Rei Kurohi

Winning projects by Nanyang Tech-nological University (NTU) and theHousing Board were among therecord 424 awards given out by theBuilding and Construction Authori-ty at the annual BCA Awards cere-

mony yesterday.NTU was the inaugural recipient

of the new Green Mark PlatinumStar Champion award, the highestaccolade given out by BCA for sus-tainable design.

NTU also won 37 Platinum GreenMark Awards for various projects,including the upcoming Academic

Block North and the Clinical Scienc-es Building at its Novena campus.

Both buildings were designedwith energy-saving features such asdemand-driven ventilation andhigh-performance glass windowswith a special glaze that cuts heatabsorption.

NTU’s Provost, Professor Freddy

Boey, said: “NTU also has bold plansto become one of the world’s mostenvironmentally friendly universi-ty campuses. The university hasbeen on a rapid drive to green all itsnew buildings as well as retrofit ex-isting ones.”

The HDB bagged 33 awards in to-tal for 30 projects, including its

Greenprint pilot neighbourhoodproject in Yuhua estate, which wona Platinum Green Mark Award.

Its Build-To-Order project Sky-Ville @ Dawson, completed in Julylast year, is the first public housingproject to win the Platinum Univer-sal Design Mark Award.

Chief executive officer CheongKoon Hean said: “We are honouredthat our efforts in creating sustaina-ble, well-built, and well-designedhomes and living environments forour residents have been recog-nised.” She promised to continue todeliver homes and estates that resi-dents would be proud of.

Other eco-friendly developersrecognised include CapitaLand,which received Green Mark awardsfor seven local and 14 overseasprojects.

City Developments won 10 GreenMark awards, including the GreenMark Pearl Prestige award for thesecond year running.

In total, BCA gave out 304 GreenMark awards this year, which werepresented by Minister for NationalDevelopment Lawrence Wong.

He said: ““Today, about 30 percent of our buildings have green fea-tures. By green features, I mean fea-tures that include being energy andwater efficient, being sensitive totheir surrounding environmentsand providing a high quality indoorenvironment for their users. Weaim to get 80 per cent of buildingswith green features by 2030.”

Since 2014, BCA has required ex-isting commercial buildings with agross floor area of 15,000 sq m ormore to comply with minimum sus-tainability standards when beingretrofitted with new cooling sys-tems.

From 2017, this will extend tobuildings with a gross floor area ofmore than 5,000 sq m.

rkurohi@sph.com.sg

LEFT: HDB’s SkyVille @ Dawson is the first public housing project to win the Platinum Universal Design Mark Award. CENTRE: An artist's impression of NTU’s upcoming student hostel at North Hill. NTU plans to green all its new buildings and retrofitexisting ones. RIGHT: An artist's impression of NTU’s upcoming Academic Block North which won the Platinum Green Mark Award. PHOTOS: COURTESY OF HDB, NTU

Award is amongrecord 424 prizesgiven out by BCAat annual event

NTU wins top award for eco-design