What BCA’s DESA award for Er Aaron Foong for Maxwell Chambers Suites means
Er Aaron Foong, Managing Director of KTP Consultants, a member of Surbana Jurong Group, achieved BCA’s Design & Engineering Safety Award – Excellence as the Qualified Person for his innovative engineering solutions for Maxwell Chambers Suites. The award recognises engineering solutions that overcame project challenges and ensured safe design and construction.
One of the biggest challenges that the engineers faced in working on the conservation building was the construction of the 20m overhead bridge that links the two heritage buildings – Maxwell Chambers Suites and Maxwell Chambers.
According to The Straits Times, he used a novel Z-profile steel brace that has not been used in any other building in Singapore.
Er Foong shared, “To support the additional load of the bridge while preserving the façade and existing structures of the heritage buildings, we devised a novel asymmetrical composite Z-brace solution that is unlike any conventional structure strengthening methods. With this innovative strengthening done from the interior of the building safely, the entire link bridge could be installed efficiently during off peak hours in a day, while Wallich Street below the bridge remained largely operational.” (Read more )
Er Foong was gratified to receive a congratulatory letter from Mr Desmond Lee, the Minister for National Development on his win. This is not Er Foong’s first DESA award. He has consistently achieved the award for projects such as for several developments, including CT Hub, The Luxurie, The Scotts Tower, NUS AS8, and The Arc at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Er Foong has won the coveted title of Young Structural Engineer of the Year, awarded by the Association for Consulting Engineers Singapore, which celebrates robust structural engineering work that demonstrates high-quality design and engineering abilities.
“Good structural design goes hand in hand with good architectural design,” he said, advocating an open mind that allows cross-fertilisation of knowledge and collaboration to achieve intelligent and well-tailored solutions in his projects.
