Pitupong Chaowakul
SUPERMACHINE STUDIO (Thailand)
“Supermachine studio is founded in 2009 in Bangkok with a very simple one sentence philosophy; we-pay-attention-to-our-design-processes-as-much-as-the-end-result-of-our-completed-projects. After 6 years with Thisdesign, the previous office I founded with 5 other friends, I have been carrying the interest in experimentation of each mechanic in the project that contribute to its newness as well as performances. Supermachine does architecture as a main discipline but constantly do other stuff from art installation, interior design event design, product design to exhibition design basically everything that involves design and art. Supermachine Studio is a highly cross-disciplinary design studio with critical mindset.”
— Pitupong Chaowakul
Supermachine is Pitupong Chaowakul with Nuntawat Tasanasangsoon, Suchart Ouypornchaisakul, Santi Sarasuphab and Kamolporn Wiriyaichaisang.
Bangkok can be stated as one of the happy cities. It’s a city far from perfection by any standard. The city is not yet fixed, it’s fluid. With many problems to solve, the people of Bangkok are driven by freedom.
A lot of our works have been constructed in circumstances far from perfect. It takes creativity, courage and a lot of time to come up with solutions.
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Dr Chong Fook Loong
HOUSING DEVELOPMENT BOARD (Singapore)
Dr Chong Fook Loong is Deputy Director (Physical Planning) of the Research & Planning Department in the Housing & Development Board (HDB). As Deputy Director (Physical Planning), he leads and manages the Physical Planning portfolio by supervising and overseeing the delivery of a wide spectrum of planning and urban design projects. He plays an important role in ensuring that HDB towns are planned with a live-work-play-learn environment, where a comprehensive range of amenities and facilities is provided to cater to the different needs of the residents.
As Project Director of Punggol 21+, he is tasked to realise the plans for Punggol’s vision as “a Waterfront Town of the 21st Century.” He led the formulation of the exciting plans in the Remaking of Punggol Heartland with the proposed Waterway meandering through the town. He also led the planning and organisation of the 2-stage Waterfront Housing Design Competition for Punggol’s first Waterfront public housing parcel in 2009.
The places we plan and create can be delightful places where you are in harmony with what you think, what you say, and what you enjoy doing.
The environment we shape today will shape us tomorrow.
”Julien De Smedt
JDS Architects (Denmark)
Julien De Smedt is the founder and director of JDS Architects based in Brussels, with offices in Copenhagen and Oslo. A designer and architect whose work is known in Europe and abroad, Julien’s commitment to the exploration of new architectural models and programs has helped to re-energize the discussion of architecture in Denmark with projects such as the VM Housing Complex, Maritime Youth House and Stavanger Concert Hall. Born in Brussels to French art enthusiast Jacques Léobold and Belgian artist Claude De Smedt, Julien attended schools in Brussels, Paris, and Los Angeles before receiving his diploma from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Before founding JDS Architects, Julien co-founded and directed the architecture firm PLOT in Copenhagen.
Among other awards and recognitions, Julien received the Henning Larsen Prize in 2003 and an Eckersberg medal in 2005. In 2004 the Stavanger Concert Hall was appointed World’s Best Concert Hall at the Venice Biennale, and the Maritime Youth House won the AR+D award in London and was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe award. In 2007, Julien won the international competition for the new Holmenkollen Skijump in Oslo, under completion, and in 2008 he won the Kalvebod Brygge competition in Copenhagen. In 2009, Julien De Smedt received the prestigious Rotterdam-Maaskant prize for Young Architects.
Julien has been a guest professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas and the University of Kentucky. Among other places, Julien has also lectured at the Sendai Mediatheque in Japan, the Architectural Association of Ireland, the Tate Modern in London, the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal in Paris, the McGill University in Montreal, Yale University in New Haven, Harvard University in Cambridge, and both SCI-ARC and USC in Los Angeles.
Julien’s work has been exhibited in numerous locations around the world, such as Copenhagen, Toronto, Paris, New York City, and Sao Paulo. The first monograph of JDS Architects, entitled PIXL TO XL, was published by Damdi in 2007. In December 2009 JDS released a second book entitled AGENDA, published by ACTAR and distributed worldwide.
There is nothing aesthetic about architecture. Some might judge architecture as something beautiful, ugly, whether they like it or not… ultimately that’s a matter of subjective opinion. Architecture is always beyond that by being a stimulator of a state of being.
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Erik G. L’Heureux
National University of Singapore (Singapore)
Erik G. L’Heureux AIA, LEED AP is an architect and educator. He is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore where he researches utopian visions of the city, hydrology, and cruise ships. A former boat builder, he practiced architecture in New York City while teaching at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union. Erik received a Master of Architecture from Princeton University where he was awarded with the Susan K. Underwood Thesis Award. He studied as a Fitzgibbon Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis where he was recently honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007.
Erik is a registered architect in the USA, NCARB certified, and a LEED accredited professional. His professional design work is marked by formal clarity, material richness, with an attention to environmental calibration and has won several international awards including two MIPIM Future Project Awards, two AIA NYS Design Awards and many others. His work has been published in Architectural Record, Architectural Review, Space, Form, and Singapore Architect.
Rosalea Monacella
RMIT UNIVERSITY (Australia)
Rosalea Monacella is the Program director of the landscape architecture program at RMIT Univeristy and the co-director of the Office of Urban Transformation Research laboratory. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture (Hons) from RMIT, a Masters in Landscape Urbanism from AA and currently completing her Ph.D. Her research focuses on the specialisation of emergent urban fields and the exploration of the diagram as a material operation, which considers the transformation of formal structures that adapt to the changing measures and orders of an urban landscape. Through her interests in the realm of design she continues to investigate the possibilities and definitions of emergent and material operations and how these explorations within design can suggest a mutually imbricated approach to design, technique and theory. Rosalea combines her academic pursuits with professional practice where she is a cofounder of the international incubator O24-7 and a receiptant of a number of number international awards.
Larry Ng
URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (Singapore)
Mr Ng Lye Hock, Larry is the Group Director of Architecture and Urban Design Excellence (AUDE), Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which is the planning and conservation authority of Singapore. He spearheads URA’s effort to promote architecture and urban design excellence and to raise public awareness and appreciation of Singapore’s built environment.
He was a Colombo Plan Scholar who graduated from University of Western Australia in 1979, and holds a master’s degree in building science from University of Sydney under a scholarship from the Housing and Development Board (HDB). For his good academic achievement, he was awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Prize and the University of Sydney Building Science Prize. He was also awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2008. Mr Ng has extensive experience in the planning, design and implementation of public housing in Singapore. In his long career with the HDB, he has been involved in the master planning of new towns and design and supervision of various types of projects including high rise public housing, commercial, industrial, institutional, Main Upgrading Programme (MUP), Hawker Upgrading Programme (HUP) and also studio apartments for the elderly. With more than 20 years experience as an architect, Mr Ng has introduced many innovative design solutions to bring up the standards of public housing which is comparable to those of private housing.
To me, the notion of Happy Cities is to be able to do what I love while feeling good about life in a beautiful city setting that is a result of good urban planning and design.
Creating a happy environment is more than just bricks and mortar; it is about our communities and lifestyles, and enhancing our experience of the world.
”Ng Sek San
SEKSAN DESIGN (Malaysia)
As the principal and founder of the celebrated Malaysian landscape architecture and planning practice Seksan Design, Seksan earned his Bachelor of Civil Engineering from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand before moving on to attain diploma in landscape architecture a postgraduate from Lincoln University in New Zealand a few years later. Since its founding over a decade ago, Seksan Design has been involved in numerous high-profile projects such as Suria KLCC and the KLPAC park in Kuala Lumpur. Small-scale residential works like the 67 Tempinis house in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur are equally evocative of Seksan’s widely acknowledged penchant for craftily fusing organic and modern elements, culminating in designs which, in Seksan’s own words, strive to achieve a balance “between the centre and the fringe, between work and play, between the architecture and the trees, between bourgeoisie architecture and the proletariat garden and between theory and practice”.
The current keywords in our construction industry include: deadlines, profit margin, authorities’ approvals, marketing angle, award-winning and iconic.
Perhaps these can be replaced by: honesty, humanity, empathy, appropriateness, common sense, contextual, unconventional and timelessness.
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Daan Roosegaarde
Studio Roosegaarde (The Netherlands)
Daan Roosegaarde is an artist and creative director of Studio Roosegaarde in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. As artistic laboratory it develops interactive technologies and designs for the creative industry. Daan Roosegaarde’s work explores the dynamic relation between architecture, people and e-culture. In this interaction his sculptures create a situation of tactile high-tech where visitor and (public) space become one.
Roosegaarde’s interactive projects are internationally exhibited at V2_, Netherlands Media Art Institute Montevideo, Tate Modern London, YCAM Japan, National Art Center Tokyo, Venice Biennale 2009 and Victoria & Albert Museum London.
In the lecture Interactive landscapes Daan Roosegaarde will present the research of Studio Roosegaarde and narratives of his interactive installations.
I believe Art and Architecture should update people’s perception of what reality is and could become. Public city space is the place where these elements collide.
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Florian Schaetz
National University of Singapore (Singapore)
Florian Schaetz is architect and humanist. A former mason, snowboarder and bartender who draws on real-life experiences about how people meet and interact with architecture and their environment. With a degree from ETH Zurich, he practiced in Los Angeles, Rotterdam and Vienna before arriving in Asia. He is currently Assistant Professor for Architecture and Construction at the National University of Singapore where he leads the first-year students training in the profession. His research is focused on developing responsible architecture for tourism in ecologically-vulnerable zones as well as the art of construction in concrete.
He has received several awards for his design and artworks including the European Architectural Photography Prize and the Hong Kong Asia Design Award. His work has been displayed at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Zumtobel Design Forum Vienna and Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Florian is a registered architect in Germany and Holland and founder of design think-tank FACE 2050.
Makoto Tanijiri
Suppose Design Office (Japan)
Makoto Tanijiri started Suppose Design Office, an architectural design firm in Hiroshima. His work covers a broad range of areas including houses, business spaces, site frameworks, landscapes, products, and art installations. Tanijiri has been awarded the JCD Rookie Award and was a finalist in the Heiwa-ohashi Pedestrian Bridge Design Proposal Competition. He is also a part time professor at Anabuki Design College.
Makoto Tanijiri thinks that it is important to keep looking for something new as an architect. He defined his work as a chance to realize fresh ideas about buildings and relationships of all interactive elements. On the same time, the architect sometimes feels that society is dismissive of accepting modern ideas, and that is why, he wants to explore something new but also familiar to human life. Tanijiri believes that he could find the answer in daily life by looking at things from different perspectives. With the aspiration to enhance the human environment, Makoto Tanijiri is contributing “new architecture” in seeking its answers to ordinary life.
If I could make three changes in our world and environment to promote happiness, they would be:
- To create an environment where adults do not lose the sensitivity of their childhood.
- A world everyone has a heart for kindness.
- A world where no one lies.
Kjetil Thorsen
SNØHETTA (Norway)
Kjetil Trædal Thorsen spent most of his Norwegian childhood on the coastal island of Karmøy. In 1987 he was co-founder of Snøhetta Architecture and Landscape, a collaboration of architects and landscape architects.
During 1986 and 1987 he was active on the board of the Oslo division of the Norwegian Architects Association (NAL) and an active co-founder of Norways first Architectural Gallery, Galleri ROM.
Since the creation of Snøhetta as, a private limited company in 1990, he has been a driving partner, and as a board member and projects director he has been instrumental in defining and developing Snøhetta’s philosophy and architectural ambition.
From 1999 to 2002 he served on the Design Competition Committee of the Norwegian Architects Association (NAL) when adopting EU regulations into public architectural competitions. In 2002 he became a member of the European Cultural Parliament.
From 2004 to 2008 he worked as a professor at the University of Innsbruck, where he led the Institute for experimental studies in Architecture together with Patrick Schumacher from Zaha Hadid Architects.
The origins of happiness and well-being are to be found in our sense of perception, our memory of places, and expectation of future events.
Building only becomes architecture when these human perceptions arise. Architects build for people, but it only becomes architecture because of people who inhabit the spaces, pass by on the street, people who may never visit the building but who occupy it in their mind. By evoking this sense of human perception, architects can create spaces and environments that promote meaning. Only through meaning can a sense of well-being be established.
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