IBEW 2022 aims for Industry Transformation

Amidst today’s global geopolitical tension, supply chain disruptions and the existential threat of climate change, the built environment (BE) industry needs to come together and build resilience. In this spirit, regional BE leaders and practitioners convened in person from 6–8 September 2022 for the International Built Environment Week (IBEW) Conference held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, concurrently with the trade exhibition Built Environment Xpo (BEX) Asia.

With the theme of Accelerating Transformation, Growing Together, the conference aims to strengthen collaboration across the entire value chain. Each day focused on a specific content pillar, covering topics from sustainability to innovative systems for growth.

Experiencing Green projects

IBEW offered pre-conference Site Tours on 5 September for delegates who wished to directly experience exemplary projects in Singapore. The guided tours included 10 projects and allowed delegates to interact directly with the people involved in designing and executing them. Some highlights included the DBS Newton Green, a 30-year-old building that underwent massive retrofitting to make it a net zero building; NTU Academic Building South, a project largely composed of mass-engineered timber (MET) and will be one of the largest timber buildings in Asia upon completion; and Avenue South Residences, the world’s tallest prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC) project.

Sustainable industry and cross-border Green ecosystem

The opening ceremony on 6 September saw Desmond Lee, Singapore’s Minister of National Development officiating the event. In the speech, he delivered an outline for collaboration across the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries through a refreshed Industry Transformation Map (ITM) for the built environment (BE) that adopts a life-cycle building approach.

First launched in 2017, the ITM has seen progress across three key transformation areas: Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA); Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD); and Green buildings. According to the Minister: “DfMA and IDD have helped progressive firms mitigate the impact of the pandemic over the past two years. For example, contractors who embraced DfMA technologies were able to minimise the impact of manpower shortages and deliver projects on time … We have also raised our sustainability ambitions for the built environment, in support of the Singapore Green Plan and our net zero aspirations.”

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