Date: 12–14 September 2017
Company: Reed Exhibitions
Celebrating its 10th edition, Build Eco Xpo (BEX) Asia 2017 and its co-located events—Mostra Convegno Expocomfort (MCE) Asia and International Green Building Conference (IGBC)—ended in September. Held at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, the events played host to 10,775 visitors from over 50 countries. Attendees were able to get a first-hand look at the latest innovations and insights from 400 participating exhibitors from over 20 countries.
BEX Asia is Southeast Asia’s leading trade exhibition for the Green building market, while MCE Asia the region’s leading trade exhibition for energy-efficient solutions that power industrial, commercial and residential buildings. They are the key anchor trade exhibitions of Singapore Green Building Week (SGBW), which hosts a wide variety of events to galvanise the community to act on sustainability, reaching out to international Green building experts, policymakers, academics, built environment practitioners, end-users, as well as members of the public and students.
At the opening of SGBW 2017, guest of honour Desmond Lee, Minister for Social and Family Development, and Second Minister for National Development, commented on how Singapore aims to reduce carbon emissions by making it a priority to ‘Green’ our buildings. He announced that the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has reviewed its 3rd Green Building Masterplan. New initiatives arising from this review will be rolled out in phases, to enhance the indoor environment quality for occupants, encourage high energy-efficient buildings as well as greening existing buildings and spaces.
The BEX Asia and MCE Asia exhibition floors brimmed with the latest Green building and energy-efficient technologies, providing visitors with a broad view of the vast array of solutions driving meaningful change in Asia.
Highlights of the event included the Future Home showcase curated by Surbana Jurong Consultants Pte Ltd, which demonstrated how sustainable technologies can be integrated into the most basic structure: a house. The showcase aimed to highlight how cities in Asia can be environmentally resilient and future-proof themselves by the thoughtful integration of technology.
Featuring a line-up of industry experts, BEX Asia and MCE Asia’s seminar tracks, titled Green View and Mostra Xchange respectively, brought together the region’s best minds for discussion of strategies to create living spaces that are functional, aesthetic and sustainable. One such expert was Dr Benny Chow, Director of Sustainability at Aedas, who shared the latest research on leveraging computational tools to design people-centric, sustainable urban neighbourhoods, as well as how building performance affects health.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) for intuitive and smart buildings was a key discussion area at the event. Designed to accelerate automation amidst technological advancements such as the Internet of Things, the Smart Web feature showcased intelligent solutions such as building and lighting controls, HVAC optimisation, access and security controls, and electrical network controls that provide actionable insights to help drive better building efficiency.
Also for the first time, the use of cutting-edge technology such as virtual reality (VR) in building design and construction was featured to encourage designers, developers and contractors to incorporate these tools in their future projects.
As technology is increasingly integrated into building and construction, this was an interesting and fun way for visitors to experience the potential of building functions.
This year, more than 700 business matching meetings were prearranged to facilitate qualified connections on the show floor.
BCA and Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) were the strategic partners of BEX and MCE Asia, which were also supported by 20 of the region’s associations and partners from Canada, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines and Singapore. The co-located events return to Singapore next year from 5 to 7 September 2018. For more information, visit www.bex-asia.com and www.mcexpocomfort-asia.com.
