New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visit

Beca was delighted to welcome New Zealand Prime Minister Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern for a tour of the Beca-designed DUO development in the heart of Singapore last week.

The Prime Minister shared her impressions of DUO and Beca’s innovative sustainable design and engineering in a Facebook Live video.

Hayley Horan, New Zealand Trade Commissioner to Singapore, who accompanied the PM on the tour commented, “This sustainable building is a showcase for green technologies and engineering achievement and is a great example of the impact our professional services companies are having internationally. Kiwi ingenuity is truly driving our export numbers – our creativity and innovation is adding impressive value globally.”

DUO was a finalist in the tall or slender structures category in the prestigious awards run by the UK’s Institution for Structural Engineers, and the awards ceremony was held in London on Friday night. The eventual winner was The Dubai Frame.

About DUO

Designed by world-renowned architect Ole Scheeren, DUO’s two towers contain office and retail space, a five-star hotel plus luxury residential apartments, set in tropical gardens. Beca provided building services, civil and structural engineering, and environmental sustainable design (ESD) consultancy.

Green design features make DUO an exceptionally energy efficient building. There’s the use of double glazed low-E glass to increase the overall thermal performance of the towers, energy efficient LED lights within the car park, heat pumps for hot water generation to the hotel guest rooms and rainwater harvesting. To promote an even greener environment, DUO has replaced 100% of the greenery that has been removed or affected by its construction.

Steve Perkins, Beca Technical Director and Smart Cities leader, said “The whole Beca Singapore team is very proud to be associated with DUO, and would like to thank our client, M+S Pte Ltd, for their vision that enabled us to participate in such a sustainable and city shaping project. Singapore is such an exciting dynamic place to be designing smart infrastructure. Beca’s purpose is to ‘make everyday better’ and the creation of smart and sustainable buildings like this one truly delivers on that purpose!”