Surbana Jurong unveils new HQ in Singapore with space for 4,000 staff
Infrastructure and engineering consultancy Surbana Jurong has unveiled a new global headquarters to be built in Singapore, with enough space to accommodate 4,000 employees.
Due for completion in 2021, the ‘Surbana Jurong Campus’ will serve as the growing infrastructure firm’s new global headquarters, spread out over nearly 70,000 square metres of greenfield space with facilities to accommodate up to 4,000 employees. The Campus will be built in Jurong Innovation District, described as a “vibrant ecosystem of enterprises in advanced manufacturing, urban solutions and smart logistics.”
Designed by Safdie Surbana Jurong (SSJ), a long-term collaboration between Safdie Architects and Surbana Jurong, and created by renowned architect Moshe Safdie, the new base is intended to embody the character of Singapore as the Garden City by blending in with its natural surrounds, while also incorporating the latest in green technologies and sustainable design as to both its construction and operation.
Features for the site – which has been designed to meet Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) Green Mark Platinum Certification for Super Low Energy Building – will include solar photovoltaic technology for renewable energy, rain-gardens and bioswale to enhance water sustenance, and such green technologies as smart lighting, underfloor air-distributions, and live and predictive management control systems.
Describing the campus as a nerve centre and living lab for development and innovation in the built environment sector – featuring dedicated spaces for research and the test-bedding of new ideas – the firm also notes the strategic importance of the location, with the potential to tap in to and collaborate with the Jurong Innovation District’s diverse ecosystem of start-ups, technology enablers and R&D and capability developers.“The building of our global headquarters represents SJ’s growth ambition," said Surbana Jurong CEO Wong Heang Fine. "With its myriad of new-generation working spaces, our new Campus is envisaged to be a conducive and lively environment for meaningful collaboration and to nurture innovation as we explore new ways to address urban challenges and reinvent cities. We also hope that a world-class workspace will further attract and retain global talents.”
Being that Surbana Jurong is one of the leading infrastructure organisations in Asia, the consulting firm’s own multi-disciplinary team will oversee the entire project across the board (which is being developed by the firm’s investment arm, Surbana Jurong Capital), from architecture, engineering, landscaping and design to cost and project management, workplace strategy, integrated facilities management and even security services.
According to the firm, the project will be developed by leveraging its expertise in Building Information Modelling (BIM, most basically, a project management tool based on 3D modelling, with the Asian region having the lowest current levels of implementation) and extending it to a comprehensive Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD) – described as an advanced info-communications technology to fully integrate processes and stakeholders along the development value-chain.
“Utilising the Group’s full range of capabilities to develop this project, the Surbana Jurong Campus will be a showcase of how we can support our clients to bring a development project from vision to reality," the Surbana Jurong CEO said in a groundbreaking speech. "From planning, financing and design, through to delivery and management, we have a fully integrated and complete set of services to successfully deliver a project from concept to completion.”
While the new headquarters will have the capacity to house 4,000 staff, this number is now just a fraction of the firm’s global headcount of greater than 14,000 – spread across more than 120 offices in 40-plus countries spanning the Asia Pacific, Middle East, Americas, Africa and UK, with among others the Robert Bird Group of Australia and most recently B+H Architects in Canada falling under its banner. Together, the firm’s enterprises currently bring in annual revenues of around S$1.5 billion – with aims to nearly double that over the next few years.