaka Corporation

The Istana, Singapore

The SAP Group, LLC

Tierra Design (S) Pte Ltd

Titanium Group

Towner Construction Pte Ltd

United Regency Pte. Ltd.

UOL Group Limited

Van Don Investment & Development Joint Stock Company

W Architects Pte Ltd

Wilkinson Eyre Architects

Wilson Taylor Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.

WIN Landscape Planning & Design International

Woh Hup (Private) Limited

Woodhead Australia

WSP Consultancy Pte. Ltd. f.k.a. Parsons-Brinkerhoff

Wuhan Tianhe Airport Terminal 2 Construction Project Team

Xiamen Maluanwan District Development Committee

Xiamen Xiang’an Airport Investment and Construction Co., Ltd.

200

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