SPARK director Stephen Pimbley will speak at the Transit Orientated Development conference to be held at Singapore’s Marina Mandarin Hotel on Monday 29th July.

Stephen talk will highlight necessity of political will to deliver transit orientated developments of scale, because the competing goals of government bodies, operators, local residents and commercial developers are not aligned. Stephen will draw on his extensive experience of this type of development from his master plan work in delivering what was Europe’s largest TOD in Rotterdam in 2001 up to SPARK’most recent city revitalisation projects in Guangzhou.

Credit: SPARK

Earlier this year, SPARK was selected alongside several international design firms to become a strategic design partner of China Merchants, China’s oldest commercial developer. SPARK previously completed China Merchant’s Shekou Gateway One, a naturally ventilated mixed use development and is currently working on their interior design of 4 headquarters office towers in Taizi Bay, Shenzhen.

The design is focused on integrating technology, art, green design and social elements into the public areas of the offices. The project’s environmental and security infrastructure “smart systems” support a wide range of control systems including access, environmental, facial recognition and energy efficiency.

Credit: SPARK

The transformation started construction this April and will be open for Christmas 2019.SPARK has transformed the existing POMO retail mall into a youth focussed development that embraces the eclectic and vibrant atmosphere and culture of the Selegie education district of Singapore. SPARK’s intervention delivers a transforming facade, interior and way finding strategy.

Credit: SPARK

The transformed POMO is set to become the happening place for Singapore’s artistic student community, providing new platforms for meeting, thinking and collaboration. POMO leverages on the very basic and fun aspects of being young and out there, community and social interaction.

Credit: SPARK

SPARK launches “3 little pigs” in support of World Water day 22 March 2019 in the Chinese year of the pig. 3 Little Pigs has been developed to positively treat pig effluent at source rather than the common practice of letting it passively drain into the fresh water system 3 Little Pigs supports the Chinese Government’s efforts to tackle the countrywide problem water pollution caused by animal farming.

The indiscriminate discharge of livestock manure is probably the major cause of eutrophication in China’s lakes, undermining the quality of the fresh water supply, killing fish and the loss of amenity value of China’s beautiful lakes.

Stephen Pimbley chaired the Day 1 session and spoke at the plenary session of Day 2 of the recent 8th Annual Vertical Cities conference held at Singapore’s Marina Mandarin hotel.

Stephen highlighted the problems associated with today’s massive concrete and cement production. Concrete after water is the world’s most commonly used material,  it has a huge carbon footprint. There is an urgent need for the construction industry to adopt cleaner production practice as required by the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.Annual cement production over the last 30 years has globally quadrupled from nearly one billion to over 4 billion tonnes. In the next decade it is expected to increase a further 500m tonnes a year.

Stephen suggested that unless there is a dramatic change in the amount and type of buildings we construct cement emissions and the sheer quantum of concrete poured by “our industry” is going to have a catastrophic impact on our environment.“Concrete is how we have tamed nature. Our concrete structures protect us from the elements, but they have also entombed vast tracts of soil, constipated rivers, choked habitats and desensitised us from what is happening outside our increasingly urbanised cities. Our blue and green world is more rapidly than ever turning grey.”

“Like any good thing in excess – concrete is creating more problems than it solves”. Stephen showed SPARK’s “kerplunk” tower for Mumbai. A hybrid structural proposal that has a 40% recycled concrete core with a cross laminated timber structure and apartment units fabricated from recycled TetraPak cartons.

A person must constantly reflect on him or herself. How do you compare to your younger self, how have you grown?

When I was younger I worked a lot independently, preferring to complete tasks on my own. As the business grows and changes it was necessary to delegate and work with a team, which took a great deal of effort learning to communicate effectively and learning (the hard way) about human relationships. It was an oscillating experience.I used to react too quickly and gave away too much, giving people a 有勇无谋 feeling.

Also a relatively open book, revealing too much about myself, inviting unnecessary talk and reactions. Having learnt the hard way I tried to ‘sleep over it’ and give myself time to respond to any situation.

It is easy to think back and criticize yourself, I am constantly self-reflecting (but would also give myself a pat on the shoulder occasionally). I have made many mistakes, while growing professionally I have become more accepting, hopefully wiser but not older. (it is important to keep one’s heart young)

What do you understand by a contemporary woman’s independence? In your experience, what qualities of “independence” do you possess?

To be independent, a woman “Dares to think, dares to say, dares to do “敢想，敢说，敢做.

This does not mean she does not collaborate with others to achieve a goal, it means she has her own opinions and is not afraid to voice them

I constantly question rules imposed on me or conditions I am given, (example, the client’s design brief and the studio’s design work), considering how it can always be better and questioning it. It does not always make me a popular person in discussion groups, being the controversial voice. This may be seen as terribly unacceptable in ancient times, but it is one of the characteristics of a independent modern woman, in my opinion.

How has being independence affected your working life? How do you deal with stress from work ?

There are two kinds of independence in my line of work. Delivering independently outside of a team, thinking independently in design. Being able to do both is valued at Spark but communicating and working well with others is not the easiest with designers. Being independent actually forced me to learn on communication.

Stress from work comes mostly from human relationships with clients, consultants, colleagues. I deal with the stress by

1. focusing on the objective goals of the situation
2. waiting for bad emotions to past before reacting badly
3. switching my brain focus to something else after I leave the studio

What hobbies do you have outside of work?  How do you balance work, life and family ?

Baking bite size snacks, binging on tv series and casual reading on fengshui,易经.I used to participate in immersive gaming but frequent traveling put a halt to that.

Work is living and life is working but having different brain focus at different times re-charges me and inspires my work. This means to compartmentalize my time into different ‘zones’ so that my brain can enter different ‘rooms’ and re-balance itself. An example, I stop looking at work emails after 9pm but may wake early at 4-5am to make up for lost time.

What do you wish to say to ladies in the Real Estate Industry ?

And A pertinent issue: Women should not be ostrasized for having children and a family life. Help by supporting them in your organization.

Original link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/WKfpyw-AC821oyu7I4DXag

SPARK has won an international competition to master plan a 56-hectare site in the Liwan district of Guangzhou– home to one of the most important shipbuilding facilities dating from the 19th century–transforming it into a dynamic and vibrant mixed-use waterfront destination.

Designed with a central plaza as its main focal point, the master plan is structured with a pedestrian loop linking varying uses across 3 zones: commercial, residential and the riverfront.  Inspired by the shipbuilding history of the site, the central plaza features a multi-function digital ‘flying boat’ which forms the image of the development and represents the evolving innovation of the 4k industry. The main pedestrian loop connects office workers, residents and visitors from the central plaza to the facilities at the heritage slipway park, thematic ‘back lane’ food street and riverfront dry dock sports hall.

The design scheme is founded on the pragmatic principles of good connectivity, density and quality public spaces supported by a rich palette of activities. These will transform Guangzhou shipyard into a destination for commerce, entertainment and contemporary living.

SPARK launches its The Big Arse Toilet in support of World Toilet day 19th November 2018. SPARK has developed an easily transportable 3d printed toilet module in support of the UN initiative to combat open defecation and the associated issues of hygiene and sanitation in India.

Open defecation is major contributing cause of disease in under developed countries.

SPARK’s bold concept converts human waste into biogas and via a micro CHP unit (combined heat and power) converts the biogas into electricity.

The proposal aims to highlight the urgency of eliminating open defecation as well as the positive benefit of using a natural waste product to create “free” energy for remote communities

In 2013, the UN Deputy Secretary General issued a call to action on sanitation that included the elimination of open defecation by 2025. Some 842 000 people in low- and middle-income countries die as a result of inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene each year. Poor sanitation is believed to be the main cause in 280,000 of these deaths. 892 million people 2 of 7 worldwide practice open defecation that perpetuates the vicious cycle of disease and poverty.
The countries where open defecation is most widespread have the highest number of deaths of children aged under 5 years as well as the highest levels of malnutrition and poverty.

“Society needs toilets but billions of people don’t have one. This means human faeces, on a massive scale, are not being captured or treated contaminating the water and soil that sustain human life. We are turning our environment into an open sewer. We must build toilets and sanitation systems that work in harmony with ecosystems. World Toilet Day is about naturebased solutions to our sanitation needs. When nature calls we have to listen and act”
“http://www.worldtoiletday.info/wtd2018/”

SPARK’s proposal provides cost effective toilet modules printed from a mixture of processed bamboo fibre and gum resin.

The toilet modules sit on and a secured to a buried 3d printed reinterpretation of a traditional biogas dome that uses human, animal and vegetable waste to generate and store gas.

The biogas fuels a micro CHP unit (combined heat and power) to create electricity.

The printed monocoque shell of the toilet comes complete with toilet bowl and basin printed as part of the homogenous surface of the toilet cubicle. The exterior of the shell can be rendered or finished with a variety of materials appropriate to local context and environment.

The toilet and its associated biogas dome can be flown by drone into remote locations as
complete and easily docked together locally.

The biogas dome has been sized to function for 10 years, generating enough electricity to power a small community of 8 dwellings.

Energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity the world faces today. The UN set a Global Goal to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy by 2030. Currently 13% of the global population still lacks access to electricity. Some 3 billion people lack access to clean cooking solutions and are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution. The situation of the rural poor despite the efforts of the UN’s objectives and local government initiatives poses a growing challenge where toilet facilities with toilet facilities with proper sewage treatment and energy services are non-existent.

SPARK’s “The Big Arse Toilet” so called given its form can provide sanitation and power to communities that lack both these basic utilities.

SPARK partner Stephen Pimbley said

“SPARK’s self-funded The Big Arse Toilet has been developed to highlight the fact that not enough is being done to provide solutions for vulnerable individuals that are worst affected by lack of access to the level sanitation most take for granted.

Our proposal could help prevent disease and assist in community development by lifting social barriers faced particularly women in rural communities, often meaning serious consequences for their health, perpetuating the disproportionate levels of disease associated with poverty and open defecation”

SPARK recently had the opportunity to present its ideas on the petrol kiosks on two Urban Land Institute (ULI) events. The first in Hong Kong and the second in Shanghai.

As the world’s developed countries begin to move away from petrol and diesel fuelled cars to electric vehicles, the petrol kiosks of Singapore and Shanghai will need to adapt to new roles. SPARK proposed using this valuable real estate resource for a variety of functions that could provide new facilities and resources to the community. The objective is to enrich the typically mundane everyday life cycle of the neighbourhood. SPARK proposed a myriad of petrol kiosk retrofits including a waste plastic bag recycling facility. Happy plastic bag free day from all of us at SPARK!

SPARK’s ongoing research into the future of the petrol kiosk will be published on Earth Hour Day Spring 2019.

SPARK has completed the design of Pudong KerryOn Living Room, a parent-child social space for use by KerryOn members. The 120sqm space is located at B1 Of the Pudong Kerry Shopping mall, it draws inspiration from folklore tales of the “Enchanted Forest” and was designed to stimulate curiosity, sense of fun and interaction amongst the children and their parents.

The Kerry “Living Room”concept is part of the client’s strategy to remain relevant in the face of disruptive online/offline shopping competition and create varied physical experiences adding value for their member shoppers.