Century Square

In the early 1990s, Singapore building industry was not yet familiar with CSCD, both at consultant and contractor levels. Only the Japanese builders were offering CSCD services for renovation works. But their “design-and-build” contracts were priced at a premium.  So, when M&P’s Singapore office was established, clients began to try out M&P’s CSCD expertise so that the local contractors could execute similar quality of work at competitive rates.  Century Square was the first building in Singapore to adopt CSCD in its construction.

Using CSCD to Determine Ceiling Heights and Pre-warn Problems

Due to the CSCD requirement, M&P (Singapore) partnered our Hong Kong office to undertake this project. Initially the other project members were sceptical that the Owner would try out something new and with an “outsider”, and set stringent ceiling requirements that M&P was required to prove as unattainable.

In the 3rd meeting and before the M&E layout design stage, M&P tabled its CSCD sectional analysis based on the most likely M&E configurations. The meeting resolved that the ceiling heights as analysed by M&P were the maximum attainable for the project.

M&P’s CSCD sections also indicated that there was inadequate height for conventional beam at certain areas in Basement 2 carpark; and that flat slab structure should be considered for these areas. Later on during the construction stage, it was noted that the Main Contractor had constructed conventional beam structure throughout the Basement 2 carpark; and that there was inadequate height under the beams for the M&E installation at certain locations.  The affected R.C. structures were redone. But M&P had pre-warned this problem through its CSCD sections 18 months ago.