Building Review Journal

09/08/2026

BRJ Discovers: What makes seamless access so important in modern buildings?

Chris Goodall, Senior Vice President & Managing Director at dormakaba, shares how intelligent access solutions are shaping the future of the built environment.

ArchiFest Dormakaba

08/08/2026

A celebration of ideas, innovation, and design.

Here's a look back at the highlights from Singapore Archifest, where architects, designers, and industry leaders came together to shape conversations on the future of the built environment.

This event series is developing. Follow to see what BRJ Discovers at ArchiFest 2026.

31/07/2026

When a government campaign moves from ministerial speech to service charge letters, it's worth paying attention.

Singapore's "Let's Save Energy Together" initiative is doing exactly that — and for commercial landlords and tenants, the implications are already financial, not just environmental.

Benjamin Soh, Founder of ESGpedia, breaks it down: with 95% of Singapore's electricity coming from natural gas, supply shocks hit commercial property first. The gap in monthly operating cost between an energy-efficient building and an older one can exceed six figures at current spot tariffs. And with the carbon tax on an upward trajectory, both the climate case and the cost case now point in the same direction.

Worth a read if you're in commercial property, asset management, or sustainability planning. Full article on BRJ at the link below.

30/07/2026

Singapore's construction industry is moving away from adversarial contracts — and the shift has government backing.

Traditional lump-sum and design-bid-build contracts push risk downstream to contractors, creating a claims-driven culture where disputes, delays, and budget overruns become likely outcomes. NEC4 collaborative contracts are designed to change that — with shared goals, early warning mechanisms, and equitable risk-sharing built into the contract itself.

In this BRJ analysis, Renee Paik, Head of Asia Pacific at NEC Contracts, explains how NEC4 works, why Singapore's Built Environment ITM supports the transition, and how the BCA Academy is already training the next generation of collaborative project managers.

Swipe through for the key points. Full analysis on BRJ at the link below.

29/07/2026

Singapore's buildings account for 20% of national carbon emissions. But the bigger challenge isn't what they consume — it's what they're made of.

Embodied carbon, locked into building materials at the point of manufacture and construction, can account for up to 40% of a building's total lifecycle emissions in Singapore — significantly higher than the global average. And unlike operational carbon, it can't be fixed after the fact.

In this BRJ opinion piece, Ng Kah Seng, R&D and Sustainability Director at Saint-Gobain Singapore Weber-Emix , argues that Singapore's path to net-zero depends on getting material selection right — from concrete mix optimisation to adaptive reuse strategies that can cut emissions by 50–75% compared to new construction.

Swipe through for the key insights. Full analysis on BRJ at the link below.

28/07/2026

Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue. For building owners, it's becoming an operational one.

WiredScore 's Thomasin Crowley, VP Asia Pacific, explains how the risk profile for buildings has fundamentally shifted over the past five years. The focus has moved from protecting corporate IT networks to protecting operational technology — the systems that control how buildings actually function.

The numbers are stark: 75% of organisations operate building systems with known vulnerabilities, and half of all cyber incidents now occur in OT systems. If those systems are compromised, the impact is immediate and physical — access control fails, environmental systems go down, buildings may become temporarily unusable.

The governance gap is the core problem: OT security falls between Property Management and IT, and in most organisations, neither team owns it.

Swipe through for the key risks and three practical steps building owners can take now. Full analysis on BRJ at the link below.

27/07/2026

AI is compressing property feasibility studies from weeks into a single session — and it's changing who controls the early stages of development.

In this BRJ interview, Quentin Sim, Chief Solutions Officer at Podium.io, explains how outcome-driven design works, why Southeast Asia's density and complexity make it especially valuable here, and what it means for architects, developers, and the broader AEC industry.

One insight worth sitting with: feasibility work in many SEA markets has long been treated as free pre-work pushed onto architects. AI is making it a valued, investable capability — and shifting who benefits.

Swipe through for the key takeaways. Full interview on BRJ at the link below.

26/07/2026

Carbon performance is now a financial issue — not just a sustainability one.

Cushman & Wakefield's annual Beyond the Carbon Blind Spot report finds that whole-life carbon performance can drive a 37% value differential between otherwise identical commercial buildings.

The shift: as operational energy improves, embodied carbon and Scope 3 emissions fill the gap — and for most real estate portfolios, Scope 3 is now the dominant emissions category. That's changing leasing decisions, capital allocation, and access to green finance.

There's also a counterintuitive finding worth knowing: tearing down and rebuilding can generate more total lifecycle carbon than retaining and refurbishing an existing asset.

Swipe through for the full breakdown. Full report on BRJ at the link below.

25/07/2026

Singapore's construction market enters 2026 on solid footing — but the numbers beneath the headline tell a more complicated story.

Total construction demand is projected at S$47–53 billion this year, underpinned by major public infrastructure: Changi Airport Terminal 5, MRT expansions, healthcare facilities, and growing industrial demand from AI data centres.

The pressure points: material costs are up 5–15%, construction inflation is forecast at 2–5%, and oil above US$100/barrel is adding strain to project timelines and budgets.

One development worth noting — BCA is shifting foreign worker skills testing from overseas to Singapore from January 2027, cutting hiring lead times by two to three months.

Swipe through for the full breakdown. Full report on BRJ at the link below.

02/07/2026

SCG Showcases Green Innovations and Low-Carbon Cement at Cemtech Asia 2026: SCG co-hosted Cemtech ASIA 2026, a world-class conference and exhibition for the global cement sector held from June 14 to 17, 2026. Driven by a shared commitment to accelerating low-carbon […]

The post SCG Showcases Green Innovations and Low-Carbon Cement at Cemtech Asia 2026 appeared first on Building Review Journal.

SCG co-hosted Cemtech ASIA 2026, a world-class conference and exhibition for the global cement sector held from June 14 to 17, 2026.