What Is Social Architecture About? (w/ Dr. Chong Keng Hua)

Show Notes

In this audio-only exclusive, I had the privilege to jump in a chat with my Thesis mentor Dr. Chong Keng Hua, a Associate Professor in the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Architecture & Sustainable Design course, where I got to learn more about his inspirations for social architecture and how he has decided that it was his calling.

In this episode:

• Why Keng Hua became passionate in working on Social Architecture projects

• His definition of social architecture

• Challenges and highlights of his projects

• Typical design process & research

• Why I really enjoyed learning about social architecture in SUTD, which was a course Keng Hua taught when I was a student

• My thesis project and about my current job scope at Surbana Jurong where I work on public housing projects in Singapore.

• How social architecture can play a role in public housing projects.

• The importance of having quantitative and qualitative data into architectural projects.

• The various ways I feel public housing design in Singapore is progressive and successful in supporting the lifestyles in Singapore.

We also talked about the changing architectural education, a trend towards data-driven multi-disciplinary syllabus as seen in SUTD and why many other educational institutions are following suit.

Keng Hua also shares his ideas for a vision-driven, practice-education hybrid approach - which I totally believe in.

And I share about my struggles in architectural practice and I explain some reasons why I feel our young architects are feeling the stress at work.

The Second Beginnings ebook that Keng Hua is referring to in this podcast can be found here at this website.

https://www.lienfoundation.org/project/second-beginnings

Tune in if you are…

I‍f you are an architectural student or designer wanting to know what social architecture or community design is all about, you should tune in to understand what it entails and how you as an architectural designer can contribute to the design of such spaces.