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[EdgeProp Singapore Excellence Awards 2019] Driving Excellence

By Bernard Tong

/ EdgeProp Singapore |

October 25, 2019 4:40 PM SGT

On Oct 18, more than 200 VIPs and guests turned up to celebrate the developers and projects that stood out at the third EdgeProp Singapore Excellence Awards 2019. The gala dinner was held at the JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach.

This year, we received 61 project submissions from 29 developers. Of these, 19 projects were recognised at the gala dinner.

The judges had their work cut out for them – evaluating each submission, which included detailed descriptions on the uniqueness of each project; patiently and painstakingly sifting through and scoring all the fine candidates; shortlisting potential sites and showflats to visit; and finally, sitting down together to discuss and decide on the winners.

Many of the scores were very close: This is a sign of the quality of the projects that were submitted this year. There were also some who walked away with multiple awards.

We would like to thank KPMG for auditing the results before we announced the winners.

We are very fortunate to have a group of dedicated and committed judges to help us this year. The rigorous process they had to go through deserve accolades of their own:

Professor Yu Shi Ming, head of NUS’ Real Estate Department, whose knowledge and contribution to the judging panel were immeasurable;

Ong Choon Fah, CEO of Edmund Tie, whose wealth of experience in the real estate industry was an immense help as she provided market insights on each property segment;

Yvonne Tan, director of DP Green, and the landscape design specialist on our panel. She was instrumental in evaluating the submissions for landscape design, which has increasingly become a differentiating factor for many projects;

Khew Sin Choon, president and group CEO of CPG Corp, whose decades of experience working on landmark projects worldwide has provided him with valuable insights for the judging process;

Angela Lim, director, SuMisura, Numero Uno Creative Group, the design specialist on this year’s panel. Her flair for interior design and attention to detail was invaluable as we pored through the layouts and visited showflats during the site tours.

This year’s winners stood out in a few subtle, yet impactful ways. To cultivate the culture of responsible building, government authorities in Singapore demand financial prudence and high construction standards from developers, which in some ways may limit creative design possibilities.

The use of prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC) requirements imposed on many of the residential sites offered under the Government Land Sales programme may curb architects’ creative flair somewhat. However, it is done to increase productivity, drive quality and efficiency as well as reduce noise and dust pollution on site during the construction phase.

The winners of this year’s awards have shown how well they have worked within these constraints by creating projects that are distinctive and creating value for future homeowners.

Some projects have stood out for being inclusive, preserving the heritage in the area, and for being sustainable projects that will stand the test of time.

It is my wish that through the awards, we will continue to drive positive transformation and be held as the benchmark of excellence in Singapore’s property development community.

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