Expertise
Commercial & Office
The modern workplace is changing rapidly and is transforming to become more flexible, agile, mobile, and even playful. Offices now need to be designed for an innovation-led economy, where a diversity of spaces within the development can be created to foster social interaction, inspiration, creativity, collaboration and improve overall efficiency. This is to cater to an agile and collaborative workforce on its way to greater innovation.
Commercial buildings and office spaces need to evolve for the future in line with changing user requirements and lifestyle needs, such as the need for common areas like cafes, staff cafeterias, cosy meeting rooms and conference rooms, places to relax and hang out, places to interact with colleagues and friends, collaborative spaces where people can work on-the-go, and access to nature and outdoor spaces.
On top of creative working environments, there are new business models and concepts to consider that take advantage of the rise in entrepreneurship and breakdown of the traditional office model, to appeal to how younger employees and entrepreneurs wish to work. These include co-working spaces with shared facilities that allow start-ups with complementary services and offerings to rent a space together and benefit, or co-working spaces equipped with technology to allow flexibility in where you work. Our track record includes the planning and building design of high-rise office towers, mixed-use complexes with offices, and industrial and technology parks. With 50 years of experience as one of the largest architectural practices in the world, we have expertise in designing many business and industrial developments which are highly sensitive and responsive to its context.
Commercial buildings and office spaces need to evolve for the future in line with changing user requirements and lifestyle needs, such as the need for common areas like cafes, staff cafeterias, cosy meeting rooms and conference rooms, places to relax and hang out, places to interact with colleagues and friends, collaborative spaces where people can work on-the-go, and access to nature and outdoor spaces.
On top of creative working environments, there are new business models and concepts to consider that take advantage of the rise in entrepreneurship and breakdown of the traditional office model, to appeal to how younger employees and entrepreneurs wish to work. These include co-working spaces with shared facilities that allow start-ups with complementary services and offerings to rent a space together and benefit, or co-working spaces equipped with technology to allow flexibility in where you work. Our track record includes the planning and building design of high-rise office towers, mixed-use complexes with offices, and industrial and technology parks. With 50 years of experience as one of the largest architectural practices in the world, we have expertise in designing many business and industrial developments which are highly sensitive and responsive to its context.
Projects Involved:
Retail
Shopping is about the pleasure of authentic discovery, an urban adventure that is about creative and spontaneous exploration. In an increasingly mobile and digital age, fresh interpretations of the spatial experience of the physical mall are essential. Urban malls make up many of today’s largest public places, and are often planned to accommodate a breadth of activities. DP has been involved in retail projects of increasing scale and complexity since the 1960s; some so large, like The Dubai Mall, they perform as micro-urbanisms. Building at this scale becomes a practice of experiential planning. Experiential space planning embraces human movement. The architecture of the pedestrian is appreciated on foot. Experiential retail has come to represent the architecture and urbanism of mall complexes, the activities these multifunctional spaces offer and the social and cultural dynamics that emerge within them.
DP implements architecture and planning techniques to accommodate a host of additional functional requirements for the modern, urban mall. The social and commercial importance of the mall continues to grow, and as it does, DP explores ways by which the public spaces of retail can evolve to meet the needs of each new generation of consumers. Seeing malls as generators of social activity, supporting and integrating the increasingly convergent social and lifestyle needs, DP’s mall designs inject life and vibrancy through softer social spaces. Having undertaken the design and transformation of many shopping malls along Orchard Road and in cities around the world over the years, DP has built an extensive expertise on different types of shopping mall concepts that has put the firm on the forefront of retail development in Asia.
DP implements architecture and planning techniques to accommodate a host of additional functional requirements for the modern, urban mall. The social and commercial importance of the mall continues to grow, and as it does, DP explores ways by which the public spaces of retail can evolve to meet the needs of each new generation of consumers. Seeing malls as generators of social activity, supporting and integrating the increasingly convergent social and lifestyle needs, DP’s mall designs inject life and vibrancy through softer social spaces. Having undertaken the design and transformation of many shopping malls along Orchard Road and in cities around the world over the years, DP has built an extensive expertise on different types of shopping mall concepts that has put the firm on the forefront of retail development in Asia.
Projects Involved:
Hospitality
Hotels are designed to establish a unique personal identity, interwoven with the surroundings to celebrate a powerful sense of local character, while encouraging visitors to feel at home in a new place. Design processes for these projects are equally concerned with being immersed in local culture as they are with fostering a level of autonomy – creating a buffer between the room and the city to harbour comfort and privacy. DP pursues a holistic approach in its hospitality building design, one synthesising the technical and the functional to correspond with the highest standards of service to deliver an unforgettable experience.
Each project is designed dynamically to capture the unique energy of its site, with connections to the city that are contextual and specialised. Restoration and adaptive re-use projects reconfigure existing heritage buildings and present guests with both the historical and the contemporary. Addition and alteration projects reposition existing structures within the city’s denser fabric to create new urban relationships. For resorts situated within the urban fringe, built spaces are distributed across the landscape to bind guests intimately with nature. These urban hotels are programmed to blend a range of spaces – indoor and outdoor, private and public, small and large in scale – to facilitate social engagement and civic vibrancy.
Each project is designed dynamically to capture the unique energy of its site, with connections to the city that are contextual and specialised. Restoration and adaptive re-use projects reconfigure existing heritage buildings and present guests with both the historical and the contemporary. Addition and alteration projects reposition existing structures within the city’s denser fabric to create new urban relationships. For resorts situated within the urban fringe, built spaces are distributed across the landscape to bind guests intimately with nature. These urban hotels are programmed to blend a range of spaces – indoor and outdoor, private and public, small and large in scale – to facilitate social engagement and civic vibrancy.
Projects Involved:
Cultural & Performing Spaces
With their strong social character, cultural spaces are the beating heart of communities and neighbourhoods. Cultural facilities and performing arts spaces that help articulate and express cultural ideas are essential to any community’s identity. They behave as valuable civic resources that provide education, access, exchange of creative discourse, and plenty of opportunities for cultural expression. By serving residents, tourists and related businesses, they are also key to the economic health of a vibrant, world-class city. Our track record is in award-winning, purpose-built buildings for arts and culture such as the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, which helps us understand how front-of-house and back-of-house spaces must be an integrated, holistic unit that works equally for audience, performers and crew. As cultural destinations, every additional space – intimate or large – that serves to add youth, energy and life becomes an important element within a cohesive whole.
With experience in designing libraries and archives, venues of all types for music, dance, opera and drama, and facilities for broadcasting and film production, DP is well-poised to build conducive environments that support the artistic development of both contemporary and traditional arts groups, drawing charm and inspiration from the rich cultural heritage in the areas our projects are located in.
With experience in designing libraries and archives, venues of all types for music, dance, opera and drama, and facilities for broadcasting and film production, DP is well-poised to build conducive environments that support the artistic development of both contemporary and traditional arts groups, drawing charm and inspiration from the rich cultural heritage in the areas our projects are located in.
Projects Involved:
Institutional
Serving a wide range of government clients and project types, DP has effectively manage every institutional project type from large-scale academic mixed-use campuses, government headquarters and learning facilities design to small-scale feasibility studies. Educational doctrines and pedagogies are evolving to accommodate changing technologies, the way information is broadcast and received, and the emphasis on critical thinking in a creative and knowledge-based economy. New architectural solutions are emerging from these shifting pedagogies, and has built institutional campuses that respond to these factors. DP has helped to shape new campus architecture to support holistic learning environments and offer open-source platforms to encourage discourse, inter-activity and collaboration amongst students and faculty.
Campus design is a combination of urban planning and architecture at a scale that focuses on the pedestrian. As large urban elements, these campuses establish strong relationships with neighbouring public spaces. When designing urban campuses, a particularly strong concern emerges for the association between indoor and outdoor spaces, the way people move between buildings, cityscape integration, and aspects of environmental design that influence energy costs. Institutional buildings has to be able to adapt to constantly changing educational demands, and flexible models that can be adaptable and elastic in how it provides a usable learning environment is key. A number of modular facilities are designed into these campuses as a means for the educational institutions to be receptive to future variation.
Campus design is a combination of urban planning and architecture at a scale that focuses on the pedestrian. As large urban elements, these campuses establish strong relationships with neighbouring public spaces. When designing urban campuses, a particularly strong concern emerges for the association between indoor and outdoor spaces, the way people move between buildings, cityscape integration, and aspects of environmental design that influence energy costs. Institutional buildings has to be able to adapt to constantly changing educational demands, and flexible models that can be adaptable and elastic in how it provides a usable learning environment is key. A number of modular facilities are designed into these campuses as a means for the educational institutions to be receptive to future variation.
Projects Involved:
Residential
Residential designs are about creating quality environments to nurture communities, beyond the inclusion of functionalities and the fulfilment of commercial requirements. DP's residential projects are designed in ways that jointly celebrate the benefits of city dwelling, yet offer spaces that break from the city – places offering both community and a harbour for the comforts of private life. Housing patterns must continually respond to the needs of the city, as new developments situate people in existing or future spaces for work and play. Residential projects, and particularly those for high-density urban blocks, have the potential to dramatically alter the city by injecting it with new regions of vibrancy that remain active both day and night.
DP has considered each of its housing projects with reference to its site, its regional urban placement, and its climate. With each urban residential project, DP seeks to provide a unique set of formal and functional characteristics with which inhabitants can individually identify. In each residential housing scheme, DP negotiates between views and environmental orientation to optimally immerse residences within their surroundings. With high-density residential projects, DP investigates a variety of techniques in plan, layout, indoor-outdoor spatial relationships, and form to develop new housing types specialised for urban settings and grounded in the characteristics of the local community.
DP has considered each of its housing projects with reference to its site, its regional urban placement, and its climate. With each urban residential project, DP seeks to provide a unique set of formal and functional characteristics with which inhabitants can individually identify. In each residential housing scheme, DP negotiates between views and environmental orientation to optimally immerse residences within their surroundings. With high-density residential projects, DP investigates a variety of techniques in plan, layout, indoor-outdoor spatial relationships, and form to develop new housing types specialised for urban settings and grounded in the characteristics of the local community.
Projects Involved:
Healthcare
From new technology, medical advances, changing demographics to reimbursement, healthcare is changing at an incredible pace, making the planning of healthcare environments and delivery systems more complex than ever before. A sustainable approach to healthcare is required, which calls for designing solutions that anticipate future needs and support strong long-term development for healthcare providers.
DP has carefully handpicked a group of healthcare industry professionals devoted to helping you understand and define your future. Combined with one of the largest and most respected architectural practices in the world, the advantage of working with us is an unparalleled experience and knowledge of best practices, benchmarks and trends, allowing our clients to objectively and accurately assess their institution's current and future needs.
Our expertise can be found in large and small community hospitals, urban medical centres, teaching hospitals, long-term care facilities, educational institutions, rehabilitation centres, children’s hospitals, multi-speciality group practice clinics, government hospitals, medical and academic office buildings, and free standing ambulatory care centres.
DP has carefully handpicked a group of healthcare industry professionals devoted to helping you understand and define your future. Combined with one of the largest and most respected architectural practices in the world, the advantage of working with us is an unparalleled experience and knowledge of best practices, benchmarks and trends, allowing our clients to objectively and accurately assess their institution's current and future needs.
Our expertise can be found in large and small community hospitals, urban medical centres, teaching hospitals, long-term care facilities, educational institutions, rehabilitation centres, children’s hospitals, multi-speciality group practice clinics, government hospitals, medical and academic office buildings, and free standing ambulatory care centres.
Projects Involved:
Mega Project
Mega-projects, due to their size and complexity, require special attention and increased efficiency from the team, all the more so as more often than not, the timeline for design is not necessarily longer than on much smaller projects. The façade design for mega-projects often involves a large variety of systems and materials so as to avoid a monotonous appearance. Drawing from the vast accumulated knowledge and experience of its team, DP Façade is able to deliver such projects in the most efficient and streamlined manner possible. Leveraging technology tools such as BIM modelling, parametric design and real-time rendering help realise the architectural vision for the façade works in the best possible fashion. This combination of knowledge, experience and technology is what makes DPF’s strength on mega-projects.