The BCI Asia Top 10 Awards 2006:
A Review

Business acumen meets sustainable design at BCI Asia Top 10

Incorporating sustainable design into commercial practice was the hot topic at this year’s ceremonies for the BCI Asia Top 10 Awards 2006. The ceremonies in Bangkok, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Singapore were attended by more than a thousand architects, developers and journalists.

BCI Asia Chairman Dr. Matthias Krups urged the recipients of this year’s awards to use their market leadership positions to promote sustainable design. The BCI Asia Top 10 Awards 2006 recognise the architectural firms in eight Asian markets that are to make the greatest contribution to the built environment this year.

A great responsibility has dawned on these leaders in architecture to help ensure the sustainable development of our built environment, Dr. Krups said at the ceremonies.

“The facts on sustainability and our environmental challenges are well–known, largely undisputed and devastating,” he said. “Due to its ongoing population growth and urbanisation, Asia represents one of the major battlegrounds for sustainable design. The only way for Asia, and the world, to survive urban development on such a massive scale is to focus on sustainability.”

Leading architects gave presentations at overseas ceremonies, sharing some of the lessons learnt as Top 10 architects in their home markets. Guest speakers included Ong Tze Boon, Director of Singapore-based Ong & Ong Architects Pte Ltd; Pierre-Jean Malgouyres, Deputy General Director of Vietnam-based ARCHETYPE; Ren Lizhi, Deputy President of China-based Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tongji University; Teng Wai Mun, Executive Vice President of Singapore-based CPG Consultants Pte Ltd; Hu Yue, Chief Architect of China-based Beijing Institute of Architectural Design; Terry Tay, Director, Architects Team 3 (Pte); Patrick Lee, Assistant Vice President of Development Projects Division, Surbana International Consultants Pte Ltd; and Cui Kai, Vice President of China Architecture Design & Research Group.

The ceremonies were attended by influential architects such as Architects Regional Council Asia’s (ARCASIA) Chairman Yolanda Reyes; Peter Pran from the U.S., Kazuo Iwamura from Japan and representatives of national architectural institutes.

The ceremonies were reported widely in daily newspapers such the Business Times and LianHe Zaobao in Singapore; The Saigon Times in Vietnam; Beijing Youth Daily and Beijing Evening News in China; Bisnis Indonesia and Investor Daily in Indonesia; Bangkok Post in Thailand; Nan Yan Business, The Sun and New Straits Times in Malaysia; The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Standard Today and The Bulletin in the Philippines. The Top 10 was also reported widely in online media and on television.

Each ceremony gave architects an opportunity to mingle with peers and to review technology from the Top10 Patrons—Autodesk, Nippon Paint, Schindler, SCHOTT and Legrand/BTicino (Southeast Asia only) and Grohe (Mainland China only)—and local sponsors.

Recio & Casas Architects Director Jose Pedro C. Recio said in Manila: “Once again, congratulations on another successful Top 10 for BCI, made even more interesting this time with a video presentation from Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tongji University on the Expo 2010 in Shanghai. These awards continue to inspire us!”

In Kuala Lumpur, AKITEK SURIA Principal Ar. Mior Zawari Hassan said the strength of the Top 10 lay in the objectivity of BCI Asia’s research in Southeast Asia and China.

In his speech at the ceremonies, Dr. Krups said: “Before the inception of BCI Asia’s Top 10 there was little way of knowing who the leading architectural firms in a given region were. And yet it is important to understand that these firms play a huge role to in our modern, increasingly urbanised society... We salute their commercial success, but perhaps more so their immense responsibility in ensuring a sustainable future of our built environment.”

The BCI Asia Top 10 Awards were conceived in 2005 to provide an international overviewof architecture firms designing the most significant body of structures in eight regional markets in Asia.