Introduction:

The owner of one parcel of land at Paya Lebar Crescent planned to redevelop (tear and rebuild) into cluster housing estate. Cluster housing projects have seen its popularity rise in recent years due to its unique features such as owning a landed property with a strata title, sharing common facilities with fewer households and good appreciation in prices.

The owner has engaged you to do research and propose preliminary design details for the development. The project specific write up should address the following questions:

Question 1

(a) Identify FIVE (5) authorities and/or technical departments that the owner or his appointed professionals must seek approval from before commencing the construction of the cluster housing project. One of the authority must be Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Subsequently, illustrate each authority’s functions and sequence of the approval seeking. (15 marks)

(b) Provide preliminary details of the development such as the maximum building height, total gross floor area, minimum boundary set back and number of units the owner can build based on the guidelines from URA. Note that exact figures are not expected but, the answers should demonstrate understanding of the general considerations in urban redevelopment in Singapore. (5 marks)

(c) Describe the typical procedure/process of site analysis for the purpose of foundation design. The answers should include what type of geology is expected in this project site (with information available in the study guide as reference), a soil investigation scheme (types of site investigation activities and its frequency appropriate for this project) and your choice of foundation.
(25 marks)

(d) Demonstrate your technical knowledge in basement construction, advise the owner whether is it feasible to build two levels of basements as car park and storage space. Your advice should be supported by the explanation of the construction sequence for the basement structure. Construction sequence should clearly state the choice of earth retaining structure (ERSS) and the reason it is being chosen. (25 marks)

(e) State and describe THREE (3) technologies which will enhance the building’s sustainability score as the owner strives to make it a green building and receive incentives. The description should include illustration on how each technology makes the development greener. (15 marks)

Report Presentation

(a) Cover page & Content page (2 marks)

(b) Graphic & Illustration with proper label & caption (appropriate usage, titles, sources) (4 marks)

(c) Organisation of the write up (sub-headings, font size, spacing, paragraphing, page number etc) (5 marks)

(d) Grammar usage, spelling and sentence structure (2 marks)

(e) Referencing (in-text citation and list of references) (2 marks)