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FuturArc Forum 2008 opens in Singapore

The FuturArc Forum in Singapore saw a turnout of more than 450 participants. These attendees came with one sole purpose in mind—to work towards a more sustainable built environment.

FuturArc Forum 2008 was held on 22 February in Singapore with experts on green building from around the world calling for action on sustainability. The forum is being held by FuturArc journal's publisher, BCI Asia, in eight cities across Asia Pacific with expected participation by 4,000 architects, engineers and property developers as well as students of these professions. 

Attendees at the Forum

The first presenter Mr Kevin Hydes, Chair of the World Green Building Council, took the stage and gave an overview of the global green building movement, highlighting recent trends and policy shifts in the building industry, including challenges faced by the green building industry. Next, Professor Ray Cole of Canada's University of British Columbia called for a worldwide action to reduce global warming by designing green buildings. Dr Nirmal Kishnani, the Chief Editor of the FuturArc journal, then expounded on the practice of green building. Following, Mr Ulf Meyer, an author and lecturer on Progressive Architecture based in Germany, explained the latest concepts of environmentally friendly design in contemporary European architecture and urban design; he also quoted specific examples from Germany. Mr Emmanuel Samuel, the Sales Development Director for Autodesk Asia-Pacific next shared on the advantages of BIM, and promoted the use of BIM technology and integrated practice as a means of achieving sustainable design. Mr Quinn Lu, the director of Werkhart International Group in China, gave an insight into some of the problems and challenges encountered by the green building process in China. And rounding up the day's presentations was Ms Grace Cheok, an Executive Development Officer with the Building and Construction Authority, who provided an overview of the green building movement in Singapore as well as BCA's key initiatives. The speakers' presentations will be made available on the FuturArc website at http://www.futurarc.com. As one of the jurors, Dr Nirmal Kishnani described the difficult challenge of designing green buildings as posed by three development sites (Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia) in the inaugural FuturArc Prize design competition. From strong contenders across Asia-Pacific, Singapore produced outstanding winners in the Student Category. Mr Prime Tambayong won the Master Award for his design for the Australia site. Mr Sim Jie Han and Mr Geoffrey Tan won the Site Awards for the Philippines and Malaysia sites respectively. The awards were presented to them at the forum by Mr Emmanuel Samuel of Autodesk, the design software provider, and BCI Asia, the construction information provider.

Exchanging ideas at the Technology Fair

A dinner was held after the forum to recognize the 10 most active architectural firms in Singapore. The firms in the BCI Asia Top 10 2008 for Singapore are ADDP Architects, Aedas Pte Ltd, Architects 61 Pte Ltd, CPG Consultants Pte Ltd, DCA Architects Pte Ltd, DP Architects Pte Ltd, Ong & Ong Pte Ltd, P & T Consultants Pte Ltd, RSP Architects Planners & Engineers (Pte) Ltd and Surbana International Consultants Pte Ltd. 

The Singapore forum's sponsor is Autodesk, and the Top 10 awards' sponsors include Autodesk, Legrand, Assa Abloy, De Dietrich and Philips. 

The FuturArc Forum will be moving on to Malaysia on 26 February where keynote speakers from around the world will once again congregate in an exchange on sustainability issues. 


Presenters' Notes
Presenter Biography File

Professor Ray Cole, PhD is the Director of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia and Academic Director of the School's Design Center for Sustainability. Dr Cole was selected as a North American Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professor for "sustained commitment to building environmental research and teaching" in 2001. In 2003 he received the Architectural Institute of British Columbia Barbara Dalrymple Memorial Award for Community Service and the US Green Building Council's Green Public Service Leadership Award. Available Soon

Kevin Hydes is Chair-elect of the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) and Vice President of Stantec Consulting Engineers. He served as Chair of the USGBC for 2005-2006, and is a founder and director of CanadaGBC. Hailing from Leeds in the UK, Kevin has focused on green design for the past 15 years. His vision led to the first LEED Gold Certified project in Canada, the first LEED-EB Gold Certified project in North America, and the successful completion of 20 LEED Certified projects with more than 30 registered projects awaiting certification. He is an Honorary Member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Architectural Institute of BC, and an adjunct professor at McGill University School of Architecture. Download File

Dr Nirmal Kishnani, PhD is Chief Editor of the FuturArc journal. He is both an educator and practitioner in the area of Green buildings, and presently teaches at the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore. He has lectured and written widely on the subject of Greening Asia and has been a consultant to projects across the region, most recently as head of a sustainability unit operating from Singapore. Download File

Ulf Meyer is a trained architect, prominent author and lecturer in the field of architecture and urban design based in Berlin. He has lectured at universities and cultural centers in Europe, the US and Canada as well as Japan, China and Taiwan. He has published over 700 articles in newspaper and magazines as well as several well-known books on urban design and architecture. Download File

Quinn Lu is the director of WerkHart International Group, which is a top 10 non-governmental architectural design firm in China. With 20 years of professional experience of which more than 10 years was in Germany, Lu maintains rich experience in urban planning and architectural design; being an expert in energy efficient building design and modern building facade technology. Download File

Emmanuel Samuel is Sales Development Director for Autodesk Asia-Pacific. He is responsible for driving the Architecture Engineering and Construction Business in Asia Pacific. With more than 18 years of experience in the information technology industry, Emmanuel is a passionate evangelist for the transformation of the building in the face of contemporary, enduring challenges such as environmentally friendly/sustainable design, meeting the challenges of increasing urbanization/globalization, and addressing the threat of terrorism and natural disasters. With the building industry traditionally lagging in information technology, Emmanuel's mission encompasses driving the awareness and adoption of Building Information Modeling as a key platform for innovation, competitiveness and productivity in the building industry. Emmanuel holds a Bachelor of Business Management from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, an MBA from Dubuque University, Iowa and an MSc in Computing from DeMontford Univerisity in the UK. He currently resides in Singapore with his wife and 8-year-old daughter. Available Soon

Grace Cheok is a Senior Executive Development Officer of the Technology Development Divison, BCA. She has more than 10 years of experience in the areas of building regulatory control. Currently, she is actively involved in the development of the legislative framework on Environmental Sustainability for buildings as well as the newly revised BCA Green Mark Assessment Criteria under the BCA Green Mark Scheme. Download File

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