Perception Study of Industry Pioneers on Dense and green Building Typologies

Abstract

With the increasing number of dense and green building typologies in Singapore comes a paradigm shift in the perception of greenery as part of the built environment. This shift on the side of authorities has produced firm legislation-driven guidelines to achieve Singapore’s vision of being “a city in a garden”. Despite this motivation and the fact that having greenery in buildings has many benefits has generally been acknowledged, such typologies are still not often pursued by building industry professionals. This study was carried out to determine the current perception of industry pioneers and relevant recommended schemes promoted by the Singapore Government. For the investigation, seven industry pioneers (four architects and three landscape architects) who have designed and realised award-winning dense and green buildings, were chosen. In order to understand the impact and challenges that lead to individual perceptions, they were probed through a detailed analysis of interview transcripts. Information was collected using structured open-ended interviews, and the results were qualitatively analysed on NVivo. The qualitative study revealed that while there is a significant appreciation of the legislation leading to such typologies, there is also a consensus on improving such legislation to avoid pertinent issues. These legislations and relevant issues are identified and discussed in the paper. The study shows that the pioneers generally agreed on the advantages and benefits of dense and green building typologies. However, there was a disagreement among architects and landscape architects on the designed aspects that lead to usage and maintenance of greenery in buildings. Also, the study shows that there is ambiguity among the pioneers on the interpretation of existing legislation and its corresponding impact, which may or may not lead to flexibility in designing such typologies. The paper seeks to stage a two-way conversation among the industry professionals, to highlight and improve the gaps in perception while discussing existing policies, programs and incentives, aiming to enhance understanding of dense and green buildings in Singapore.