Speech by Minister Chee Hong Tat at the 62nd Singapore Institute of Architects Annual Dinner
Jun 25, 2025
INTRODUCTION
A very good evening. I’m very happy to join all of you tonight at this dinner.
This year marks the 62nd anniversary of the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA). In the past 60 years of nation building, SIA and our local architectural fraternity have made invaluable contributions to the transformation of our built environment here in Singapore.
Tonight, we want to celebrate your hard work and your dedication in shaping Singapore’s future. As architects, you play a vital role in designing the character of our city, and uplifting the quality of life for every Singaporean.
TRANSFORMING OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENT
In the next phase of Singapore’s urban transformation, we will need to deal with various challenges, including the shifting global economic order and the impact of climate change, while meeting the growing demand for housing and also to be able to rejuvenate our older estates to provide high-quality living environment for all.
Now earlier this morning, my colleagues and I were at URA where we launched the Draft Master Plan 2025.
The exhibition shares the vision for our city-state in the next 10 to 15 years, and the strategies that we want to use to be able to drive the next phase of our urban transformation. We consulted almost 220,000 Singaporeans, who have come forward in the past two years, to share with us their ideas, dreams, hopes and aspirations for the Singapore that they want to see in the future. This is one of the most extensive engagements URA has conducted, and it also reflects our commitment to be able to co-create our future together with our stakeholders, including all of you – our architects.
All of you here are important partners in this journey. You are the architects who translate vision into form, and plans into places where people live, work, and play. We value your creative spirit, and your rich expertise and experience.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for working with the Government – with my colleagues from the various agencies, on various projects. Some of you have worked with URA to envision how we can transform Paya Lebar Airbase and Sembawang Shipyard into future towns for our residents to live and work. While others have worked on projects that can help to enliven our everyday public spaces, such as the Play @ Punggol installations along Punggol Waterway and, the upcoming enhancement of Raffles Place Park. Thank you also to SIA for partnering URA to bring this year’s Archifest to the Katong-Joo Chiat precinct. We look forward to more vibrant and engaging public spaces in this precinct.
Before I became the Minister for National Development, I spent a few years at the Ministry of Transport – first as Senior Minister of State and later as Minister, and I am familiar with SIA’s strong support for the Government’s projects, including working with MOT. We formed this Transport Infrastructure Collaboration Panel, SIA was one of the representatives together with the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (REDAS) and the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES) to enhance the process efficiency in various areas, such as traffic impact assessments. The other one that we wanted to tap on our architects to help us, was this project that I started when I was at MOT, which is to rejuvenate all our older MRT stations, and also to make better use of the spaces, for example, below the viaducts, and transform them into places that the public can use, for community, for commercial, and so on, and so forth. So that is also another area that we want to thank the architects for giving us good ideas, for working together with us, and I hope that you will continue to work closely with MND and LTA on these projects.
TRANSFORMING THE ARCHITECTURAL PROFESSION
The future of our built environment rests not just on our plans and blueprints, but also the imagination and creativity of the design community. For our urban transformation journey to succeed, we need more partners – people with the skills, experience, a strong sense of purpose and who want to give back, and who want to contribute to society.
I am therefore especially encouraged by our emerging generation of younger architects. It gives me great pleasure to announce the fourth edition of URA’s 20 under 45 architects. I would like to congratulate these outstanding individuals for their achievement in architectural design, ideas, and leadership. They reflect the diversity of talent, passion, and drive that will continue to define our local architectural fraternity. I hope that our young architects, will also, like their predecessors, including some of the distinguished members who are here, inspire future generations of even younger architects, to join this community. The Government will continue to provide opportunities for our young architects to shape our public spaces through design competitions. And I hope to be able to work closely with all of you to see how we can make our public spaces and our built environment even better, even more vibrant.
We must also press on with our efforts to attract and nurture a steady pipeline of talent for the architectural profession. We understand the challenges that architectural firms face in competing for projects, investing in technologies and attracting young Singaporeans to pursue a career in architecture. We also hear the anxieties of younger architects about pay, about career development opportunities, including how to balance different commitments, work, family, how to strike a balance between work and life.
These challenges have far-reaching consequences beyond the architectural profession. Our Built Environment sector can only be strong when every part of the ecosystem can attract and retain its fair share of talent, including the architectural profession.
This is why we set up the Taskforce for Architectural and Engineering Consultants last September. This is co-led by my colleague Minister Indranee Rajah and Mr Chaly Mah, Chairman of Surbana Jurong Group. Since September last year, the Taskforce has engaged more than 200 in-service professionals, students, service buyers, and representatives from the Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) and also the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), to identify and discuss solutions on their areas of concern. The Taskforce will be releasing its full set of recommendations later this year.
I want to add that the Trade Associations, such as SIA, play a critical role in supporting companies and driving the changes needed. To help our BE consultancy firms improve their talent attraction and retention efforts, SIA is looking at collaboration with like-minded stakeholders, such as the Institute for HR Professionals (IHRP), to roll out HR transformation support for firms.
SIA also plays a vital role in helping our firms enhance their value proposition and service offerings. For example, SIA’s Value Articulation Framework has been helpful in spelling out the various services architects offer to clients, and through this, promote greater transparency and recognition of the value-add architects bring. I hope this can encourage customers to focus on the quality of work and the value-add that has been rendered, and not just look at price alone. Because we are not shopping for commodities, we are paying for a professional service, and I think that is important.
As we transform our urban landscape, we likewise need to reskill and upskill our Built Environment professions to be future-ready. SIA’s Architects Academy and they also work with BCA Academy on a wide range of professional development courses, to equip our architects with in-demand skills, such as how to transition to CORENET X, how to design for sustainability, and how to practise collaborative contracting. I would like to encourage everyone to tap on these opportunities to acquire new skillsets, and SIA as well as the Government, will provide subsidies to eligible learners to help everyone to be future-ready through these courses.
CONCLUSION
Let me conclude my speech. I want to end my speech by expressing my deep appreciation to SIA for your unwavering commitment to the profession, and to the advancement of architecture in Singapore.
Sir Winston Churchill used to say “we shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” As we celebrate SIA’s achievements tonight, let us also reaffirm our shared mission – to shape a Singapore that is not only functional and efficient, but also inspiring, inclusive, and one that all of us are proud to call home.
Thank you very much everyone.