Worlds tallest offsite constructed residential building tops out

It’s a message about the Singaporean Government’s commitment to offsite construction (offsite constructed building) that began several years ago with the 2018 announcement that mandated prefabricated, prefinished, and volumetric construction (PPVC) for all projects on government land.

The government backs this with subsidies for companies that participate with the aim of increasing and standardising modern methods of construction (MMC) in the country, and the topping-out of the worlds tallest offsite constructed residential building has taken full advantage of these incentives.

With the last module placed atop the 56-storey Avenue South Residence (ASR), UOL Group Limited and its joint venture partners – Singapore Land Group and Kheng Leong Company and its main contractor United Tec Construction, last week celebrated the event which was hosted by the Singaporean Minister for National Development, Desmond Lee.

The event took place at Silat Avenue where  the offsite constructed PPVC residential twin towers were stacked, assembled and installed.

The UOL Group is one of the first developers in Singapore to adopt PPVC for its developments, and its other projects – The Clement Canopy and more recently, Clavon – have also used MMC offsite construction methodology.

The 1,074-unit Avenue South Residence comprises two 56-storey towers reaching 192 metres and five low-rise conservation blocks. The development is integrated with a park that connects to the 24km- long rail rorridor.

The developers are claiming that the PPVC method improved productivity of this project by about 40% in terms of manpower and time savings.

Watch their story here:

The technology also reduced pollution and noise as the apartment modules were built offsite, improving the health and safety of construction workers and people living and working near the project site. In addition, quality control was improved as the PPVC modules were built in a controlled factory environment.

In all, more than 3,000 free-standing volumetric apartment modules completed with internal finishes, fixtures and fittings, were built in an offsite construction factory in Tuas (West region of Singapore) and transported to the construction site to be stacked one on top of the other.

Mr Liam Wee Sin, UOL Group Chief Executive, said: “We thank Minister Desmond Lee for gracing the topping out ceremony of the world’s tallest PPVC residential development.

“Avenue South Residence has demonstrated how government policies and initiatives, together with industry adoption of digitalisation and technology, can help the built environment industry improve productivity, attract talent and build resilience to grow for tomorrow.

“Our industry continues to face headwinds aggravated by COVID-19 such as foreign labour shortages, low productivity and supply chain disruptions. To overcome some of the issues, we must adopt digitalisation for integrated digital delivery; decarbonisation to address long-term climate change issues; and develop industry alliance to accelerate transformation as exemplified in this project.”

Mr Allan Tan, Managing Director of United Tec Construction, said: “We are happy to have the opportunity to work with UOL again to construct Avenue South Residence, the largest residential development that uses the PPVC method. While there were some challenges such as the COVID-19 disruptions, productivity still went up about 40% compared with conventional methods without compromising on project quality and safety. I believe this is the sustainable way forward for construction.”

Avenue South Residence is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2023.

See: www.uol.com.sg/our-business/residential
Buy one here: www.avenuesouthresidencecondo.com.sg

CLICK HERE to return to the home page for more articles.