BENOY'S CRL CENTRE QIANHAI CENTER BREAKS GROUND IN CHINA FOR INTERIOR DESIGN

http://www.interiordesign.net/articles/11339-benoy-s-crl-qianhai-center-breaks-ground-in-shenzhen/

The China Resources Land (CRL) Qianhai Center—a core new development in Shenzhen, China, designed by global firm Benoy—challenges the typologies of traditional financial districts and aims to bring art, culture and social interaction into the heart of the emerging financial zone. By proposing a fresh batch of layered spaces that aim to create a more active and dynamic city core, Benoy’s scheme seeks to support the transformation of the surrounding area into the so-called Manhattan of the Pearl River Delta and attract $45 billion in future investment.

The main concept driving the center's design consists of two main public spines that form an internal streetscape and bring an eclectic mix of spaces into the development. The spines meet at an intersection where the main nexus of the scheme—a permeable and connected outdoor event area—creates a space that is accessible to all and that supports various event programming for year-round entertainment.

“The formation of the central, open-air, basement-level street essentially creates a secondary ground plane, opening up more opportunities for different and interesting spaces as well as increasing the commercial value of the site,” says Chao Wu, director, Benoy.

To further connect the scheme to the wider district, CRL Qianhai Centre’s public spines channel people to the development from the four main thoroughfares surrounding the site. Dubbed the Financial Valley spine and Green Belt spine, the thoroughfares create a pedestrian-friendly environment within the development and also connect it to the metro lines for easy access to the rest of the city. The development aims to achieve LEED and China’s Green Building 3-Star certifications and is due to reach completion in 2018.

TWO ARCHITECTS ON HOW TO DESIGN FOR WELLBEING FOR INTERIOR DESIGN

http://www.interiordesign.net/articles/11298-two-architects-on-how-to-design-for-wellbeing/

While the idea that architectural design plays a critical role in our wellbeing is not new, the transformative qualities of architecture became a hot topic once again during one of the sessions at the recently concluded World Architecture Festival in Singapore. During a discourse titled “The Psychology of Space”, Sadie Morgan, director at de Rijke Marsh Morgan Architects, and Dr. Eve Edelstein, director of the Human Experience Lab at Perkins+Will and Design Health Co-Laboratory at AIA Design + Health Research Consortium, discussed how design can aid in mental and physical wellbeing and offered the audience practical solutions for optimising user experience in built environments.

Linking neurological research to environmental conditions, Edestein shares design strategies that can be applied within built spaces and to specific user groups. She highlights the importance of design for all senses and the impact of well- or poorly-designed built settings on the brain, body and behavior of building users. “Given the many different reactions of our brain, mind and emotions, we need to design while asking questions about the functionality of space,” says Edelstein. “Architects need to create dynamically responsive places so that they can morph and respond to different uses during different times of the day.”

As a neuroscientist and an architect, Edelstein translates her research on the effects of the built environment on mental and psychological conditions into design solutions for various health and educational facilities. Case studies include the University of Stanford Hospital, where multisensory environments were created for children with multiple mental, cognitive and emotional difficulties to invoke positive emotional responses. In other practical applications, Edelstein’s research on specific factors such as light and sound allow her to program buildings for users with particular needs or disabilities.

Similarly, Sadie Morgan’s design approach reveals a keen sensitivity to designing responsive and functional spaces at a residential scale. Morgan’s ground-breaking project, the Sliding House, brought the considerations of light and sound, privacy and comfort, to an individual level, creating a house with radically variable spaces, including a mobile roof and movable wall enclosure that can be manipulated according to “season, weather, or a remote-controlled desire to delight," she explains.

Morgan echoes Edelstein's sensitive approach to design: “Architects should think about environment and people when making places. Architects need to create buildings that communicate an important message about the value of architecture—that it can be beautiful, healthy, sustainable and useful.”

Design: For the Short Term for IndesignLive

Mark Dytham and Sawako Kaijima tackle the notion of value, changeability and resourcefulness in the context of today’s throwaway society. Olha Romaniuk writes.

While large-scale architectural projects have an implied and expected longevity associated with them, interior projects often face the issue of temporality that – due to lower budgets and a more manageable scale – more heavily rely on the fickleness of shifting trends, and the overall need for adaptability according to the changing needs for a space. This issue was discussed at a conference titled “The Long and the Short of It”, held in November at INSIDE – World Festival of Interiors. At the centre of the discussion was the question of designing for a throwaway society while creating designs that were iconic and innovative, and also flexible and adaptable.

Two speakers – Mark Dytham, Principal of Klein Dytham architecture (KDa) and Sawako Kaijima, assistant professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) – presented their thoughts on designing spaces that have an ability and a potential to accommodate a variety of functions and situations and to allow for a variety of scenarios, while maintaining a unique identity. In these respects, Dytham’s and Kaijima’s two very different projects – the Google Tokyo Headquarters and the International Design Centre (IDC) at SUTD, respectively – revealed some very similar goals at the core of their designs, namely adaptability and a focus on creating distinctive spaces.

Faced with a lot of unknowns from the very beginning of the design process, Dytham and Kaijima attest that flexibility became a key consideration to make both of their designs work for different situations and settings. For the Google Tokyo Headquarters, most of the spaces had to be as flexible as possible to allow maximum functionality for staff needs. “The reason for flexibility is that the Google staff need to regroup very quickly,” said Dytham about the project. “For example, if they are launching a new product, they need to get together into teams of about eight people over a period of three to four months, so teams are always changing and shifting.”

With these considerations in mind, Dytham and the team at KDa set out to create a flexible yet impactful space, using bold colours and graphics with vivid evocations of the Japanese culture, bringing out aspects of local culture and history in common areas and corridors running through workspaces. KDa retained the rest of the workspaces, laid out around the central grouping of meeting rooms, completely adaptable to the changing use.

In the SUTD IDC project, Sawako Kaijima similarly had to plan and design for maximum flexibility. “The project was meant to be moved from one space to another from the beginning,” said Kaijima about her design limitations. “The original space was meant to be temporary and one of the requirements/constraints was to be able to move most of the design elements for the temporary space (in Dover Campus) to the new location (in East Coast Campus). The dimensions of the temporary space were known when we started the project, but there were many unknowns regarding the new space.”

In view of the presented unknowns, Kaijima opted for a highly fragmented design, composed of an aggregation of smaller elements so they could be reconfigured and adapted to a different space. Viewing the vaguely defined need for functionality of the new space as an opportunity and knowing only that the new space needed to incorporate an office and a gathering area to display undefined objects, Kaijima also explored lighting design solutions that facilitated complete flexibility. With the configuration of the custom lighting elements (Light Hangers), Kaijiwa created a completely shadow-less space that could, thereby, be utilised in many different ways.

For both Dytham and Kaijima, the adaptable approaches resulted in thoughtfully executed projects that were anything but boring or disposable. Treating the projects’ design constraints not as limitations but opportunities, Dytham and Kaijima arrived at flexible solutions that fully explored creative and inventive design possibilities that came with the given unknowns. Kaijima’s view on seeing value in flexible design summed up the great value of such exploratory approaches: “The use of new materials, technologies, and geometries is often demonstrated in such [flexible] formats to gain interest for further development towards solid architectural applications, and to provide opportunities for innovation in architecture.”

Winning Projects Push Design Boundaries at World Architecture Festival for Interior Design

http://www.interiordesign.net/articles/11113-winning-projects-push-design-boundaries-at-world-a/

A twisting tower in Canada, a monsoon-resilient park in China and a vertically stacked urban village in Singapore were among some of the top honor recipients at this year’s World Architecture Festival , which took place in Singapore earlier this month. This year, the festival jury had the challenging task of selecting winners from over 300 entries, with competing projects from 31 categories exhibiting forward-thinking solutions in architectural, landscape and interior design.

The multi-day selection process saw winners from all categories go on to contend for the titles of the World Building of the Year, Future Project of the Year, Landscape of the Year, Small Project Prize and AkzoNobel’s Prize for Color in Exterior Architecture. The Festival culminated with the reveal of the World Building of the Year—The Interlace by OMA and Buro Ole Scheeren , described by the judges as "one of the most ambitious residential developments" in Singapore’s history.

"The Interlace housing development in Singapore, is a piece of architecture which is almost breathtaking in its overturning of design expectations,” says Paul Finch, program director of the World Architecture Festival. "Instead of a set of closely-knit tower blocks, the vertical elements are chopped, stacked horizontally and angled, creating welcome useable landscape and garden space, both at ground and upper levels. A brilliant diagram turned into a successful development.”

Other winners at WAF are as follows:

Future Project of the Year: Vancouver House by BIG
Landscape of the Year: Yanweizhou Park by Turenscape International
Small Project Prize: Lidingovallen by DinellJohansson
AkzoNobel’s Prize for Color in Exterior Architecture: ONS INCEK Showroom and Sales Office by Yazgan Design Architecture

Finch cites one of the standout projects as an example of innovation: “The Islamic Learning Centre at Education City in Qatar, designed by Mangera Yvars, will include a mosque where men and women will worship in the same space - a radical concept rare if not unprecedented in the Islamic world. The architecture, with its curved digital geometries and absence of formal minarets, is a translation of client aspiration into a contemporary architectural language which is simultaneously functional and dramatic.”

Mike Lim on Creating Holistic Interior Spaces for Interior Design

With his integral role in taking DP Design to new heights, Mike Lim discusses the importance of seamlessly integrating exterior and interior architecture and infusing character into interior spaces for improved user experience. Olha Romaniuk writes.

http://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/people/mike-lim-on-creating-holistic-interior-spaces

Having worked on his fair share of mega projects like the Dubai Mall, Abu Dhabi Tower and Paragon Shopping Centre, Mike Lim, Director of DP Design, is no stranger to working with interiors at a scale often beyond that of other interior design firms. Trained in architecture, with diverse experiences in business administration and exhibition design and with an impressive roster of regional and international projects, Lim projects infectious optimism charting DP Design’s future with aspirations of cementing the firm’s reputation as the innovator and trendsetter in the realm of commercial, retail and hospitality sectors of interior design. The launch of the book Designing Spaces – a comprehensive catalogue documenting the breadth of DP Design’s work – is a culmination of Lim’s endeavour to present a curated collection of some of the firm’s most notable projects that exemplify DP Design’s core philosophies for designing spaces with spirit and soul.

How did the book Designing Spaces come about?

The idea was to create a good photographic record of our work – it was that simple. When I first joined DP Design, I worked on the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh, which is still standing and the finishes are preserved very nicely after 15 years. What I found was missing, however, was a presence of a good photographic record of the project. We have decided to invest some money and take really good photos of the HDB Hub and that endeavour, in turn, gave us the idea to put this and other DP Design projects in a book.

The idea behind the book was to let people know that DP Design does interiors. If you ask people about the designers of the Esplanade or the Paragon, they will readily think of DP Architects, but the interior architects are not as well known. This book is to shed light on DP Design and our work.

What is the key message that you want to communicate with this book?

We just want people to know that DP Design can do interiors and can do them well. We have been doing very large scale interiors with little knowledge to the public and we have not really been out in magazines or publications. At the end of the day, it’s very much to tell people that we can do it, that these are our prominent projects and that we have been getting better and better at what we do.

What are some of the benefits of treating interior spaces as extensions of the buildings’ architectural forms, rather than isolated entities?

To us, it always starts with space; we pride ourselves on our ability to see through the many sets of architectural drawings to visualise architectural spaces as they have been designed. We work very closely with the architects from the inception of every project. Many of the team members at DP Design have been trained in architecture, so we are able to visualise very large spaces.

I always see our job as making architectural spaces better. That is why DP Design’s philosophy and also the title of the book, Designing Spaces, go hand-in-hand – this is how we start every project and it is also the most important aspect of our approach.

It is not about what you put on this or that wall, what you put on the ceiling or on the floor. It starts from a good understanding of space first and how it affects the user experience in subtle and not so subtle ways.

What are some of the strategies that you and your designers employ in ensuring that there is a dialogue and a connection between interior and exterior architecture?

We usually ask, “How much does the client want us to do within the space and how fixed is the architectural plan?” We do not touch the façade: we want to make sure that the original architectural concept is kept pristine, but we want to know how many columns we can move and how much slab we can hack. We ask fundamental questions that have to do with the architectural space and the volumetric understanding and feel of the interior behind the external skin.

From there, we build and visualise the entire project, no matter how large it is, in 3D, so that we can really get a feel for the original space before we start doing things to it. We build the original so the client also has a fair understanding of why certain things might need to be relooked. We do not change for the sake of changing. We must change space for the better and for the benefit of the client and the project.

What are some key projects that define the philosophy of DP Design?

One of the defining projects in Singapore would be the Paragon shopping centre and another one outside of Singapore would be the Dubai Mall where we did every single corner of the interiors in the mall. Both are very large projects completed in collaboration with DP Architects.

After the successful completion of these large-scale projects, we undertook some projects at a smaller scale (Singapore Dance Theatre would be one example), showing that DP Design could do projects of varying scales.

This series of moves has also set up our path for the next several years where you will be seeing DP Design doing a lot of projects that are in collaboration with other architects, besides DP Architects, in different geographical locations.

How do you ensure that DP Design secures its place as an innovator and a trendsetter in interior design? What upcoming trends do you foresee in the areas of retail and hospitality?

In-house, we have done quite a bit of pushing in the direction of innovative design in order to be at the forefront of design thinking and foresee future design trends. I do not believe in simply applying materials to surfaces – I much prefer it when designers and architects are the ones spearheading a trend.

As far as the upcoming trends go, I have presented my research on hospitality interior design trends that include the growth of mid-tier hotels, hybrid developments and multi-functionality, and factors like technology, globalisation, sustainability and demographics that are affecting those trends. I will also be speaking about trends in retail design at the World Architecture Festival, where I hope to provide insight into the changing needs of consumers and the evolution of retail space to meet the future.

Can you mention some of the projects that DP Design is working on right now?

We just finished the Temasek Club, which was an interior design-build where budget was a big consideration but that turned out to be very good at the end. Other significant projects in the pipeline for us right now would be a large-scale project in downtown Kuwait and another one in Wuhan with a Hong Kong developer.

Rem Koolhaas on the Current Urban Condition for IndesignLive

Rem Koolhaas of OMA reflects on the changing dynamics of architecture in the age of globalisation. Olha Romaniuk writes.

http://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/in-review/rem-koolhaas-on-the-present-cultural-revolution-in-art-and-architecture

It was the conversation about the so-called ‘cultural revolution’ and the blurring boundaries of the East and the West that commanded much of the anticipated talk on art, space and social contract in the current urban condition, between Michael Schindhelm, cultural advisor and filmmaker, and Rem Koolhaas, architect and partner at OMA, at this year’s ArtStage Singapore. With Koolhaas, the visionary behind such projects as the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing and West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, providing a commentary on the evolving concept of the ‘contemporary city’, the conversation raised important questions about the changing paradigms of the East and the West and the role of architecture in the age of globalisation.

“The whole idea of a modern city is no longer a Western but an Eastern idea that is being defined on its own terms. This is the new reality,” said Koolhaas, openly conceding that the Western social model is no longer the exclusive domain.

Koolhaas, who lived in Indonesia for four years as a young boy and who continues to work on projects in Asia, provided an astute view of the contemporary paradigm in which the Western model of a city has become an outdated idea that no longer applies to emerging urban developments of the new century. In this respect, the discussion of architecture as having a universal, rather than a Western, focus zoomed in on cities like Tokyo, Beijing and Singapore, as developing at their own pace and evolving according to their own set of principles.

With the focus on Asia, the inevitable part of the discussion concentrated on the distinction and blurred boundaries between the public and the private and the role of architecture within the public sphere in the East. With Koolhaas having faced criticism over OMA’s involvement with the Chinese government in the CCTV Headquarters project in the past, Koolhaas resolutely endorsed his participation in the controversial state-led project, reaffirming the importance of architects’ involvement in landmark government projects to create positive change.

Said Koolhaas: “It is a good thing to participate in a, maybe, controversial, or dangerous, or important way by engaging in government-led projects. Only by participating on that level can we hope that there will be any kind of interaction or effect for architects or the public at large.”

Tackling the universal subject of public versus private in the context of Asia, Koolhaas spoke about the importance of the architect’s involvement in public projects to facilitate the connections between state-led initiatives and the needs of the public at large. Koolhaas referred to several noteworthy examples, including the efforts of the Japanese government in the 1960s to involve architects like Toyo Ito in generating ideas that focused on modernising Japan.

As part of the discussion, Koolhaas’ 1995 essay “Singapore Songlines: Portrait of a Potemkin Metropolis… Or Thirty Years of Tabula Rasa” in his book S, M, L, XL resurfaced as an important point of contention, as the architect himself conceded that he wrote about and studied Singapore as it was one of the most extreme examples of top-down approaches to urban planning and architecture. Far from resorting to criticism, Koolhaas shared his thoughts on the design of the city-state as being an innovative example of a government-led initiative, where the entire island was conceived as “a project and a work of art.”

To one of Schindhelm’s concluding questions – is there, thus, a new society emerging where the blurring boundaries of public and private supersede traditional Western models – Koolhaas’ answer was to stop the comparison between the East and the West all-together. He spoke, in the context of Singapore: “If you talk about a new society, I see an evolution and emancipation of Singapore. I see an even greater affect of globalisation, a creation of global layers of sophistication. This is the platform where the East and the West are meeting.”

The Finer Points of Manufacturing with Solid Wood for IndesignLive

Swiss company Zoom by Mobimex unveils its plans for the Asian market with a quality-versus-quantity approach to the production of bespoke solid wood furniture that is as visually stunning as it is environmentally friendly. Olha Romaniuk writes.

http://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/in-review/the-finer-points-of-manufacturing-with-solid-wood

“Our competitive edge and standout quality is our tradition of handcrafting, which sets us apart from the rest of the competitors,” said Christoph Hausermann, Director of Sales at Zoom by Mobimex, during the recent presentation of the company’s solid wood furniture making process held at the Macsk showroom in Singapore. With Macsk as the exclusive local distributor of the Swiss brand, the interactive presentation by Hausermann also included a hands-on demonstration of Zoom’s range of solid wood products to the attending architects, designers and furniture aficionados at large.

During the presentation, Hausermann highlighted the company’s tradition of craftsmanship. Citing over 40 years of experience in the furniture business (including 30 years of focused experience in solid wood) and ability to claim ownership in the source of wood – every product is assigned an individual number that can be traced back to the origin – Hausermann described the sourcing process as a natural step that could facilitate the process of customising solutions to meet specific client requests.

Hausermann also discussed Zoom’s strive for quality through its selection and fabrication process, with each log tested to ensure high quality.

“We control the process [right] from the selection of the trees that our timber specialist chooses from the forests,” says Hausermann. “The trees are cut in winter, when the trunk is the driest. We then leave our wood to dry outside for three to five years. This natural drying process is how you get high quality wood furniture. Other companies might dry their wood in a drying chamber, which shortens this process.”

With each log being different, Hausermann showed guests a range of samples and explained the unique qualities of the solid wood’s origin, growth process and treatment.

The company offers solid wood tops in two available thicknesses, and in two different wood qualities. Quality 1 (Naturart) is available only in a 40mm thickness with natural cracks and branches, while Quality 2 (Selection) comes in a 28mm and 40mm thickness, without cracks and branches. Surfaces are offered in three varieties: soaped, oiled and varnished.

Beyond the brand’s customisation abilities, Zoom’s story is also one of resilience and sustainability. The Swiss company strictly adheres to the European tradition of conserving and replenishing wood supplies for future use and takes a strong stand in favour of the conservation of natural resources within and beyond its country’s borders.

“People are now more aware and request for more sustainable materials that last in the long run – they value quality,” said Hausermann. “They know that they might be able to get something cheaper elsewhere, but they might not be able to trust the source.”

With Zoom’s expansion into the high-end solid wood market in Asia, the company aims to deliver the same Swiss standard of quality and craftsmanship for the residential and contract furniture sector here.

The Future of Skyscrapers for IndesignLive

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill shifts the paradigm of the design of skyscrapers with its proposal for the Pertamina Energy Tower, a mega structure based on the premise of energy generation. Olha Romaniuk writes.

http://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/projects/the-future-of-skyscrapers

Slated to reach 99 stories in height, the Pertamina Energy Tower by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill will transform the skyline of Jakarta, Indonesia, as it becomes the city’s tallest building upon completion. But, as Scott Duncan, a design partner of SOM and the lead architect on the project is quick to point out during the Future of Height session at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore, height is not the only attribute of the mega-tower that makes it noteworthy, amongst the long line of skyscrapers around the world. In fact, the Pertamina Energy Tower, when completed, is positioned to become the world’s first supertall tower in which energy generation and environmental factors, not the structure, are the primary considerations for the overall design.

“Buildings that you see dominating our skyline often allow structural considerations to become major drivers for design. For the headquarters of Pertamina, Indonesia’s state-owned energy company, we thought about shifting the main design driver to energy, instead of structure. Jakarta is a very challenging place for tall buildings because of its soil, so it is not like we threw all of the structural considerations entirely out, but we didn’t allow them to be the primary drivers,” says Duncan.

As one of the major design vehicles behind the project, the vernacular architecture of the Indonesian archipelago became a source of inspiration for the design of SOM’s tower, in terms of its lessons in sustainable responses and its potential in harvesting energy.

Duncan recalls specific elements within a typology of a North Sumatran house that the design team at SOM studied as part of the overall environmental response strategy for the Pertamina Energy Tower.“We were looking at the way in which the North Sumatran building is a direct response to its environmental comfort,” recalls Duncan.

“Obviously, the tall roof is well suited for shedding monsoon rain but the arching of the roof upward at the end is also an entirely functional affair because it draws in the prevailing winds, capturing them and accelerating them in a very hot tropical climate. The side walls are porous; the entire building is raised up to allow the air to flow beneath and to allow for flooding to occur without compromising the building structure,” he adds.

These vernacular strategies and responses to the regional environmental conditions became the driving forces behind the design of the tower and the planning of its site. To mitigate the issue of flooding within the already fragile infrastructure of the city, Duncan and his team came up with an idea of a ‘sponge’, lining the perimeter of the site with a series of recharge wells that can absorb and recycle the runoff water and release the water back to the ground, when appropriate, to refill the water table.

For energy generation, the team at SOM considered harvesting the prevailing winds and typhoons and experimented with a variety of wind scoops and wind turbines at the top of the tower to see how the wind could be brought in and accelerated. “Winds are greater at a greater height; a gentle breeze at a ground level can be quite substantial when you are at a higher level of a building,” explains Duncan. “Thus, we have integrated a small aperture at the top of the Pertamina Energy Tower to accelerate the passing wind. We have also added wind turbines and integrated them with our observation deck at the top of the building, where the public is invited to view the turbines in action, learn about energy and understand what Pertamina’s operations are.”

While the resulting design solution for wind energy harvesting accounts for only 2% of the overall energy budget for the tower, the bulk of the energy generation comes from an integration of a deep geothermal system into the overall design. With the wells tapping into the thermal resource that is created by a sizable number of active volcanoes in the area, the SOM team was able to exceed the energy requirement allowing for the surplus energy to be exported elsewhere.

Utilising a resourceful combination of lessons learned from the vernacular architecture of the region, rigorous studies of the climate and the site of the project and latest technologies, Duncan and his team were able to orchestrate a building that is, at once, driven by the idea of energy generation and is sensitive to its site and the infrastructure of Jakarta. And while, paradoxically, due to the recent dramatic drop in global oil prices, the ultimate energy tower has been put on hold, Scott Duncan and his team still have high hopes for the resurrection of the project in the near future and cite the project as the model of future supertall building design.

“This is a story about designing for reduction, about saving of energy and also about taking a step toward a type of a tall building that I expect we will see more of in the future,” concludes Duncan.

Happy 2016!

It has been an eventful year with several long-term projects reaching completion, just in time for Singapore's SG50 celebration. I have also completed SMRITI (Memory) for Piramal Art Foundation - my first (but not last) project in India.

2016 has many new and exciting projects coming up in Singapore and India, and hopefully other countries as well. Below are just a couple of images of my works completed last year.

For a full array of photos, please head to the Works section. Happy 2016 once again!

10 Questions with... Charles Jencks for Interior Design

http://www.interiordesign.net/articles/10955-10-questions-with-charles-jencks/

With a lustrous, decades-long career as a landscape architect, designer, critic and theorist, Charles Jencks has been instrumental in questioning Modernism, defining Post-Modernism, and designing landscapes that merge sculptural forms with modern science and philosophy. After receiving a Master of Arts degree in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1965 and a PhD in Architectural History from University College in London in 1970, Jencks earned a reputation as a visionary and an innovator in academic and practical aspects of architectural theory and practice. His work includes award-winning projects such as the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Spirals of Time and the recently completed Northumberlandia—the largest landscape sculpture in the world. Currently dividing his time between lecturing and designing landscape projects in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe, Jencks delivered a keynote speech at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore last week, reflecting on the past, present and future practices that continue to change and shape the built and un-built environments around the world.

Interior Design: You’ve participated in the World Architecture Festival in its previous years. What do you feel is the value of offering an event of this scale to the architectural community?

Charles Jencks: The World Architectural Community, to give it a title, needs to meet in important places, such as the Venice Biennale, and now the Chicago Biennale and the World Architecture Festival. The global community has had several outlets like this since the Congrès Internationaux d' ArchitectureModerne (CIAM) started in the 1920’s, and then went defunct in the 1950’s. Of all these world meetings, the most serious and vital of the debates takes place at WAF and, thus, a true international discourse emerges. It is the five days of vital juries and discussions resulting in awards that give credibility to the international values and keep architects committed to a global culture. This commitment is rare and fragile because of the larger economic global powers. In short, WAF is becoming the conscience of international architecture, and could be, with minor additions, the major world forum for architecture.

ID: The theme of WAF this year is “50:50 Looking Back, Looking Forward”. Why do you think it is important to examine the changes in architecture and urbanism in the last 50 years?

CJ: Singapore in the last 50 years has had much better balanced growth than most global cities, particularly its competitors in the Emirates and Asia. It has managed to excel in contradictory ways, with a high level of urbanism, ecological invention, economic development, mass housing for 80% of the population, a URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) given proper control, and an enlightened architectural program. Thus, one can clearly see the 50-year growth and transformation, and its 50-year lessons are well known. It, thus, becomes a “thought experiment” on a world level for thinking about how to resolve incompatibilities. In 50 years, it appears to have almost squared the circle.

ID: What are some important issues that you hope this year’s WAF theme will raise among the architectural practitioners?

CJ: Three obvious problems to address at WAF and also Singapore, are: the opportunities and danger of "Bigness"; the next step of a more convivial urbanism for walking and bicycling or "cities for people"; and the next step beyond the reigning style of "Generic Individualism", that is, a truly personal and artistic expression alongside the generic.

ID: This year's WAF also coincides with the 50th anniversary of Singapore—the city hosting WAF and the city that has seen a tremendous change in its architectural landscape over the last 50 years. Is Singapore a good example of how cities are evolving architecturally?

CJ: Singapore’s transformational growth is certainly in the right direction but has yet to reach the highest level of urban and architectural evolution, although it appears to be on the verge of this. Its green landscape of the Marina Bay Sands, of course, is without parallels in the world, but the architecture, art and urban paradigms still have a way to go.

ID: What implications do you think our changing views of the future have on the future of architecture? Are we heading in the right direction?

CJ: My WAF keynote speech was called “Generic Individualism: The global style and the next step.” The title is obviously a hybrid or oxymoron between, on one hand, the Generic and Universal and, on the other hand, the Individual and Unique. This mixture or contradiction exists because of social desire, and the mass customisation aided by the computer, following the Post-Modern revolution declared by Marshall McLuhan in the late 1960’s.

As a style, it is big in scale, repetitive, anonymous, abstract and stereotyped—that is, following the Modernist Universalism of mass production. And in the last ten years, following other global practices, it has become individualised, varied, plural, mixed, related to ethnic identity, ornamented, enigmatic, evocative, full of feeling and green elements—that is, a direct part of the Post-Modern agenda.

As a city-state, Singapore has pushed this oxymoronic style further than other global cities, although the mayors of many enlightened areas are also trying to innovate in similar ways—such as Melbourne and New York.

ID: What is it like to be on the panel of judges for the World Architecture Festival?

CJ: It’s very enjoyable, fast moving and you have to be quick witted to listen hard!

ID: What precedents do you think these critiques and awards set for the architectural profession at large?

CJ: A continual set of precedents is created, which may need more amplification in the media or publications.

ID: Is are some highlights this year at the World Architecture Festival?

CJ: Liu Thai Ker ’s talk “Singapore 50:50”, because he really knows Singapore’s historical growth, which is so fascinating. Also, the keynote speech on the future by Alex McDowell , because I have written a book in 1969 called Architecture 2000 , a future prediction that was based on the various methods of rigorous forecasting.

ID: What topic or theme would you like to see at the next year’s World Architecture Festival?

CJ: A comparison of three global cities—Berlin, New York and Shanghai—made in a systematic and enjoyable way.

ID: What do you think is the lasting responsibility of architects and designers to the public with the buildings they design?

CJ: Obviously, the architect has three different publics, with varying tastes and requirements, all of which have to be honored: 1) the clients and developers who commission the buildings; 2) the local users and public who pass through them; and 3) the unborn generations of people and animals who have a right to live happily in them.