SINGAPORE: An upcoming Build-to-Order (BTO) project in Tengah town will feature “beamless” flats providing more headroom and flexibility to configure layouts, as part of an initiative by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to pilot the latest construction technologies.
Under HDB’s Construction Transformation Project, Garden Waterfront I and II @ Tengah – which will be launched in the November 2022 sales exercise – will adopt a slew of innovations in its design, fabrication and construction of about 2,000 units.
HDB will partner construction firm Obayashi Singapore and other local consultancy partners to trial the technologies, which aim to improve productivity and eventually reduce the waiting time for new flats.
Speaking at the annual HDB awards ceremony on Tuesday (Oct 11), Minister for National Development Desmond Lee said: “This project will seek to integrate the very latest construction processes and technologies across HDB’s development value chain to boost construction productivity.”
The ceremony, held at the Resorts World Convention Centre, will see Mr Lee present awards to HDB building contractors and architectural consultants for their contributions.
“It will also seek to break new ground with the use of sustainable construction methods. We hope that through this collaboration, our local partners will learn from one another and our international counterparts, as we continue to build capability,” added Mr Lee.
Mr Lee noted that the drive for construction productivity was not new to HDB.
“In fact, HDB is an early adopter of prefab technology. It first used precast components in construction in the 1980s. But we must keep striving to improve and the COVID pandemic has accelerated these efforts,” he said.
Construction activities have returned close to pre-pandemic levels, added Mr Lee.
HDB said it attained a site productivity improvement rate of 26.2 per cent last year, and has set a 40 per cent target by 2030.
For BTO flats built under the Construction Transformation Project alone, the HDB is targeting a 25 per cent improvement in productivity, compared to other projects.
HDB’s chief executive officer Tan Meng Dui said that with the initiative, the agency hopes to “raise the bar further and find novel ways to construct quality homes with less manpower, faster and safer”.