| Date | 2025-07-24 |
| Event start | 18:30 PM |
| Duration | 2 hrs ( from 6:30pm to 8:30pm ) |
| Venue | SIA L3 Theatrette |
| Contact | 2 |
| URL | Visit |
Synopsis
New social compact, new world order, the Asian century, the Johor-Singapore SEZ – how will these expand the impact of our work as architects? Where are our growth opportunities? Come join Tay Kheng Soon, Seah Chee Huang, Khoo Peng Beng and Cheah Kok Ming on Thursday Night at SIA on 24 July 2025 from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.
Speakers
Mr. Tay Kheng Soon
Tay was among the first batch of students to enrol in the Diploma of Architecture course at the Singapore Polytechnic in 1958. He graduated five years later in the pioneer batch of locally educated architects, joining a select group of local architects educated overseas in a professional scene that was still dominated by British expatriates. The emergence of locally trained professional architects in Singapore coincided with decolonisation and a rising consciousness of their role in the building of a post-colonial nation.
For Tay, Singapore’s independence meant not a reactionary rejection of Eurocentric modernity or a retreat into parochial nationalism through, for example, the triumphalist assertion of the supremacy of one’s national traditions and cultures. Instead, he saw the relevance and the liberating dimensions of modernity, selectively embracing it while also asking how he, as a citizen of a newly independent nation, could contribute to the constant transformation of modernity.
His beliefs led on to him being Chairman of the Singapore Planning and Urban Research Group (SPUR) in the 1970s and later president of the Singapore Institute of Architects, receiving its Gold Medal in 2010. His design research extends beyond architectural scale to urban planning and finally to the global scale. He is also a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and a member of the World Ekistics Society, and founding Chairman of the Substation, the experimental centre of the Arts community.
Ar. Seah Chee Huang, DP Architects Pte. Ltd.
Ar Seah Chee Huang has always been captivated by how architecture, when driven by clear purpose, can be a power vehicle to effect positive changes and enrich the everyday life of its community. He holds that architecture can be harnessed to synthesize and make sense of these varied dynamics to create more coherent environments and cohesive communities. These design values are reflected throughout his works, especially community and sports developments.
With more than 20 years of experience under his belt, Chee Huang was one of the lead architects for the Singapore Sports Hub project, a large scale integrated sports, recreation and lifestyle development. He has also led two prominent community and sports projects: Our Tampines Hub and Bukit Canberra. Both are integrated community, sports, civic, cultural and commercial lifestyle complexes in Singapore, where he is heavily involved in grassroots and resident’s engagement. A director at DPA, Chee Huang also heads the firm’s designGROUP, focusing on enhancing design competency office-wide while championing various CSR efforts such as Project Bus Stop and Goodlife Makan, an elder care centre in Marine Terrace, Singapore, which won the President’s Design Award (P*DA), Design of the Year in 2020.
Chee Huang served as the President of Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) and as a board member of the Board of Architects. An enthusiast in the academic realm, he was an adjunct design tutor for the third year Bachelor of Architecture design studios in the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for over a decade. He is also currently a design advisory member for various agencies and design institutions.
Ar. Khoo Peng Beng, SUTD
Professor Khoo Peng Beng is the Head of the Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) pillar and Professor of Practice at SUTD.
Prior to joining SUTD in 2025, Prof Khoo served as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for over 23 years, where he led multiple international design studios representing NUS and Singapore in architecture and design.
With over 31 years of experience in the architecture field, Prof Khoo is the co-founder of ARC Studio Architecture + Urbanism which he established in 1998 with his wife and fellow architect, Belinda Huang. Their architectural practice is renowned for its bold and transformative designs across multiple countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, China, India, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, and Rwanda. One of their most iconic projects, the Pinnacle@Duxton, has redefined high-rise, high-density public housing in Singapore, proving that sustainable, green, and living closer together can be both practical and enjoyable. In recognition of their design excellence, outstanding contributions to the community and inspiring the younger generation, the team was conferred the prestigious President’s Design Award Designer of the Year in 2020. The project has also won several other prestigious awards including the CTBUH Best Tall Building in Asia Australasia, CTBUH Most Sustainable Tall Building Award, World Architecture Festival (WAF) Best Residential Building in the World, FIABCI Prix d’Excellence Award and ULI Award for Excellence 2010.
In 2022, Prof Khoo co-curated the ArchiFest and in 2010, he was the lead curator for the Singapore Pavillion ‘1000 Singapores: A Model of a Compact City’ at the Venice Biennale.
Prof Khoo’s research interests spans across quantum consciousness, holarchy, trans-contextuality, deep sustainability, and integral ecology in architecture.
Ar. Cheah Kok Ming, NUS
Architectural education for Kok Ming is developing in students the ability to ask the right questions, research for the understanding to inform the appropriate architectural actions. Form follows enquiry. His design studio is enquiry-led and research-informed, interested in architectural inventions that address high yield on a small land footprint and future-proofing challenges.
He curates the Construe & Construct lecture series that examine the tropical designs of emerging architectural practices, setting a platform to investigate the idea of Tropical Tectonics – the articulation of structure, skin and space in the tropical climate and its context.
Kok Ming holds the Outstanding Educator Award, the university’s highest teaching accolade. He has served as the Deputy Head (Academic) as well as the Vice Dean (Academic) of the School of Design & Environment. He is currently the Assistant Dean in the College of Design & Engineering. He is a registered architect and a member of the Board of Architects, Singapore. He is a NUS Alumnus.
His key architectural works when he was with the Public Works Department included the Institute of South East Asian Studies which contributed discourse on tropical architecture in several books. The conversion of the Empress Place Building to Asian Civilization Museum won the Architectural Heritage Award in 2003. He pioneered buildable design strategies for the construction of schools and won the BCA Best Buildable Project in 1995.
Schedule
| 6:15pm | Arrival of Participants and Registration |
| 6:30pm | Event Commences |
| 8:00pm | Q&A |
| 8:30pm | End of Event |
Terms & Conditions
- For SIA Members whose registrations have been confirmed, attendance is compulsory. Cancellation for complimentary registration is only allowed 3 working days before the actual event.
- Any absentee will be charged at $22.00.
- Ticket is non-transferable under all circumstances.
- Group registration will be subjected to group admin fee of $1 per ticket per transaction. Replacement/Cancellation of participant will not be allowed under group registration.