NK: Let’s start with your speech at the LafargeHolcim Forum in Cairo, 2019. On stage, you looked squarely at the CEO of LafargeHolcim, one of the world’s largest producers of cement, who was seated in the front row, and asked that his company raise the price of cement. What made you abandon the polite tone […]
NK: The pandemic has shown us how vulnerable urban communities have become. How can we better safeguard public health? LYQ: Shanghai is looking into artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to make the city smarter, which can directly support urban resilience. Relying on what we know and can see is not enough. […]
Read More… from Sameep Padora, Prof Dr Lou Yongqi & Liak Teng Lit
NK: Let’s talk a little about the big transition in your life. Why did you leave corporate life and set up billionBricks? PK: There were three stages of change that led to this. The first started when I was in university. Architecture education, for some reason, doesn’t view commercial architecture in a positive way. There’s […]
AD: How did your journey into a career associated with nature and greening begin? VS: I grew up in a kampong where everything was outdoors. I would be climbing trees, running around farms, using my hands to do everything and trying to understand nature. I wasn’t shy of the outdoors and I also wasn’t shy […]
Yu Kongjian | Design as a policy driver HB: What do you see as the role of landscape architecture in Asia today? Why does the profession matter? YKJ: Landscape architecture plays a key role in making countries sustainable. In Asian cities and China in particular, it is about death and life—the art of survival. We […]
HB: You’ve pioneered ecological design in Asia and paved the way for transformation of the design industry. What, in your view, is the importance of ecological design in Asia, and what does it demand of the designer? KY: What we as human beings do is that we go on the earth and any part of […]
BJ: You were the keynote speaker at FOAID, one of the biggest architecture and design conferences in India. Why do you think most of these conferences happen in an echo chamber where we are only talking amongst ourselves? Why aren’t we making the effort to reach out to other professional communities, which are constantly impacting […]
NA: Most of your projects are contextual. Your buildings respond to the site—its topography and the climate, more than anything else. I’d like to know what Green architecture means to you. SP: I feel for it in every way that you can. So the whole premise of design starts merely from there. In warmer regions, […]
CL: There is a line on your company website that says, “We hope to create a healthy environment which eliminates the boundary between human and nature.” What is your working definition of nature? YC: It is more about sunlight, wind… solar radiation, wind flow, seasonal changes in temperature and humidity—that’s a very big part of nature, as well as […]
CL: WOHA won the Design of the Year at the President’s Design Award last night (17 July 2018) for Oasia Hotel Downtown, so it was interesting to see you referencing their project in your talk this morning. TB: That is wonderful to hear and very well deserved. WOHA’s work is inspiring and gives the world a sense […]
BJ: You have built a multidisciplinary practice, which deals with multiple facets of sustainable development in India and abroad. From water management and landscapes to architecture and restoration, you have worked on a myriad of projects in the past. Why and how did you set up such a practice? MR: I will start with answering the why because the how […]
HB: The scope of work you undertake is really wide-ranging, from affordable housing and neighbourhood plans to studies, exhibitions and publications. How do you determine which projects to undertake? Is there a specific goal or objective behind your work? ME: We are interested in neighbourhoods—how they grow, how they are shaped internally by the people living in them, and […]
