Aaron Foong

Tell us about your guiding approach to structural engineering design and in managing clients’ expectations as a Director of Civil and Structural Engineering at KTP Consultants?
We work as a team in all our projects and it is of foremost importance to understand our clients’ vision and their particular development objectives. At the onset of the project, we will have to agree or agree to disagree as a team on the design considerations and their priorities in managing stakeholders’ expectations. The clarity in the direction allows more time to be spent on meaningful engagement in the design process instead of scrambling to recuperate over abortive works. Personally, I find it intellectually stimulating to manage both business development and technical delivery roles in my capacity. At any one time, I have multiple projects ongoing in various stages of development under my team, but I always see it as an advantage because it enables the high-level strategic overview of the latest trends and international perspectives. The humanistic attitude of our work and the intellectual stimuli to be constantly on the cutting edge of the profession continue to motivate us to deliver quality service.

Could you give an example of a recent and creative structural design solution that you have successfully implemented?
A good structural design goes hand in hand with good architectural design, whereby the participants have to understand the purpose of the resultant space and the visioning of the delight in its creation. In The Scotts Tower project, we immersed ourselves in the iterative opportunity to realise an impactful sky lobby frame that organises the communal amenities space envisioned by UNStudio by transferring 30 floors of superstructure above the frame onto four slanting mega columns. It was a challenging process to manage expectations and engage with all the stakeholders, including ourselves internally, in order to deliver a practical solution that can be executed in an elegant and cost-effective manner. We went back to the engineering fundamentals and devised an outrigger structural cantilever transfer solution that maximises the potential of the central core wall elements. The proposal went through rigorous engineering analysis, from conceptual hand calculations right up to sophisticated nonlinear time-dependent analysis. The collaboration between us and the architects had been the key to its success underpinned by mutual education. We were constantly exchanging vocabularies between engineering terms and aesthetics language before finally arriving at a common solution for a better product by way of higher economy, buildability and value-adding function and aesthetics.

What do you think is a major strength of KTP Consultants and how have you personally contributed towards its success?
The collective resources, industry-wide connectivity and experience in KTP make the difference. We have a strong team with a good balance of technical knowledge depth, cultural understanding of the industry and the rigour of open-mindedness in exploring new solutions. Our active management approach means that we work hand in hand with all our clients and stakeholders of the project to deliver sensible solutions right from the concept stage until the completion of construction. We are always a phone call away should there be a need for discussion. Beyond marketing and communication, our work is supported by internal research and development resources, which are essential for us to stay relevant in our value propositions. Technology has certainly facilitated our work and enabled us to weave across all sectors of available digital information. What we can do today cannot be imagined five years ago. Advancement in material strength and choices, digital visualisation and intelligent buildable technology has helped us to increase productivity and sustainability tenets of our delivery. In the old world view, technology is an outcome of engineering but we are riding the reverse scenario in the new world lenses whereby technology is being used as a tool for enhancement of engineering processes because engineering is a profoundly creative process that makes use of all available resources to solve constraints.

In coming up with creative engineering solutions, what considerations come to mind at the onset of your engagement as well as discussion with clients and consulting partners, such as architects?
Various projects will have differing functional briefs, design drivers and contextual considerations. Creativity is not something that we spell out as objective but rather it is a natural individualistic by-product of our open-mindedness to cross-fertilise knowledge and application between various aspects of our work, in order to carve out intelligent and sensibly tailored solutions in all our projects. With the advancement of sophisticated modelling tools, there are increasingly blurred boundaries between the traditionally subscribed notion of aesthetic decisions by the architects and all other functional requirements by the engineers. In this regard, we are pragmatic about our engineering solutions while respecting the lead. Individual silos are broken down and multidisciplinary collaboration has become a basic requirement in building design today. At the same time, we are also judicious to ensure that we do not over-engineer or reinvent the wheel because what matters is that the solution works.

Structural engineering is a discipline that includes damage assessment, repair plans, inspections, providing component specifications, building investigation and design. What are some recent memorable projects that you have worked on?
Our team and I have been very privileged to have worked on various public and private sector projects ranging from conservation, alteration to new build mixed-use development projects in our line of engineering work. Recent projects include the redevelopment of Maxwell Chamber Suites for the Ministry of Law. The surgical structural alteration works with new foundation underpinning onto parts of the original building structures first built in 1928 is a humanistically engaging and intellectually stimulating process. To sandwich in new load path without compromising the integrity of the conserved building elements in upgrading the former spatial specifications to modern demands, we worked from first principles engineering approach to carve designs that are reasonably flexible to accommodate scenario based strategic planning due to possible undocumented as-built conditions during the construction. It is an honour to be entrusted with the heightened responsibility to see that the structural intervention works are designed and subsequently carried out in a sensitive, thoughtful and intelligent manner to safeguard the overriding priorities of historical preservation. Along the way, I personally learned so much more about the history of our buildings in that era and it is a refreshing feel.

What do you think are the major challenges faced in managing the company and by the structural engineering industry in Singapore in general?
The success of our work has always been about having the right people. In a much globalised environment today, talent retention is a challenge and yet a priority. The digital revolution has brought about transparency of available information of all sorts and increased the mobility of the skill sets of our people. This is a natural process driving the advancement of industry competitiveness, but for us, what takes precedence is the objective of high quality in the design that our team can create from the best resources available. Structural engineering in our built environment is evolving to drive the sustainability ethos and the challenge is the mindset. In Singapore, the industry stakeholders are progressively taking calculated steps to adapt to more productive building technologies as we continue to increase footprint in a more urbanised environment with depleting traditional labour resources. Project turnaround time has also shortened considerably as expectations for design documentation speed has increased with modern computing tools.

What are the main objectives that you try to meet in every design?
Safety, functionality, cost efficiency, practicality and buildability. Alongside these key objectives, we look at the specific context of the development and how we can add value as a team. I have always maintained that there is no right or wrong answer to every design that we produce. It is more important that there must be a dialogue to communicate our thought processes and synthesis of the issues at hand, and we present our case to the stakeholders with appropriate recommendations driven by specific priorities. With this systematically documented approach, we are open for scrutiny in all our engineering designs by stakeholders and peer reviewers alike. We are also keeping abreast with the evolving standards of building design, while being firmly guided by fundamental principles of scientific laws. For example, we are much more open today to elevate the considerations of future-proofing, flexibility of usage and security protection in the process of design. The influence of life-cycle thinking in our engineering activities will become a norm to create engineering solutions beyond current or dominant technologies with backbones to cater for the improvement and innovation in future technologies.

What principles are fundamental to your work ethos and culture?
Integrity underpins the very core foundation of our work. It constantly reminds us of the relentless duty that we owe to the public at large and to be honest in our day-to-day delivery of work. While we engage in bold design solutions that continually push the boundaries of structural engineering, we are always guided by first principles of safety. It serves as checks and balances to preserve quality in our work, and cultivates an open environment to call a spade a spade and graciously admit when we could have done better. In our day-to-day operations, we are habitually guided by the essential scientific view of continual contrarian scrutiny to caution us on the probability of error against the possibility of success.

What are some of the major accolades that you have won and how have they motivated you?
We see accolades as one of the forms of recognition for the good work that we have put in and appreciate them. However, far beyond plaques and awards, what motivates our team and I every day is the privilege to serve and contribute meaningfully with our unique skill set for the built environment. I have been extremely fortunate and humbled to have been standing on the shoulders of mentors who are giants in their respective fields and who had been selfless in their guidance. Their perseverance and humility had enabled me to experience a gratifying journey of continuously making a difference to our community as a structural engineer since the early days of my career and I am forever thankful.

As a professional engineer, what are your upcoming plans for 2017–2018?
We are all going through an economy that is challenging and evolving. We will continue to do our best in engineering a more liveable and future-proofed built environment. Engineering has contributed enormously to the quality of life we enjoy today, and the opportunities for the future are likely to be ever greater but we must be open to pursue collaborations with multidisciplinary teams of experts across multiple fields. In this regard, we are increasing our outreach to the overseas market, especially in the South East Asia region, by leveraging on our five decades of track records and the various multidisciplinary skill sets in Surbana Jurong.