Ken Yeang (Chinese Chinese:: 杨经文/楊經文; pinyin pinyin:: Yáng Jīngwén; born 1948) is a Malaysian architect and writer best known for his signature deep green architecture and masterplanning, differentiated differentiated from other green architects by his authentic ecological and environmentally environmentally comprehensive approach. Yeang Yeang is an early pioneer of ecological design and planning, carrying out design and research in this field since 1971. He is described as the "world's leading green skyscraper architect". architect".[1] Yeang works between the UK architect and planning firm Llewelyn Davies Yeang (as Design Director since 2005 and Chairman since 2010) and his Kuala Lumpur office Lumpur office T. R. Hamzah and Yeang (since 1975) . Llewelyn Davies Weeks (rebranded as Llewelyn Davies Yeang) was founded in the mid-1960s by Lord Llewelyn Davies. Davies. T. R. Hamzah & Yeang was formed in 1975 with Tengku Datuk Robert Hamzah, his contemporary at the AA School, and a Prince in the Malay Royal family. Contents
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1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Ecoarchitecture 3.1 Bioclimatic skyscraper 3.2 Green urbanism 3.3 Aesthetics of ecoarchitecture 4 Work on the theory of ecological design 5 Key projects 6 Recognition and awards 7 Exhibitions 8 Projects 9 Publications o
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10 References 11 External links
[edit edit]]Early
life and education
Born in 1948 in Penang Penang,, Malaysia Malaysia,, Yeang attended Penang Free School and Cheltenham Boys College (apublic (a public school in Gloucestershire Gloucestershire,, UK), obtaining his qualifications in architecture from the Architectural the Architectural Association Association School School in London, and received a PhD in ecological design and planning from Cambridge University Department of Architecture for his dissertation, "A Theoretical Framework for Incorporating Ecological Considerations in the Design and Planning of the Built Environment", published as Designing with Nature (McGraw-Hill, USA, 1995) that became the springboard for his pioneering work on ecodesign, green architecture and ecocity masterplanning. Yeang attended courses on ecology at the Department of Environmental Biology at Cambridge University University (under Professor J.W.L. Beament), and on ecological land use planning at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Landscape Architecture (under Professor Ian McHarg). He is a member of the British Ecological Society. He is professionally registered as an architect with ARB and RIBA [UK], PAM (Malaysia), SIA (Singapore).) since 1972, and has seen to completion over a dozen bioclimatic eco high-rise buildings, several thousand dwellings (terraced houses), over two million sq.ft. of interior design space, numerous ecomasterplans and ecocity designs and in totality has completed over a hundred building projects of all types worldwide. Yeang attended courses in business management at the Malaysian Institute of Management and the Singapore
Institute of Management, and a short course at Harvard Business School. [edit]Career Yeang's architect and planning firm, T. R. Hamzah and Yeang has sister offices in the UK as Llewelyn Davies Yeang and in China as North Hamzah Yeang Architectural and Engineering Company (Beijing), a joint venture with Norinco with branch offices in Shenzen, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing. Yeang lectures extensively (over 30 countries worldwide) at conferences and schools of architecture on his ideas and work on ecological design and planning. He is the Distinguished Plym Professor at University of Illinois at Champaign, Urbana and has been the Professor of Practice at Texas A & M University, the Graham Willis Professor at University of Sheffield, the Provost‟s Distinguished Visiting Scholar at University of Southern California, Advisory Professor at Tongji University (Shanghai), Honorary Professor at University of Hong Kong, Adjunct Professor at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of Hawaii,University of New South Wales, Curtin University, University of Malaya, Deakin University and Visiting Eminent Scholar at Florida Atlantic University. Yeang mother's will (2002) appointed him the Trustee and Chairman of the family's property holding, investment and development company, The Yeangs Sdn. Bhd., which he [citation needed ] runs in tandem with his architect firm. . Yeang had served as Board member of the MBf Unit Trust and the PAM (Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia) Education Fund. [edit]Ecoarchitecture
Yeang is best known for his state-of-the-art advanced green ecoarchitecture, ecomasterplans and ecocity designs, that go beyond conventional rating systems such as LEED or BREEAM. His empirical ecological approach enables him to progress green design at several dimensions concurrently architecturally, theoretically, technically and aesthetically. The PBS documentary design/e2 (2006) refers to Yeang's work, '..wind, rain and sun in the minds of most architects, they are enemies. But what if buildings can utilise and respond to the conditions of the environment? What if the urban environment itself became a living breathing [citation needed ] organism? For Ken Yeang it is...'. In 2008 The Guardian newspaper listed Yeang amongst their '50 people who could save the planet', describing him [1] as the "world's leading green skyscraper architect". In 2011, "Fast Company' magazine listed T. R. Hamzah & Yeang as among the top 8 innovative companies. [edit]Bioclimatic
skyscraper
His early ecodesign work applies bioclimatic (climateresponsive) principles to building design to create lowenergy passive-mode buildings. He adopts this approach as the starting basis for ecodesign and by being climateresponsive it also engenders critical regionalist features where the climatic responses of the design links it to its locality. This bioclimatic work subsequently became the underlying armature for his ecological design agenda. The 'Roof-Roof' House (1985), his own house in Ampang near Kuala Lumpur, is his early experimental bioclimatic built work. The dwelling with over ambitiously too many experiments within a single built form, has an identifiable dramatic curved louvered upper umbrellastructure as an 'environmental filter' that serves as a solar-
filtering and shading device and as a second roof (hence its name 'Roof-Roof') over the building's lower roof terrace. The large louvers are angled to let in the morning sun but keep out the hot mid-day and western sun. It has side 'wind wing-walls' at the south side. On the east is a swimmingpool that functions as an evaporative-cooling device that cools the predominantly easterly breeze before entering the adjoining internal living spaces. This small building is an instructive prototype for bioclimatic climate-responsive architecture. The influences of its built form and ideas can be found in Yeang's later work. Yeang turned his attention to applying bioclimatic and passive-mode principles to high-rise tower design, a built form he considers requires revisioning. He contends that this intensive builtform will not go away overnight because of the economic basis for its existence arising from high urban land values, the need to accommodate rapid urban growth, etc. He sought to find ecologically benign ways to make this built form green. He built several experimental climate-responsive and ecodesigned towers from the mid 1970s to present day (the Plaza Atrium with the giant windscoop, Menara Boustead with planted sky-terraces, Plaza IBM with the continuous stepped-planter system, Central Plaza with its solar oriented facade), Solaris with its continuous spiraling ramp. The Mesiniaga Tower is regarded as his most didactic climate-responsive tower, where his earlier experimental ideas are bought together, such as the positioning of the elevator core as a solar buffer at the tower's hot side, the placement of toilets and stairwells to receive natural ventilation opportunities, the various solar-path guided sunshade design, the use of evaporative-cooling at the uppermost roof level, the overhead louvered canopy as framework for future PV cells, the vegetated and stepped facade-recessed sky-terraces as interstitial semi-enclosed
spaces for office users. The building with its simple and functional construction details received several awards including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture(1993) and a citation from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Yeang continued to extend these early bioclimatic passivemode design ideas to other low and medium-rise building types, and at other climatic zones. Largely the result of these high-rise experiments and his book, The Skyscraper, Bioclimatically Considered (1997) Yeang is credited as the inventor of the 'bioclimatic skyscraper' as a genre of the tall building type. University of Washington's Professor Udo Kulterman states, “..Professor Ken Yeang is internationally renowned as the 'father' of the [citation needed ] sustainable bioclimatic building..". [edit]Green
urbanism
Around the 1990s, Yeang worked on ideas for designing the high-rise typology as 'vertical green urbanism'. He sought to reinvent the skyscraper typology as 'vertical urban design'. These ideas are presented in his book, Reinventing the Skyscraper: A Vertical Theory of Urban Design (publ. John Wiley & Sons, UK, 2002), authored as a sequel to his earlier, The Skyscraper: Bioclimatically Considered (publ. ph Wiley & Sons, UK, 1997).
The Retreat on Level 10 of the Singapore National Library Building.
His idea was to invert the high-rise typology, now designed as a 'city-in-the-sky', or what he refers as 'vertical urban design' which he first exemplified in his high-rise National Library Singapore (2005). The building features large 40m high 'public realms-in-the sky' in the form of two verdantly landscaped 'skycourt gardens', a ground plane as an opento-the-sky public plaza (for cultural and festival activities) that bioclimatically serves as an evaporative cooling device to the public realm, multiple upper-level sky-bridges that link the building's two blocks (one regular-shaped block containing the library's collections and a 'banana-shaped' block for the library's programming activities) both placed within a naturally-ventilated atrium covered by a louvered canopy roof over the entire built form serving as its 'fifth facade', two multi-volume reading rooms at the sides of the collections block, an uppermost promontory viewing pod. The building's built form has an organic geometry in Yeang's on-going explorations to derive an ecological aesthetic. The building is well built without being elaborately detailed. The building is BCA-rated Green Mark Platinum. Yeang's ideas for an urban park-in-the-sky in the high-rise building type is manifested as a 'vertical linear park' in his Solaris Building (2011) at 1-North Singapore that is a benchmark in his green agenda for design buildings as 'constructed living systems' (see his 'biodiversity targets matrix' in the GyeonGi Masterplan, Seoul, Korea). The building has an ecologically-linked vegetated ramp and pedestrian walkway that is 1.3 km in length as a linear parkscape, that is punctuated by sky garden terraces at each of the building's corners, and further linked with a midlevel and an uppermost-level roof gardens. His ideas for a vertical linear park and vertical urbanism were first explored in his unbuilt EDITT Tower (Waterloo Road, Singapore). This idea is further developed in his Solaris building, which has an 'ecocell' (a green integrative
device first presented in his masterplan for Kowloon Waterfront, Hong Kong). The Solaris has side 'rain-check' glazed-walls at the ground floor facades to a nonairconditoned space, with automated-operated glasslouvres over the central atrium with sensors to naturally ventilate the atrium and the ground floor. The building is BCA-rated Green Mark Platinum. The Solaris' vertical linear park device led to his concept of the continuous 'green ecoinfrastructure', a device that enables a vital ecological nexus between the built form and its surrounding landscape hinterland, that became a crucial biodiversity component in all his subsequent masterplanning and ecocity design work (e.g. the iconic SOMA Masterplan in Bangalore, India) and in his architecture (e.g. the Spire Edge Tower in Gurgaon, India, completion c. 2013). This green ecoinfrastructure concept led to his developing a unifying platform for ecomasterplanning that is the "weaving together of the 'four ecoinfrastructures' into a unified system" (see below). Yeang worked on the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Extension (London, UK) (completed 2011) as a green healthcare facility. The building has a corner mixedmode flue-wall (providing natural ventilation during the midseasons to the Walt Disney operated ground floor cafe), a sedum-planted roof, various low energy building systems (CHP, etc.), use of green materials, etc. The building is BREEAM rated 'excellent'. His key contribution to ecomasterplanning is the development of a 'platform' for designing ecomasterplans and ecocities. The approach involves the establishing by design, a total living system that is both interactive and functional through designing the biointegration of 'four ecoinfrastructural armatures' into an overall coherent system: 1) the 'green infrastructure' (which he describes as
'nature's utilities') which includes ecological corridors and networks that link existent and new open spaces and the various habitats for fauna and flora, for natural resource management and integrated urban food production systems, etc., 2) the 'grey infrastructure' which includes cleantech ecoengineering systems such as sustainable energy systems, transportation/movement systems, sewage systems, materials recycling systems (including DFD or 'Designing For Disassembly‟ construction), bioclimatic enclosural systems, green hardscapes and other green engineering utilities; 3) the 'blue infrastructure' which encompasses hydrological management, the 'closing' of the water cycle, water conservation and management, grey water reuse. rainwater harvesting, sustainable drainage including bioswales, filtration strips, black water treatment, detention ponds as storm water management, etc. 4) the 'red infrastructure' being sustainable human ways of life and societal activities which include creating new green lifestyles, providing new sustainable food production and distribution systems, human laws and legislative systems, revisioning existent socio-economic, industrial and political systems into sustainable systems, etc. This novel approach to ecocity design and ecomasterplanning provides an indeterminate general framework that enables an inclusivity of constantly changing complex factors and technologies with a flexibility that allows for obsolescence while encouraging innovation (See page 18 in Hart, Sara (2011), Ecoarchitecture – The Work of Ken Yeang , Publ. John Wiley & Sons, UK; and Yeang, K. (2009), Ecomasterplanning, Publ. John Wiley & Sons, UK). [edit]Aesthetics
of ecoarchitecture
Yeang‟s pursuit of ecodesign and ecomasterplanning and their aesthetics for close to four decades have influenced
many architects and professionals whose work impinges on the environment - not just in the way they approach design, planning and the natural environment but aesthetically (encouraged by his former PhD Supervisor at Cambridge University, Professor John Frazer) – in asking what a green building and masterplan should look like? A key aspect of Yeang's work is developing an aesthetic for ecodesign. Yeang contends that an ecological architecture should look natural and green, making nature and its processes visible in the biointegration of the synthetic physical components of building with the ecology of the land. Much of existent architecture and masterplans elsewhere that lay claim to be green are simply commonlystyled or iconically-styled builtforms stuffed internally with ecoengineering gadgetry. Yeang contends that an ecoarhitecture and an ecocity should be 'alive' like a living system, not 'de-natured' nor look predominantly inorganic, artificial and synthetic. Yeang asserts that ecoarchitecture and ecomasterplans demand their own 'style'. It is this green ecoaesthetic in Yeang's architecture that brought considerable international attention to his work. His eco-aesthetic does not have the shape or form that in any way resemble existent architectural styles. His aesthetic might be regarded as an independent style that encompasses ecodesign holistically and is derived from an understanding and inclusion of ecological systems and processes of its locality. This is an emergent ecological aesthetic whose shapes and forms have a nexus with adjoining ecosystems, that harmonise with the site‟s ecology, enhance local biodiversity, minimize polluting emissions and other negative consequences, and are more energy and water efficient and carbon neutral than conventional buildings. Lord Norman Foster of Thames Bank states, '.. Ken Yeang has developed a distinctive architectural vocabulary that extends beyond questions of
style to confront issues of sustainability and how we can build in harmony of the natural world..' (2011). This work in a relentless pursuit of an original biointegrated 'ecological aesthetic' is Yeang‟s other contribution to this field. [edit]Work
on the theory of ecological
design Yeang is both a theoretician and a designer. It is this theoretical rigorousness that firmly underpins and legitimises his ecological architecture and planning work and which gives critical substance in anchoring his ecodesign work. His work on the theory of ecodesign and its advancement is where Yeang has significantly contributed and advanced this field of endeavor. His earlier Cambridge doctoral dissertation presents a unifying comprehensive theoretical model for ecodesign, defining its prime factors as four sets of interrelated 'environmental interactions', which he describes in the form of a mathematical partitioned-matrix of four sets of interdependent environmental interactions. This theoretical model served as the underlying guiding framework for his subsequent ecodesign and ecomasterplanning work. He recognized over 4 decades ago that human's callous environmental devastations and contamination of the natural environment will adversely affect the planet's natural balance, its ecosystems biodiversity and its biospheric processes (causing global warming and climate change). This led him to do research in this field for his doctorate in ecological design and planning at Cambridge University (UK) in the early 1970s. Because ecodesign in the 1970s did not have the benefit of prior research or theoretical models and frameworks,
Yeang early years involved empirical research, experimental design, and investigative studies of ecological processes that he could replicate or mimic in his humanmade structures. His research work is published in several of his key books including, Designing with Nature (1995), The Skyscraper, Bioclimatically Considered: A Design Primer (1997), The Green Skyscraper: The Basis for Designing Sustainable Intensive Buildings (Prestel), Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design (2006), Eco-Masterplanning (2009), Eco Design Dictionary (an illustrated reference with co-author Lillian Woo, 2009)). He is currently researching for a monograph, Ecomimesis: Bases for Designing the Built Environment, on the mimicry of the ecological properties and attributes of ecosystems (Taylor and Francis). Yeang‟s recent projects exemplify the maturing of his design work with a growing complexity and confidence in creating an ecoarchitecture with an evident luxuriant greening that defines and becomes his own identifiable architectural style. With the high level of verdant landscape in his builtforms, whether externally (or placed internally within the builtform in his projects in temperate and cold climates), his ecoaesthetic is described by his colleagues as 'indeterminate', 'hairy', 'constructed habitats'. 'vertical landscaping'. The most significant impact of Yeang's work on architecture might be contended to be his revisioning of architectural design to be now no longer as designing architecture simply as synthetic and inanimate objects, but as the complex creation of built structures as 'constructed living systems', that he contends must of course also address other user programmatic functions such as exceptionally fulfilling user needs, creating vitally experiential and pleasurable spaces, etc. Yeang now applies this concept of designing architecture as 'built ecological habitats' to all his work. This
might be regarded as taking ecodesign to its next level redefining the relationship of our human-made synthetic built systems with the ecology of the landscape enabling a higher level of biointegration. We might contend that in reviewing Yeang's oeuvre of design, built and theoretical work, his most important and instructive contribution to ecological design is his advancing the landmark macro ecology-based landuse planning approach of one of his mentors, the landscape architect Ian McHarg and then extending and articulating this ecomasterplannng work from its large-scale urban planning scale with its ecology-based approach to the 'micro level' of architectural design at the scale of the built form. This was an endeavour that McHarg had sought to do for his architect colleagues but unable to achieve, likely limited by being an landscape architect. Continuing to carry out a research programme on ecodesign in-house within his professional practice and undertaken over several decades, Yeang uniquely applies his research outcomes concurrently in his built work. This progressively developing body of work led Yeang to being recognized internationally as a pioneer, advocate, writer and innovator in authentic ecological design. By the mid 1990s both private and public sector clients worldwide, dissatisfied with the limitations of conventional accreditation systems and with the ecoengineering-hardware based design approach, sought Yeang for their signature (iconic) ecodesigned architecture projects, ecomasterplans and large scale ecocity designs. Yeang's design work is characterized by their ideas-driven builtform where each design usually expounds one or more of his newly invented eco systemic or technical ideas pn or novel devices (such as the eco land-bridge and the ecoundercroft in the Guangzhou masterplan, China), the
'ecocell' (in the Kowloon Waterfront Masterplan, Hong Kong), the 'green ecoinfrastructure' (in the SOMA Masterplan, India, the continuous green-wall (in DiGi Data Centre in Shah Alam, Malaysia), the 'Vertical Linear Park' (in the Solaris building, in Singapore) and others. His recent work explores the concept of 'ecomimicry' as designing the human built environment as constructed ecosystems that mimic the processes, structure and attributes of ecosystems, such as ecosystem biological structure, ecosystem materials recycling, increasing efficient energy use, etc. „Ecomimicry‟ is a term he first used in his book, Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design (2006). adopted from his early ideas and papers (Yeang,K.(1974), "Bionics: The Use of Biological Analogies in Design", in AAQ No.4 (Architectural Association Quarterly), London, UK, Yeang,K.(1972), "Bases for Ecosystem Design", in Architectural Design, July, Architectural Press, London) and paper by Marshall, Alex (2006), 'Leaning From Nature: The Ecomimicry Project' (poster paper, Environmental Education conference, Western Australia) but the term is an obvious outgrowth from the terms „biomimicry‟ and 'ecomimetics'. Yeang's version of ecomimicry refers to the physical, structural and systemic mimicry, and not to be mistaken with a simplistic 'visual' mimicry which he regards as superficial. This work is developed from his earlier research (in his Cambridge doctoral dissertation, 1974) on the use of biological analogies in design. Fundamental to Yeang's design work is an ecological nexus as an ecoinfrastructure within the built structure. All of Yeang‟s architecture and ecomasterplans have an internal as well as an external ecological connectivity within the built forms or masterplans that is connected to the landscape at the ground plane and where possible to the hinterland's natural landscape, and which further seek a benign and
seamless biointegration between human activities and its built systems with the surrounding ecosystems in the landscape (e.g. in the Zorlu Masterplan, Istanbul, Turkey). He draws a systemic analogy here with 'prosthesis' in surgery with designing for biointegration of our synthetic constructed systems with their host organism. He identifies three levels of designing for biointegration: physical, systemic, temporal. Most of the current generation of architects and engineers approach “green” design and construction through cleantech ecoengineering ('ecogadgetry') or simply through compliance to green accreditation systems. To Yeang, while these practices are relevant and can be progressive, they do not constitute green design in an environmentally comprehensive and inclusive way inherent in an ecologically-based approach. Yeang states, “..it is easy to be misled or seduced by technology and to think that if we assemble enough ecogadgetry (e.g. in the form of solar collectors, photovoltaic cells, biological recycling systems, building-automation systems and double-skin facades, etc.) in one single building that this can automatically be considered ecological [citation needed ] architecture..". Yeang contends that although these technologies are commendable ecoengineering systems, they are merely useful components towards an ecological architecture and achieving an ecological outcome. Yeang's asserts that ecological design is not just about cleantech or ecoengineering or carbon neutral systems; but that ecotechnologies and engineering must be integrated with and be influenced by the ecology, climate and physical conditions of the site. Yeang sees our existent built environment as having alienated humans from nature which needs to be rectified. He defines ecodesign as 'achieving a benign and seamless
biointegration of our built environment and human activities with the natural environment', He sees this biointegration function to include enhancing biodiversity, repairing humancaused fragmented ecosystems, enhancing ecological nexus (through devices such as eco landbridges, eco undercrofts, vertical green walls and landscaping), use of ecocells, use of constructed wetlands, repairing ecologically fragmented territory by ecological corridors and fingers to provide an ecological nexus to connect to the landscape and to the hinterland minimising disruptions with adjoining ecosystems, maintaining sensitive ecobalance, enhancing existent urban greenery, reducing or having zero dependency on non-renewable sources of energy, designing for water conservation and management, providing sustainable drainage systems, using green building materials that are recyclable, reusable and reintegratable into the environment, and others. His recent advances (see below) include designing built systems as 'living systems' through designing to create constructed habitats (in the Gyeongi Masterplan, Seoil, Korea). Many mistakenly regard Yeang‟s work as simply placing vegetation in his builtforms or as just creating an ecological nexus (continuous link) within his builtforms to enhance local biodiversity. Yeang‟s work does much more than just that. What is unique is that his buildings and ecomasterplans are total 'living systems', designed as constructed ecosystems requiring the creation of new habitats within and around the development, involving the matching of selected native species with these constructed habitats, setting their „biodiversity targets‟, and providing physical conditions within these habitats to enable them to survive over the seasons of the year. In achieving this, his built work become more than just „vertically-landscaped architecture‟ but are in effect constructed „living systems‟ (See pages 252-253 in Hart, Sara, 'Ecoarchitecture – The
Work of Ken Yeang', publ. John Wiley & Sons, UK, 2011). This designing of developments as living systems differentiates his work from the work of those who imitiate his work by just placement of planting within their builtforms. [edit]Key
projects
Monographs on Yeang‟s work include by Robert Powell, Leon van Schaik, Ivor Richards and others. The most recent is, Ecoarchitecture – The Work of Ken Yeang, authored by Sara Hart (Publ. John Wiley & Dons, UK, 2011).
Menara Mesiniaga in Subang Jaya, Selangor ,Malaysia.
Yeang has completed over 200 projects since 1975. His benchmark buildings, projects and their innovations include:
The Roof Roof House - Selangor, Malaysia (1985) – his own experimental climate-responsive house that rethought bioclimatic passive-mode low-energy building design. Menara Mesiniaga Tower - Selangor, Malaysia (1992) - a climate-responsive tower that exemplifies Yeang‟s key principles for 'bioclimatic skyscraper' design, which received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the RAIA
(Royal Australian Institute of Architects) International Award, the Malaysian institute of Architects Design Award. Kowloon Waterfront Masterplan - Hong Kong (c. 1998) a green masterplan where Yeang developed the green ecoinfrastructure concept and the novel use of 'ecocells'. National Library - Singapore (2005) - a green library tower (120m) with large sky courts (40m high) that received the BCA Green Mark Platinum Award 2005, and the Singapore Institute of Architects Award. SOMA Masterplan - Bangalore, India (2006) - a signature ecomasterplan that espouses his innovative idea for ecocity masterplanning as the integration of four ecoinfrastructures, with the use of ecobrdges and ecoiundercrofts to enable ecological nexus. DiGi Technical Office - Shah Alam, Malaysia (2010) - that advances the idea of a 'living' ecowall as a nexus of greenery linking all the facades, that received the Malaysian Institute of Architects Design Award (Commendation, 2010) and Green Building Index Gold rating. Solaris - 1-north, Singapore (2010) - that has the innovative 1.5 km long 'Vertical Linear Park' that wraps itself around the tower‟s facade enhancing the site's biodiversity, which received the SIngapore Institute of Architects Award (Commendation, 2011), the Malaysian institute of Architects Gold Award 2011, the WACA (World Association of Chinese Architects) Gold Medal 2011 and BCA Green Mark Platinum rating. Spire Edge Tower – (Gurgaon, Haryana, India), under construction with anticipated completion 2012, a signature tower that espouses the idea of a vertical green ecoinfeastructure, and rated LEED Platinum. Ganendra Art House - Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (2011) Art Gallery with accommodation for live-in artist has an
experimental 'down-draft' ventilating flue for enhancing comfort cooling, which received the Malaysian Institute of Architects Design Award (Commendation) 2010. The Great Ormond Street Children‟s Hospital Extension (2011) – London, UK, green hospital rated BREEAM 'excellent'.
[edit]Recognition
and awards
Yeang's design and built work have been recognised by the many awards received since 1989 (over 40) that include the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (for the Menara Mesiniaga, an IBM franchise), the Prince Claus Award (Netherlands), the UIA (International Union of Architects) August Perret Award, the Malaysian Institute of Architects Gold Medal (2011) and its design awards, the WACA (World Association of Chinese Architects) Gold Medals (for the Solaris Building, 2011 and for the National Library Singapore), the Government of Malaysia‟s „Darjah Mulia Pangkuan Negen (DMPN) award that carries the official title of „Dato‟ (2003, generally regarded as the Malaysian equivalent of the UK‟s OBE), The Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the Holcim Regional Award for Sustainability (Switzerland) (for the Putrajaya Phase 2C5 building, Malaysia, 2011), the Merdeka Award (for the 'environment' category, 2011), an award from the Malaysian government regarded as its national equivalent of the Nobel prize. [edit]Exhibitions Yeang has exhibited his ecodesign work in galleries and museums internationally since 1985: from Tokyo (Ginza Pocket Park, Tokyo Designer's Space at Axis Building, Roppongi) and Nara in Japan, Berlin (Aedes) Germany, New York (MOMA) and Washington DC (Building Museum) USA, London (Building Centre) UK, Rotterdam (NAI)
Netherlands, dating from 1985 to present date. The German Government's IFA will exhibit Yeang's work together with Landscape Architect Seksan at the IFA Gallery in Stuttgart (2012) and Berlin (2013).. Yeang and his ecodesigns have been featured in a number of special broadcasts, including BBC (UK) television and radio, NHK (Japan), Asia Discovery Channel (Asia), PBS (USA) „design=e2‟ (in which the actor Brad Pitt refers to Yeang's work, '...wind, rain and the sun, in the minds of most architects, they are the enemies.. but what if buildings can utilise and respond to the conditions of the environment? What if that urban environment becomes a living, breathing organism? To Ken Yeang it is..'). [edit]Projects
National Library of Singapore
Plaza Atrium, Kuala Lumpur , 1981 Roof-Roof house, Kuala Lumpur 1985 Menara Boustead, Kuala_Lumpur, 1986 Menara Mesiniaga, Subang Jaya, Malaysia, 1992 MBF Tower, Penang, Malaysia1993 TTDi The Plaza and Residence, Kuala Lumpur, 1996
UMNO Tower, Penang, 1998 Mutiara Mesiniaga Penang, Penang, 2003 Mewah Oils Headquarters, Malaysia 2005 [2] National Library of Singapore, Singapore, 2005 Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (Main campus, Cyberjaya), Malaysia, 2006 TA2 Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2005 DIGI Technical Office, Shah Alam, Malaysia, 2010 Solaris, Singapore, 2010 Ganendra Art House, 2010
Current projects under construction
Spire Edge, Gurgaon, Delhi, India (Completion 2012) Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Extension, London (Completion 2012) Fu Gong Shan Monastery, Johore Baru, Malaysia (Completion 2013) Calvary Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Completion 2012)
Other projects
Putrajaya office and retall complex Phase 2C5, Putrajaya, Malaysia Tokyo-Nara Tower, Tokyo, Japan, 1994 Editt Tower, Singapore, a signature tower with a ramped greenery system Elephant and Castle EcoTower, London Al-Asima, Kuwait CAAG Tower, London Enterprise Building 4, Cyberjaya, Malaysia Jabal Omar Towers, Mecca, Saudi Arabia Dubai Towers, UAE Beijing Mega Hall North
Taipei Capital Plaza Chongging Tower, China Vancouver Waterfront, Canada Premier City, Almaty, Kazakhstan LGT Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
[edit]Publications
1995 Designing With Nature: The Ecological Basis for Architectural Design, Mcgraw-Hill 1997 Skyscraper, Bioclimatically Considered: A Design Primer , Wiley-Academy 2000 The Green Skyscraper: The Basis for Designing Sustainable Intensive Buildings, Prestel 2002 Reinventing the Skyscraper: A Vertical Theory of Urban Design, Academy Press 2007 Eco Skyscrapers, Images Publishing 2008 Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design, Wiley 2009 EcoMasterplanning , Wiley
[edit]References a b
1. ^ "50 people who could save the planet" . The Guardian (London). January 5, 2008. Retrieved 2012-12-30. 2. ^ Pearson, Clifford A.: "T.R. Hamzah & Yeang applies its trademark bioclimatic design principles to the new National Library in Singapore" in Architectural Record, August 2006
[edit]External
links
Website of Llewelyn Davies Yeang Website of T. R. Hamzah & Yeang Sdn. Bhd. Biography and interview with Ken Yeang, and an image gallery of his work. CNN, July 2007 Interview with Ken Yeang 2009(Video)
2009 Green Source Magazine Article on Solaris, Singapore
