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It is exciting to see how technology can enhance the way we live.

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Singapore advancing in our Smart Nation Drive

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Singapore advancing in our Smart Nation Drive

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This is impressive!

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Singapore, Dubai and London are the smartest cities in the world, according to a new study by ABI Research.

The market-foresight advisory firm's Smart Cities Competitive Assessment report ranked Singapore as the leading smart city. It scored highest on all innovation criteria with a special focus on mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) and freight-as-a-service (FaaS) to maintain its leading role as a transportation and freight hub with driverless taxis, autonomous shuttles and platooning trials and projects.

Additionally, Singapore's smart nation initiative addresses a wide range of urban issues linked to high-density living.

The Smart City Ranking competitive assessment ranked 10 megacities across developed regions: New York (US); Los Angeles (US); Paris (France); London (UK); Dubai (United Arab Emirates); Beijing (China); Shanghai (China); Singapore; Tokyo (Japan; and Seoul (South Korea) based on ABI Research's innovation/implementation criteria framework.

Each city was analysed according to its innovation programmes, strategies and implementation achievements measured through verifiable metrics for congestion, air quality, GDP, crime rates, and cost of living.

In terms of innovation, cities are assessed on the extent of which they are embracing out-of-the-box thinking and planning to deploy disruptive technologies to fundamentally address the issues and challenges of megacities of the future across areas like mobility, transportation, energy, education, healthcare, and public services.

"Singapore and second-placed Dubai emerge as smart city leaders, excelling in innovation in terms of the adoption of next-generation technologies and disruptive smart city paradigms as structural solutions for hard problems. Dubai is leading the way in the implementation of distributed ledgers with all government transactions to be processed via blockchain technology by 2030," said Dominique Bonte, vice president end markets at ABI Research.

"Both cities also score high across most of the implementation criteria like congestion management, crime prevention, and safety. Dubai actually has a 'happiness index' which monitors the quality of public services and is aimed at improving overall citizen satisfaction."

London's third place is largely due to its advanced open data policies enabling a wider ecosystem of smart city application developers and start-ups. It forms part of a larger group of followers with New York, Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, and Los Angeles engaging in multiple smart cities programmes but often lacks a more ambitious vision to adopt transformative technologies and paradigms, usually linked to the legacy nature of their aging infrastructure.

They also typically struggle with one or more implementation metrics like crime, congestion, or cost of living, said ABI.

Shanghai and Beijing were assessed, unexpectedly, as 'laggers', ranked ninth and tenth respectively. Despite both cities' efforts to deploy technologies like smart meters and smart grids, bike-sharing, vehicle electrification, smart parking, and smart cards, they continue to face formidable issues related to congestion and pollution and trail the other cities on economic development in terms of GDP per capita.

At the same time, the report stated both cities have huge potential to improve their ranking in the future as they continue to evolve their smart cities solutions from basic sensor-centric technologies to more advanced approaches while benefiting from expertise gained during trials in smaller cities in China.
If you like this, you might be interested in reading the following: The future of smart city platforms
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Singapore, Dubai and London are the smartest cities in the world, according to a new study by ABI Research. The market-foresight advisory firm's Smart Cities Competitive Assessment report ranked Singapore as the leading smart city.

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You may attempt to raise the following questions

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You may attempt to raise the following questions

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| 1 | We understand that DP is a leading company with offices worldwide. What are some of the company’s principles that have brought such success in your field?
| 2 | How has your company harnessed technology in the last few years [in your administration as well as in designs] and what positive effects have you seen?
| 3 | What can we expect of Singapore as a smart city in the future? [
| 4 | Countries which already are paving the way for smart cities, who are they and how are they doing in terms of harnessing technology to positively impact the lives of citizens?
| 5 | What are the main obstacles standing in the way of making Singapore a sustainable and liveable city?
| 6 | With Singapore looking into an aging population, how would  innovations in the building industry help with the elderly leading a comfortable life?
| 7 | What special features are looked into when designing modern buildings?
| 8 | What safety designs are infused in buildings today and what more are in the pipeline for buildings of the future bearing in mind that Singapore is playing a vital role in international affairs.

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I hope to learn about the features of a sustainable green buildin

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To find what can be applied in sch

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Looking forward to apply what i have learnt from the visit to my teaching in class

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Looking forward to apply what i have learnt from the visit to my teaching in class

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I hope to find out more about the work done by DPArchitects

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I hope to find out more about the work done by DPArchitects

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I hope to find out more about DPArchitects.

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Future challenges for our students

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Technology disruption

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Sorry that I have accidentally deleted the original column. Hope we can continue our discussions/Sharing here

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DP Architects

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changing the mindset of staff as well as students  on the ever changing ways to perform a task.

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changing the mindset of staff as well as students  on the ever changing ways to perform a task.

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See

A well-established architectural firm with 1300 employee strong and running for 51 years.

Think

The firm's approach to digital disruption is one that is very pragmatic, use technology, in particular -applied research, into their architecture to create products (buildings) that are green.

A quote I remember from one presenter - "my boss would kill me if I did R&D ... we won't use it (technology) if it cannot be applied." Underlining how pragmatic the firm was in profit margin and how there was little room for error or creativity.

"The government is very strict ... it does most of the urban planning"; was the firm's response to how Singapore has faced criticism that its architectural landscape has copycat designs (Esplanade vis-a-vi Sydney opera house). The firm showed how strong a hand the government has on this private firm. Almost a brain child of our paternalistic government.

The firm seems to have the DNA of the Singaporean government - very scientific and pragmatic, very tried and tested. Even successful on the global stage - having completed some major projects around word.

Wonder

I wonder if there come a day when our government's approach needs to be changed? A time when we need to create more locally to thrive, rather than manage foreign disruptions just to survive. What is the Singapore brand we are marketing? I ponder even as world leaders have just had a summit here and we are raving about it. Is SLS then a token of MOE's attempt to create a Singapore brand? How will it stand out? Perhaps being safe and pragmatic, adapting on the work and research of others for 50 odd years has caused us to lose some of our identity. Are we to take the same path as our forefathers? Like father like son, but would there come a day when we have to step out of the shadow of the father? In dealing with disruption, is management and adaptation the way? Or do we chart out our own disruptions? Be given the space to create our own ripples?

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Alija | iStock | Getty Images

Vertical greenery will be the defining feature of future metropolises, according to urban policy experts, as governments across the globe invest millions in making their cities 'smart.

"Vertical green architecture is definitely a need for smart cities," said Matthew Clifford, head of energy and sustainability services, greater China at real estate services firm JLL. "You can have a great interconnected city but if you don't have an energy efficiency strategy in place, is it really a smart city?"

The idea of integrating greenery into a building's façade offers a practical spatial solution to environmental issues like carbon dioxide emissions, a by-product of urbanization. Green walls, roofs and gardens offer protection from ultraviolet rays, reduces ambient temperatures and keeps building interiors cool, which in turn decreases demand for air-conditioning and curtails a building's carbon footprint, explained Ng San Son, associate director at DP Architects.

"While information technology may be the main infrastructure and driver of a 'smart' city, green architecture plays a key role by creating a better quality of life. If people take pleasure in their surroundings, this contributes to higher productivity and a reduction in energy consumption in a smart city," he added.

Major players

Singapore, often referred to as the Garden City, is globally recognized for its investment in the sector as it aims to become the world's first smart nation by 2020. A 24-story residential condominium by City Developments Limited (CDL) set the Guinness World Record last year for the largest vertical garden, while the government offers commercial and residential customers 50 percent subsidies for installing vertical greenery solutions.

Greenery is a mandate in Singapore's new construction projects, explained JLL's Clifford. "It's an energy tool, not just an aesthetic. The city is an importer of energy and realizes it has finite resources so development is heavily skewed towards energy efficiency."

Elsewhere in Asia, Seoul and Bangkok are also spearheading the vertical green movement with projects like the Seoul New City Hall and Siam Paragon buildings.

While the trend is undoubtedly growing, it's more common in developed regions like Europe and North America. The city of Paris recently commissioned architect Vincent Callebaut to help the city achieve its goal of reducing 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The result was eight high-rise towers featuring green walls that recycle their own energies, solar energy generators that churn out biofuel and wind turbines that produce electricity, according to the project's outline.

Developing nations still aren't prioritizing sustainable design as a long-term solution since governments remain preoccupied with architecture that fulfils basic needs and address socio-economic disparities, DP Architects noted.

From gardens to farms

In addition to green walls, farming is also a key element of vertical design. By growing crops indoors stacked in racks to the ceiling, harvests remain safe from bad weather and infestations, providing an innovative solution to rising food demand in urban populations. The United Nations estimates that urban agricultural solutions like vertical farming is practiced by 800 million people worldwide and constitutes 15 percent of global food resources.

Darren Neo, director of Singaporean landscaping firm Vertical Green, opened an office in China two years ago where he sees massive potential for vertical farming.

"China's food scandals are so high, and vertical farming can be a great solution to that despite a lack of outdoor space" he said. "Installing green walls in your house, say in the living room, means you don't get any pests, resulting in pesticide-free herbs."

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World's smartest cities will look like this

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Alija | iStock | Getty Images Vertical greenery will be the defining feature of future metropolises, according to urban policy experts, as governments across the globe invest millions in making their cities 'smart. "Vertical green architecture is definitely a need for smart cities," said Matthew Clifford, head of energy and sustainability services, greater China at real estate services firm JLL.

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Just celebrated 50th anniversary last year. The largest architect company in Singapore. Successfully completed many projects in Singapore and other countries.
Think
DPA plays an important role in environment sustainability development.
Wonder
If the simulation and rectification for the building safety can be done on the old residential blocks.

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See
Purposeful design and using technology as an enabler
E.g. use of various simulations as part of design process to remove guess work and optimise design - gives them the competitive edge

Think
Architects have to embrace technology as new norm in their field of work.

Wonder
What would we need to equip our students for work in the future?
Skills - technologically savvy, innovation, collaboration
Mindset - open-mindedness, lifelong learning
Values - creativity

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One of the presenters mentioned that they did not keep to the most updated technology, but to use their current technology and think of ways to improve using the same tool. I think we can do likewise too, to find the ways of using the existing ICT tools we already know and use them in different ways in our lesson.

Use of technology in an effective and purposeful way. It improves efficiency and the simulations are very useful for architects for their design. We have been applying the same idea in our classrooms - to explain certain concepts with the help of ICT.

They have leverage on technology positively and purposefully. I have totally enjoyed the time spent at DPA

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One technique used is to do what is beneficial and productive and so DP is continuously looking at what can be learnt from other industries like the car industry and designing in a scientific way.  One example is designing buildings by looking at the sun path to save energy. 

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One technique used is to do what is beneficial and productive and so DP is continuously looking at what can be learnt from other industries like the car industry and designing in a scientific way.  One example is designing buildings by looking at the sun path to save energy. 

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Also, DP looks at breaking new grounds by working closely with partners who recycle organic waste into building materials.
DP definitely has the competitive edge because they have the numbers since they are the largest company in Asia,  and so have specialists in different areas and are continuously perfecting their art but do also work closely with partners. We too can harness the strengths of our partners more effectively.

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A successful company, DP believes that technology is just an enabler but it is their philosophy and and values that matter. - RISE - responsibility, integrity, self renewal and excellence. In their attempt to teach techniques and change mindsets, they have weekly sharing, monthly board meetings and biannual blueprint meetings. The importance of sharing by expert groups is essential for an organisation to move forward and discover new frontiers together. 

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A successful company, DP believes that technology is just an enabler but it is their philosophy and and values that matter. - RISE - responsibility, integrity, self renewal and excellence. In their attempt to teach techniques and change mindsets, they have weekly sharing, monthly board meetings and biannual blueprint meetings. The importance of sharing by expert groups is essential for an organisation to move forward and discover new frontiers together. 

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3 key words. Mindset, Specialisation and skills.

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3 key words. Mindset, Specialisation and skills.

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The presentation by DP reinforces our knowledge that technological advancements have affected and even disrupted most, if not all, sectors and industries, and that they have changed the way we think, live and work. Whether is it in the construction industry or educational sector, we need to constantly keep abreast of the latest technological tools and evaluate how can we apply them in our work to streamline our work processes and achieve more effective results. In the case of education, how can we use ICT to complement our teaching practices to develop critical and deep thinking while igniting the joy of learning.

DP shared that they have a DP Academy which trains their 1300 staff worldwide to ensure their skills and knowledge are updated. However, the challenge is changing people's old mindsets and attitudes to be open to the latest technology and developments. This is a similar challenge faced by the education sector because often change is uncomfortable and adopting it can be very time-consuming. However, with the rise of social media, the desire for greater connectivity and the expectation of greater efficiency, educators need to mentally prepare themselves to constantly embrace changes, be open to new ideas and question how can we improve our teaching pedagogies with the ICT tools available.  However, as one of the presenters shared, technology should not be adopted for the sake of it. Therefore, while we continue to improve and refine our teaching methods and styles, we need to bear in mind that ICT (tools) should only be incorporated when necessary.

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Very good trip. DP Architects is a leading company . It is a very successful company with subsidiaries in many countries. The company safety designs are infused in buildings . It has been a very good learning today, thanks! 

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Very good trip. DP Architects is a leading company . It is a very successful company with subsidiaries in many countries. The company safety designs are infused in buildings . It has been a very good learning today, thanks! 