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BACHELORS OF ARTS IN ARCHITECTURE (HONOURS)

Academic Year 2025/26

Department of Architecture

College of Design and Engineering

National University of Singapore

Picture credit: Finbarr Falon

HEAD’S MESSAGE 5

BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ARCHITECTURE PROGRAMME DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE 6

BA ARCH PROGRAMME OVERVIEW 11

BA ARCH 4-YEAR PATHWAY 13

BA ARCH 3-YEAR PATHWAY (WITH APC)15

BA ARCH PROGRAMME 22

YEAR 1 SEMESTER 1 23

YEAR 1 SEMESTER 2 25

YEAR 2 SEMESTER 1 27

YEAR 2 SEMESTER 2 29

YEAR 3 SEMESTER 1 31

YEAR 3 SEMESTER 2 33

BA ARCH DESIGN STUDIO SEQUENCE 37

DESIGN 1 : SEEING, THINKING, MAKING 39

DESIGN 2 : SCALE, PRECEDENT, CONTEXT 41

DESIGN 3 : AGGREGATION, STRUCTURE, SPACE 43

DESIGN 4 : ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE, ENVELOPE 45

DESIGN 5 : DENSITY, URBANISM, PUBLICNESS 47

DESIGN 6 : SYSTEMS, COMPREHENSIVENESS, INTEGRATION 49

BA ARCH DESIGN STUDIO FACULTY 51

DESIGN STUDIO REVIEW CALENDAR 57 EVENTS & GUEST LECTURES 59

VISITING PROFESSORS & BA ARCH EXTERNAL REVIEWERS 61

STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES (SEP) & NUS DESIGN SUMMER CAMP 62

POINT OF CONTACT 63

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE HEAD’S MESSAGE

Welcome to the new academic year, AY2024/25, at the NUS Department of Architecture! We are thrilled to have you join our leading design programs in Asia and a dynamic community of higher learning.

NUS Architecture is Asia’s premier school of design, architecture, landscape and urbanism. Led by a crossdisciplinary and international faculty, we champion design excellence through a vision of ‘Architecture for Asia’. Our design and research respond specifically to the challenges of the global equatorial region.

Engaged in cutting-edge practices, research, and teaching, the department is committed to leading in design and planning innovations to meet the planet’s many new and growing challenges, including the climate crisis, urbanisation, and the impact of socio-economic transformation on communities and the built environments. Our carbon-neutral facilities are a testament to our commitment to change.

Our programs prepare our students to be changemakers in the profession and society. As you undertake your intellectual journey through our programs, ask how the built environments

can be better preserved or transformed, and how we, as professionals and citizens, can play a more active and critical role in society. We need to hone our skills as practitioners while thinking and working critically and creatively.

As we work to take on these social, technological, and intellectual challenges, we must also work together as a community. As you move through studios and classes, think about how we can support one another. Seek support from faculty and staff when faced with issues and difficulties. Team up on initiatives and projects. Show care in challenging situations. We are here to work and learn as a community of committed individuals.

Navigating a large department and programs like ours can be exciting but daunting. We hope this handbook will serve as a valuable guide to help you make the most of our vast resources at NUS. As detailed and comprehensive as the handbook can be, things may inevitably be left out. Please feel free to reach out to our staff and your peers. We wish you well as you embark on your journey in the new academic year!

JEFF HOU, Ph.D, FASLA Provost’s Chair Professor and Head of Department

BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ARCHITECTURE PROGRAMME DIRECTOR’S

MESSAGE

Welcome to our Architecture Program, BA (Arch), a place for students and researchers to grasp the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge to become architects. The programme is home to a collective of creative individuals that innovate and critically reflect on the fundamental role that architecture plays, its agency in contributing to the shaping of society.

Students engage in a four years programme, learning modes and methodologies of reading and imagining space, defining program, investigating atmospheres, enabling alternative and emancipatory modes of living and making place. Emphasising the need for measure-and-care, they are asked to reflect on how to operate and devise spatial strategies whilst approaching questions pertaining ecology, fostering tactful ethics and promoting sustainable practices. The tropical, diverse and technologically oriented setting of Singapore offers an interesting base to pursue studies foregrounding innovation and inclusivity, aiming through architecture at devising spaces and producing relations in support of more sustainable modes of living, of diversity, and aiming at constructing frameworks for horizontal action and community-making. The local settings of Singapore offer a rich environment whence to start mapping and understanding the global dynamics affecting the planet, its deep and ever-evolving ecologies, the complex fabric of the living, the human and more-than-human actors involved. The global>to<local pendulum allows us to keep reflecting on how to locate and engineer the human in relation to nature, ultimately prompting a multi-scalar understanding, and formulating new ways to discuss ethically what we mean with such terms.

At DOA we endorse a layered way of thinking able to span and connect a variety of domains converging towards what we call architecture. The program welcomes students with no prior architectural knowledge, it is a four-year course, scaffolded to progress through the modules providing a comprehensive understanding of what architecture entails. Design studios are curated to progressively expose students to questions of: scale, precedent, context, aggregation, structure, space, environment, climate, envelope, density, urbanism,

publicness, systems, comprehensiveness, integration, criticality, agenda and methodology. Studios and hands-on workshops are accompanied by seminars covering areas of history and theory, urbanism, and the environment. Fusing criticality and embracing engineering skillsets, we welcome students ready to carefully and critically employ technology to shape the future.

We’re excited to host new students and to re-connect with already enrolled ones, and we look forward to supporting their explorations through a blend of analog and digital approaches, from hands-on material experiments to advanced computational methods. Through a curated pairing of research-design we organically foster the growth of students’ independence, getting them to gradually determine the architects they want to become. Students get enmeshed with architectural thinking, discipline, and practice, understanding the value of problem-solving as a mix of analysis, criticality and creativity. Sharpening skills through iterative processes and guided tutorials, throughout the academic years we hope students acquire confidence, endurance and resilience.

DOA, in the spirit of CDE of which we are part, cultivates interdisciplinary thinkers, a generation of makers able to document the world equipped with synoptic visions, comfortable with moving between fields of knowledge, grasping the need to operate locally and globally, synergising, distilling and organising architecturally a vast array of cultural elements, morphological types, and modes of making. Paraphrasing what someone has said, it is not enough to reflect on the world, the necessary task is that of collectively changing it. Architects commit to the future through acts of optimism, affecting the living and contributing to the making of society, its eco-logical grounding. Architects contribute to shaping the forms-oflife that are possible and the relations that are enabled and disabled within each space, in time. Such agency is not to be taken lightly and for granted, as that is architecture’s enormous potential, a vow that requires new creative individuals to be constantly renewed and reactivated.

FEDERICO SIMONE RUBERTO, Ph.D Senior Lecturer Bachelor of Arts in Architecture Programme Director

Picture credit: Lee Zheng Jie Daniel

Picture credit: Josephine Pun Tsz Kiu

BA ARCH PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

PROGRAMME BREAKDOWN

EG1311BE Design and Make (BE)

*Students may only read up to a maximum of 23 units during the ﬁrst semester and 27 units for students on speciﬁc special programmes like NUS College, double degree programmes, concurrent degree programmes, College of Design and Engineering's Engineering Scholars Programme, Faculty of Science's Special Programme in Science and students in Residential College programmes reading cross-disciplinary degree programmes in Bachelor of Environmental Studies (Hons), Bachelor of Science (Hons) with Major in Data Science and Economics, Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

LEGEND :

CU: Course Units

DEC: Department Essential Courses (Y1—Y4)

GE: General Education Courses (Y1—Y4)

CC: Common Courses (Y1—Y3)

UE: Unrestricted Electives (Y1—Y4)

Denotes ﬂexible courses that can be taken anytime during stated duration N.A

To be conﬁrmed * *

Students to enroll in speciﬁc Arch UEs offered by the Department Pre-requisite courses by M Arch

Example:

• Design 7

• Urban Design Theory & Praxis

• Advanced Architectural Integration

• Contemporary Theories

LEGEND :

CU: Course Units

DEC: Department Essential Courses (Y1—Y4)

GE: General Education Courses (Y1—Y4)

CC: Common Courses (Y1—Y3)

UE: Unrestricted Electives (Y1—Y4)

Denotes ﬂexible courses that can be taken anytime during stated duration N.A

To be conﬁrmed *

ARCH YEAR 3

BA ARCH YEAR 4

Students

Students must also meet the minimum semester workload of

Students to enroll in speciﬁc Arch UEs offered by the Department Pre-requisite courses by M Arch

Example:

• Design 7

• Urban Design Theory & Praxis

• Advanced Architectural Integration

• Contemporary Theories

Semester 2

3-YEAR UNITS REQUIRED FOR BA ARCH STUDENTS WITH ADVANCED PLACEMENT CREDITS: (TEMASEK POLYTECHNIC — INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN) (NANYANG POLYTECHNIC — ARCHITECTURE)

Students

LEGEND :

CU: Course Units

DEC: Department Essential Courses (Y1—Y4)

GE: General Education Courses (Y1—Y4)

CC: Common Courses (Y1—Y3)

UE: Unrestricted Electives (Y1—Y4)

Denotes ﬂexible courses that can be taken anytime during stated duration N.A

To be conﬁrmed *

Students may apply for Student Exchange Programme, or NUS Overseas College (NOC) to be taken in Year 4 Semester 1 in place of Architectural Internship (12

Students to enroll in speciﬁc Arch UEs offered by the Department Pre-requisite courses by M Arch

Example:

• Design 7

• Urban Design Theory & Praxis

• Advanced Architectural Integration

• Contemporary Theories *

BA ARCH YEAR 3

Semester 1

Semester 2

Semester 1

Semester 2

3-YEAR UNITS REQUIRED FOR BA ARCH STUDENTS WITH ADVANCED PLACEMENT CREDITS: (SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC — ARCHITECTURE) (SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC — INTERIOR DESIGN)

8 CUs AR1101A DESIGN 1 8 CUs AR1102 DESIGN 2 4 CUs EG1311 DESIGN AND MAKE 20 CUs 5 UNRESTRICTED ELECTIVES (UEs)

LEGEND :

CU: Course Units

DEC: Department Essential Courses (Y1—Y4)

GE: General Education Courses (Y1—Y4)

CC: Common Courses (Y1—Y3)

UE: Unrestricted Electives (Y1—Y4)

Denotes ﬂexible courses that can be taken anytime during stated duration N.A

To be conﬁrmed *

Students to enroll in speciﬁc Arch UEs offered by the Department Pre-requisite courses by M Arch

Example:

• Design 7

• Urban Design Theory & Praxis

• Advanced Architectural Integration

• Contemporary Theories *

BA ARCH YEAR 3

Semester 1

Semester 2

BA ARCH YEAR 4

Semester 1

Semester 2

Picture credit: Noor Syahindah Binte Gazali

Picture credit: Chooi En Yu

BA ARCH (HONS.) PROGRAMME

(YEAR 1 TO YEAR 4)

The new undergraduate curriculum is introduced for incoming students AY2025/26, it is a four-year BA (Arch) programme comprising design studio and other essential courses. The courses have been curated and are consolidated so to be part of the inter-disciplinary vision of the College of Design and Engineering (CDE). The curriculum creates pathways that accommodate a wider range of second majors, minors and specialisation. During the four years, students progress through seven design courses where they are introduced to 18 foundational themes in architecture. This largest component of the curriculum takes place in design studios, where students tackle different handson design challenges, and discover their own unique, critical and creative approaches to solve assigned design problems. At the same time, students take additional courses for their Major Requirements within the DOA—courses within the Common Curriculum offered by the College of Design and Engineering (CDE) and General Education courses and courses in Unrestricted Electives elsewhere in the University . The Major and Common courses are carefully aligned and calibrated with the corresponding studio levels. These complement the learning objectives and outcomes of the design studio sequence.

This foundation programme is set within a broad-based interdisciplinary education model. It provides a strong disciplinary foundation and at the same time encourages students to expand their horizons and worldviews beyond the confines of the discipline. Ultimately, students are encouraged to draw on expertise and knowledge both within the Department and across the University. This allows students to align their design education with their own specific areas of interests. By offering a wide range of opportunities and offering comprehensive training in both discipline-specific and general education, our programme prepares students to be able to navigate a complex and multivariate future. This prepares them to become influential citizens and visionary thought leaders, not only within the field of architecture but in other various domains.

The following pages describe the design studio themes and other essential courses for Years 1-4.

Refer to the diagram on pages 10 & 11 for programme overview

YEAR 1 SEMESTER 1

AR1101A DESIGN 1 SEEING, THINKING, MAKING

UNITS: 8

This key foundation course is an introduction to basic design concepts and methodologies, as well as representational techniques specific to seeing, thinking, and making. These will be explored via analogue means. Students will be introduced to a wide range of architectural ideas, ranging from traditional representation to emergent trends operating on the frontiers of data-driven and digital techniques in the field of design today.

Ideas of space, form, proportion, composition, and order will be examined and explored. As foundational design components, these will provide requisite grounding in developing a visual language through the practices of drawing, sketching, and model making. Students will learn basic drawing techniques and skills, including line weight, line type, scale, and the projective techniques of plan, section, elevation, perspective and axonometric drawing.

Students will also be introduced to techniques for understanding and addressing information and data, as well as the abstraction of architectural ideas through the production of architectural drawings and 3D scale models. They will be able to evaluate such representations as part of the fundamental process and methodology of contemporary computational design, and as an extension of traditional methods of gathering and analysing information.

Learning Objectives:

1. To understand the non-directional relationship between seeing, thinking and making.

2. To understand perception, scale, space, form, proportion and composition.

3. To understand and deploy line weight, line type, and graphic composition to produce structure and hierarchy in the visual field.

4. To understand and be able to make plan, section, elevation, perspective, and sketched and scaled axonometric drawings.

5. To understand and make models as fundamental mediums of design thinking and as part of the design process.

6. To understand the difference between representation, abstraction and transformation in the architectural process.

7. To understand architectural representation as necessarily a mixed mode employing mixed media, and that the “whole picture” can only be formed through the concurrent use of multiple methods.

8. To be able to read information and data and translate it into analogue architectural ideas, drawings and models, whilst engaging critically with the process.

Picture credit: Ho Shun Meng

GEA1000 QUANTITATIVE REASONING WITH DATA AR2524 SPATIAL

UNITS: 4

Spatial computational thinking is increasingly recognised as fundamental to various spatial disciplines. It involves idea formulation, algorithm development and solution exploration, with a focus on manipulating geometric and semantic datasets. Students will learn to use parametric modelling tools to generate and analyse building elements at varying scales, and applying visual programming interfaces to develop and test complex algorithms. They will learn to structure their ideas as algorithmic procedures that integrate data structures, functions, and control flow. They will also gain familiarity with higher level computational concepts, such as decomposition, encapsulation and abstraction.

COMPUTATIONAL THINKING DTK2234

ADVANCE DESIGN THINKING

UNITS: 4

This course explores advanced design thinking strategies, integrating architecture and landscape architecture fostering holistic understanding, creativity, innovation, and critical reflection. Through projects and theoretical discussions, it develops a foundational skillset for both architecture and landscape designer, highlighting keywords-ideas, which are presented via relevant case studies and through selected practical exercises. The course engages various questions influencing design as well as the role or representation —and of technology for design, as an essential part of the creative process. Emphasis is placed on resilience, sustainability, and adaptive strategies for contemporary design challenges. By the end of the course, students will develop a critical, forward-thinking approach to shaping built and natural environments with creativity and strategic insight.

UNITS: 4

This course aims to equip undergraduate students with essential data literacy skills to analyse data and make decisions under uncertainty. It covers the basic principles and practice for collecting data and extracting useful insights, illustrated in a variety of application domains. For example, when two issues are correlated (e.g., smoking and cancer), how can we tell whether the relationship is causal (e.g., smoking causes cancer)? How can we deal with categorical data? Numerical data? What about uncertainty and complex relationships? These and many other questions will be addressed using data software and computational tools, with real-world data sets.

Picture credit: Dawn Lim

YEAR 1 SEMESTER 2

AR1102 DESIGN 2 SCALE, PRECEDENT, CONTEXT

UNITS: 8

This course will build on AR1101A by focusing on the development of three foundational design skills: Scale, Precedent and Context. Students will be introduced to 3D complexities and relationships of scale, discover the use and transformation of precedent in architectural design processes; and gain an understanding of context as a component that impacts design outcomes within the built and natural environment.

This course will enhance students’ use of different mediums and graphic communication, with an introduction to complex 2D and 3D projections at scale, as well as the use of digital and analogue tools. Students will learn to combine representational tools to illustrate their design method(s). They will also delve deeper into the use of 3D models as part of the design process. Expanding on what they have learnt the previous semester, students will employ various visual mediums as part of the design process, and as a tool to present, defend and refine their ideas on architecture.

Studio projects will also begin to wrestle with certain fundamental issues in architecture: site, programme, circulation, organisation of public and private zones, and the differing requirements of users. Students will apply thoughtful, rigorous methods in the process of formmaking, understanding it to be the language through which architects shape and create spatial experiences.

Learning Objectives:

1. To understand and deploy dimensions, scale and proportion, in relationship to context and the human figure.

2. To understand and transform precedent as a vehicle for design innovation.

3. To understand and integrate context in the conception of design.

4. To understand and begin to describe and communicate spatial qualities.

5. To understand and produce projective drawings in scale.

6. To understand and deploy a design method to structure the design process, making visible the transformational processes in drawing and model making.

7. To understand and deploy line weight/type, scale and graphic hierarchies to communicate information and design intention, and to understand and deploy materials in model making to communicate design intent.

8. To begin incorporating digital technologies together with analogue tools in hybrid representations.

9. To begin incorporating research methodologies and critical thinking as part of the design process.

10. To present architectural ideas in concise and considered visual and verbal presentations.

Picture credit: Huang Mingjun

EG1311BE DESIGN AND MAKE AR2227 HISTORY & THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE I

UNITS: 4

This course covers the fundamentals of design and prototyping for the built environment. Students will learn design principles and tools relevant to architecture, landscape architecture, the built environment, civil and environmental engineering, and related disciplines. Through a stage-based design process, students will engage in experiential learning through group design projects that include eliciting user needs, ideating solutions, and making prototypes to demonstrate their ideas.

UNITS: 4

This course is the first of a two-part course introducing students to the history and theory of architecture and urban design. It is shaped around themes grouped by environmental features to emphasise the ways that societies have built in response to the landscapes, resources, and tools available to them. Covering almost two millennia of global architectural and urban history, the course begins in approximately 500 BCE, ending in approximately 1400 CE. The teaching material is presented to encourage comparative cross-readings of architectural history between geographies, societies, climates, cultures, religions, and socio-political registers.

AR1328A ARCHITECTURAL MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION

UNITS: 4

The course introduces the basic concepts of construction technology, focusing on key materials use in building components and fundamental building system for the context of tropical climate. Properties of materials are discussed as technical strategies that will shape construction and architectural form. Connecting rigid and linear or planar materials will focus on timber and steel construction. Building with modular units and aggregation will address techniques of masonry and casting concrete. The knowledge of materials and their deployment in construction are vital in influencing the performance and

experience of architecture. Architectural design and the knowledge of materials as well as construction technology are interdependent. This integration of knowledge supports design exploration/development with both technical rationale and imagination. This foundational course provides the context to appreciate architectural tectonics and structure-related knowledge for AR2328A Architectural Tectonics and Structural Systems and AR3328 Architectural Structures and Forces.

YEAR 2 SEMESTER 1

AR2101 DESIGN 3 AGGREGATION, STRUCTURE, SPACE

UNITS: 8

This course investigates the architectural potentials of structure and space through the operation of aggregation— that is, the combination of architectural spaces, functions, and connective circulation systems. Students will propose architectural forms through the aggregation of volumetric programme components, creating a balance between repetition and singularity. They will grapple with the complexities of function and organisation in a variety of scaled spaces. They will also gain an understanding of material, gravity, and structure as foundational components and ordering systems of architecture and explore the interdigitation of these approaches in spacemaking.

Students will expand their representational techniques to include 3D projections and begin to incorporate the element of time. A repertoire of representational approaches that includes relevant drawing representation types such as hybrid or synthetic drawing that combined analytical information in the spatial, formal, organisational and tectonic aspects, will be introduced along with digital fabrication methods. These digital tools will be employed alongside and within advanced analogue techniques of model making.

Learning Objectives:

1. To understand and deploy the principles of structure (material, gravity, tectonics) as ordering elements in architecture.

2. To understand, design and deploy aggregation of volumetric elements as an ordering component of architecture, with scalar relationships of parts to the whole.

3. To understand and design spaces through the use of mass, form, voids and volumes.

4. To understand and deploy a design within a site that exerts its own influence on the massing and distribution of the architectural project.

5. To understand that design is a process, and the best outcomes are achieved through clear thinking and rigorous iteration.

6. To begin to understand the semester’s themes as values in architecture, and to formulate and articulate a position with respect to these values.

7. To develop and deploy advanced projective drawing and model making to communicate process, intentionality and research findings.

8. •To utilise digital drawing and making in a hybrid relationship with advanced analogue tools.

9. To incorporate research methodologies and critical thinking as part of the design process.

10. To articulate and present architectural ideas in concise and considered verbal, written, and performative presentations, and to engage critically in studio and review discussions.

Picture credit: Goh Rae Ern, Ashley

AR2228 HISTORY & THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE II

UNITS: 4

CDE2212 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR DESIGN

UNITS: 4

AI for Design is a cross-disciplinary course that investigates the changing role of artificial intelligence in creative and design-based practices. It considers both the potential and limitations of AI, fostering experimental thinking, reflective inquiry, and deepening the applied utility of AI within creative processes Besides treating AI as a technical instrument for automation, it is primarily positioned as a generative force, one that reshapes how knowledge is created, shared, and understood across disciplines and within changing technological contexts.

AR2328A

ARCHITECTURAL TECTONICS AND STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS

UNITS: 4

The course introduces the basic principles of tectonics in architecture by examining the basic structural systems and their relationship with construction details and techniques. Building components are presented as integrated systems. Tectonics is discussed as an expressive quality of architecture and structure achieved by materials, construction, and integration of building components. The course also addresses sustainability by considering the choice of materials, construction methods or strategies, and considering both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. The objectives of the course are- First, to provide foundational construction knowledge essential for integrating building components

to achieve the desired architectural objectives. Second, to inculcate sustainability literacy shapes appropriate design decisions concerning the choice of materials, construction technique, building waste, and life cycle strategies. Third, to help students see the interdependence of architecture and construction in supporting technical imagination to achieve tectonic quality, an expressive potential of architecture, by considering construction strategies, techniques, and integratives in the design process. Fourth, to foster an understand of the importance of making physical models and to establish a consistent relationship between architectural space, choice of materials, construction techniques, and the structural frame.

CDE2501 LIVEABLE CITIES

UNITS: 4

Using case studies of Singapore and other cities—through a system thinking lens—this course explores how cities are planned, developed, governed and managed to achieve liveable outcomes of quality of life, sustainable environment and a competitive economy. Thus, allowing us to understand the role(s) that urban systems professionals (urban policy makers, planners, architects, engineers, real estate consultants and managers) play in achieving an integrated way of liveable city outcomes, by combining their individual expertise in different disciplines.

AR1329 CLIMATE, ECOLOGY AND ARCHITECTURE

UNITS: 4

The impact of the tropical climate on buildings results in various design strategies to minimise energy usage and operational carbon while increasing comfort. Here, different building typologies, functions, and occupancies —whether individual or collective —and related compactness are relevant. It discusses the impact of passive environmental design, performance and synergy with the ecological system in achieving sustainable or regenerative objectives. Students will learn about degrees of applied technology and design complexity, ranging from passive design strategies to the integration of green elements and embedding a design into the environment, as well as potential reciprocity with the surroundings. The course covers daylight, solar radiation, and as a result, radiant and ambient temperatures, which can be mitigated by wind, ventilation, rain, and water bodies in the surrounding area. In addition, material aspects such as bio-based materials, embedded carbon, and circularity, as well as manufacturing processes like prefabrication and sourcing, will be examined.

Picture credit: Ziyun and Ada

YEAR 3 SEMESTER 1

AR3101 DESIGN 5 DENSITY, URBANISM, PUBLICNESS

UNITS: 8

This course explores the influence of the city on the architectural project. Students will explore density and its relationship to the form, mass, and volume of buildings, alongside broader questions that arise in responding to the urban context and its shared spaces. How architects respond to such questions will be understood as a fundamental component of cities and city-life—not least through their consideration of the “public,” in its interrelated spatial and cultural aspects, within their design processes and products. Students will gain an understanding of the spatial implications of neighbourhoods and communities, and how spaces (both real and imagined) shape and are shaped by social and political relationships.

Learning Objectives:

1. To understand and critically deploy density in the configuration of architecture.

2. To understand and take a critical position on urbanism as influenced by the aggregation of architecture.

3. To understand publicness as a fundamental component of the city, to see public space in relation to private space, and to understand the value of differences in how spaces (public, private and hybrid) are designed and represented.

4. To further understand architecture as a series of relativities, for example, of the room relative to its building, the building to its context, and vice versa.

5. To participate in inquisitive and analytical design methodologies, asking critical questions about the urban context, social issues, and broader cultural and political influences that affect the form, functions, and programming of the city.

6. To design with the conceptual tools to make value and ethical judgments on spaces within and about the city.

7. To fully explore an architectural concept and develop its architectural expression through criticism and rigorous iteration.

8. To utilise advanced projective drawing and model making to communicate the design processes and architectural iterations.

9. To refine mastery of analogue and digital tools in the making of architectural representations and ideas.

10. To present architectural ideas in thoughtful and concise verbal and written presentations, supported by a vareity of visual media, and to engage critically in studio and review discussions.

AR3223 INTRODUCTION TO URBANISM

UNITS: 4

Students will be introduced to the foundation of what is Urbanism. The holistic knowledge analyses the study of relationships, interconnectedness and interdependencies between people in urban areas with the built environment. They will undertake a thorough examination of urban history, key theories, topics, design principles and practices related to urban design, urban planning and landscape design. They will also develop critical and analytical skills of reading, documenting, analysing and synthesising complex information on contemporary urban issues and conditions.

AR3328 ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURES AND FORCES

UNITS: 4

The course introduces advanced principles of tectonics in architecture by presenting basic structural formulae and their relationship with structural analysis technology. The course also addresses sustainability by considering the choice of materials, construction methods or strategies, waste management, and life cycle thinking. The course also addresses about structural constraints and possibilities, the properties of structural forces, and their relationship with building functions. The forces are discussed as transferring through “intuitive” learning experiences using structural analysis applications. The objectives of the course are-First, to understand the stress design for gravity and also the stress design for wind pressure or seismic

force. Second, to inculcate the structural frame and criteria quantifications and develop the effect of architecture, structure, and construction on tectonic quality. Third, to help students see the interdependence of architecture and construction in supporting technical imagination to address issues of construction cost and assemblage in relation to selected building types and building systems from the perspective of a structural engineer. Fourth, to foster the effect of architecture, structure, and construction on tectonic quality and demonstrate the integration of building components to achieve the intended architectural design.

Picture credit: Bunag Ramela Joey Delen

YEAR 3 SEMESTER 2

AR3102 DESIGN 6 SYSTEMS, COMPREHENSIVENESS, INTEGRATION

UNITS: 8

This programme aims to develop a high level of competence in comprehensive and integrated building design. The architectural whole is approached as a complex network of systems (of production, technology, infrastructure and so on), and in turn embedded within larger systems (of ecology, economy and so on). Under the guidance of their tutors, students will research and refine a conceptual system of concerns to be fully explored and developed in their architectural proposals. This entails a critical and nuanced understanding of architecture as a synthesis between constituent parts and their whole, resulting in the creation of a cohesive whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Students will sharpen their competence in research, design thinking, operational skills and communication. This semester is intended as a summation—demanding that students take informed design positions incorporating all 18 studio themes they have covered. As the conclusion of this foundational sequence, students are expected to show advanced architectural thinking that will form the basis for embarking on the Masters programme at DOA. They should deploy advanced and mature representational techniques to communicate architectural ideas. Design projects at this stage will also demand a holistic awareness of the issues related to the environment, climate, context, technologies and building.

Learning Objectives:

1. To understand and critically manifest the comprehensive range of considerations that impact design thinking.

2. To understand and take a critical position on integration as a value system in architecture.

3. To understand architecture as a complex of systems and to explore possible future trajectories.

4. To design with conceptual tools to make value and ethical judgments on the respective roles of different systems in architectural design.

5. To fully explore an architectural concept and develop its architectural manifestation at all scales through a critical and rigorous iterative process.

6. To utilise advanced projective drawing and model making to communicate process and architectural iterations.

7. To utilise digital data, visualisations, and contemporary simulations in 2D, 3D, and 4D mediums, to make visible the complexities of architecture.

8. To incorporate research methodologies as part of the design process.

9. To communicate architectural ideas in concise and considered verbal, written, and performative presentations utilising a wide range of mediums, and to engage critically in studio and review discussions.

10. To begin to ask, scope and refine an architectural question beyond answering of a brief.

AR3722 SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM

UNITS: 4

This course will provide students with an understanding of the concepts of environmental systems and their spatial requirements in an architectural context. The increasing need for the integration of building technologies within multidisciplinary projects in a modern construction environment will be addressed. The course first focuses on understanding how basic environmental systems or building services systems (mechanical, electrical, plumbing and drainage) are related to the building program and broader built environments. Codes of practice, such as fire safety, will also be addressed. Furthermore, renewable energy and water systems in architecture in the green building movement will be discussed.

PF1101A PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND FINANCE

UNITS: 4

The course covers the fundamental principles of project management and finance, identifying elements of economic decision-making in nine broad project management knowledge areas. Students are introduced to theories relating to the management of project scope, time, cost and finance, risk, quality, human resource, communications, and procurement. The overall integration of these eight knowledge areas together with project finance, and the management of externalities as the ninth project management knowledge area is also considered alongside environmentally sustainable projects, workplace safety and health regulations and contract law.

Picture

Picture credit: Daniel Britelit Joseph

Picture credit: Ryan Ho Zi Hao

BA ARCH DESIGN STUDIO SEQUENCE

Architectural design can be overwhelming in its complexity. To guide students’ learning and creative explorations, the six studios in the undergraduate design studio sequence are structured as deep dives into different facets of architecture. As each semester progresses, students gradually delve into a narrower breadth of considerations, while concurrently allowing for more opportunities in experimentation, exploration, and conceptual probing.

Design 1 introduces “Seeing, Thinking, Making” as a recurrent, non-linear process, equipping students with fundamentals of representation in architecture and understanding and processing visual information. In Design 2, students are guided by “Scale, Precedent, Context”, to design in three-dimensions, exploring the relationship

between people and the spaces surrounding them, making small architectural components. Design 3, using “Aggregation, Structure, Space”, prompts the combining of courses to understand the relationship between parts and the whole. These three design studios are additionally characterised by a specific focus on equipping students with architectural literacy. Architecture is made through physical forms; “form” is therefore the architect’s language. The mastering of this language—whether writing, reading, or speaking it—is one of the non-negotiable foundational skills of the architect.

Through “Environment, Climate, Envelope”, Design 4 interrogates the interface between architecture and its environment, expanding the idea of the facade as a zone

Image Credits: Florian Heinzelmann and Chew Shi Cheng Christopher

of negotiation between the building and the atmosphere around it. Design 5 then further expands upon this concept into the spaces and conditions between architectures, as “Density, Urbanism, Publicness” are investigated and unpacked. By Design 6, students tackle “Systems, Comprehensiveness, Integration” and are expected to produce design work that displays a holistic and cumulative understanding of the knowledge, skills, and thinking from the five studios prior.

Some fundamental concerns such as architectural form, site, programme, and the user, are not named as “themes” but are nonetheless ever present from studio to studio. The revisiting of these concepts each semester allows for an increase in sophistication and complexity as students

progress through the years. These fundamental elements should be seen as dynamic rather than static or given. Furthermore, as students cover the different studio themes, they should gain an understanding that throughout, a thorough examination of these components, and their associated parameters, should be incorporated as part of the design process.

Ultimately, the 18 design themes are lenses through which allows them to investigate architectural seeing, thinking, and making. The following pages describe in more detail the directions of the six design studios for AY 2025/26.

DESIGN 1

SEEING,

THINKING, MAKING

FREDERICK CHANDO KIM

Design 1 Year Leader; Unit 1 Leader

ISABELLA ONG Unit 2 Leader

NG SAN SON

Unit 3 Leader

Architectural form is not static—it is a dynamic language through which space, time, and meaning take shape. As writers use words and sentences to convey meaning or musicians use notation and phrases to express compositions and rhythms, architects operate within a formal language that emerges from historical, cultural, social, philosophical and technological contexts, reflecting the particular Zeitgeist of an era. Grounded in critical thinking, Design 1 invites students to explore architecture as an active process of decoding spatial intelligence to create innovative formal propositions while confronting paradoxes intrinsic to the design process.

Seeing entails decoding—an acute analytical perception that identifies, interprets, and reimagines the formal DNA embedded in architectural data. This involves detailed precedent studies and a close reading of original drawings, models, and texts by the original authors. Through in-depth studies, it is possible to uncover differences and similarities between various organising formal grammars, spatial geometries, structural logics, material systems and construction techniques, as well as environmental conditions. Close readings of architecture reveal hidden logics and underlying principles, which can give rise to new rules for generating architectural form.

Thinking engages paradox—a dialectical negotiation that reflects on the disruptive potential of constraints in architecture. Rather than resolving contradictions or inconsistencies in logic, anomalies can be viewed as productive tensions that engender novel formal and spatial potential. Evaluating, questioning and comparing often conflicting information becomes a critical mode of inquiry rather than a conclusive means of resolution. This approach encourages speculation on latent design potential by engaging constraints as catalysts for innovative architectural experimentation.

Making centres around formation—an iterative process through which architectural form comes into being. Formal constructs are explored for their spatial complexity and geometric reasoning through a variety of means and methods. This involves ongoing experimentation through drawing and modelling to test, challenge, and refine ideas. The process of recursive formation via repeated testing relies on an interactive and parametric approach, where concepts and formal rigour intersect. Constant shifts between different modes of representation produce unexpected insights, transforming design ideas into innovative architectural possibilities.

Design 1 introduces students to a broad spectrum of critical formal languages, ranging from ancient to contemporary and from analogue to digital. By foregrounding the mutual reinforcement of seeing, thinking, and making, students develop intellectual rigour and learn to work critically, imaginatively, and precisely through iterative and non-linear design processes. The primary goal of the course is to equip students with tools for distinguishing between architecture and mere functional buildings while also imparting fundamental architectural techniques that cultivate their design intelligence.

DESIGN 2 SCALE, PRECEDENT, CONTEXT

WU YEN YEN

Design 2 Year Leader;

Unit 1 Leader

ELAINE LEE WEI MEIN

Unit 2 Leader

LEE HUI LIAN

Unit 3 Leader

From the bigness of scale-less data and form to the smallness of building components and detail, an understanding of scale is vital to cultivating an architect’s innate sensibility. The scale of an object or space is always relative—to its inhabitant, its use, and the relatability of both. The ergonomic relationship between form and the human body, and the sociospatial relationship between form and collective groups, under different conceptual frameworks, are both valid and ever-present in design. An expansive understanding of scale shifts—and how to toggle scale appropriately according to design context—will be taught, interrogated, and demonstrated in Design 2.

Tied to the assessment of scale—and how meaning and relationships shift with it—is another essential consideration: context. On its own, context can refer to a site’s appropriateness through salient historical and cultural use, dynamic climatic conditions and responses, amenable and complementary programs, and, most directly, physical site conditions such as access, circulation, and surrounding built form. In Design 2, context is understood as a design response shaped by suitability and responsiveness—particularly through changes in scale—since both program and site will be predetermined by the studio brief.

A comprehension of scale and context naturally informs the use of meaningful and pivotal precedents. These precedents will be identified and explored, foregrounding both digital and analogue applications of architectural representation—across different drawing scales, tectonic strategies, intimate skin armatures, and the synthesis of inhabitable forms on site.

Building on Design 1’s Seeing, Thinking, Making, Design 2 introduces digital and analogue architectural drawing, along with corresponding fabrication methods, aligned with the studio’s pedagogical foundations. Through varied drawing techniques that speak to different design and fabrication scales, students will engage in both individual and group work requiring the assembly of scaled components. The focus will be on design methods that generate relatable, well-proportioned form-space.

Image Credits: Ng Yun Di AY24/25 D2 Elaine Lee Studio

DESIGN 3 AGGREGATION, STRUCTURE, SPACE

LEE KIAN ENG, VICTOR

Design 3 Year Leader;

Unit 1 Leader

ADRIAN LAI

Unit 2 Leader

TIAH NAN CHYUAN

Unit 3 Leader

Collective Dwelling

Design 3 is interested in the emergent forms of spatial and tectonic organisations that arise primarily from the interrogation of structure and space through aggregation.

Aggregation is by definition a group, body, or mass composed of distinct parts, the gathering of things together. An architecture of aggregation is made of an arrangement of unitised spaces, with a distinct formal character, organised in formation as a collective whole. In this Studio, we will define what the individual parts are, how they are brought together, and what they will be as aggregations.

The structure that defines the spaces of the individual units should relate intrinsically to its form, giving rise to possibilities for aggregation when units come together in similar or variations of itself. Through repetitions and additions, its individual qualities change and adjacencies should be considered, defining its outcome as a collective structure. Structure here, is seen as the structuring of a format or an order, rather than a purely load bearing function. It underscores the organizational, giving rise to novel ways of formal and tectonic compositions. Through aggregation, the key manifestation should be a compelling architectural outcome that demonstrates the intersection of such a structured spatiality.

The common theme of Collective Dwellings will serve as the programmatic vehicle of investigation. The nature of a dwelling is defined by its spaces for inhabitation in relation to the human scale and the activities it enables. The lessons learnt in Design 2 now come with an increased scope and complexity in architectural endeavor. With the aggregation of dwellings, the relationship of the individual and the collective, the interplay of singularity and repetition, is critical. Issues of size, scale and type, as well as basic needs such as access to light, ventilation, views, privacy etc. are fundamental. Interactions at the individual unit level, as well as the relationships made at the collective level will be key.

The pedagogical focus for Design 3 will be underscored by the design processes developed through the Units framework across three different urban sites in the city. Each Unit will offer a specific focus for investigating critical methods of aggregation. This will range from Unit 1’s formdriven, outcome-led self-referencing cuboid aggregations interrogating interfaces, to Unit 2’s aggregation via sectional investigation of positive and negative inversions; and finally, Unit 3’s process-driven operationalartistic exploration of composition, configuration, and complication in architectural aggregations.

Image Credits: Tibet/China Border by Yuma_A (source : socialfoto.tumblr.com)

DESIGN 4 ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE, ENVELOPE

FLORIAN HEINZELMANN

Design 4 Year Leader; Unit 1 Leader

TIAH NAN CHYUAN

Unit 2 Leader

SHIN YOKOO

Unit 3 Leader

Environmental Design

Design 4 will be a hands-on studio where students will research, design, build, and especially evaluate envelopes as a response and in dialogue with tropical climatic conditions. Additionally, the studio explores the reciprocity between the tropical climate and the way people inhabit and utilize space, as well as how sustainable or regenerative solutions can have a positive impact or even halt global warming. Furthermore, tropicality as a way of life is expressed through both the spatial configuration and the building’s appearance, serving additionally as a form of representation that might arise from dealing with local cultural aspects, as well as through performanceoriented bottom-up design exploration. The pedagogical aim is for students to develop an understanding and gain experiences on several levels.

Firstly, students should learn about certain practical issues and tectonics in combination with material and geometry properties, directly leading to performative results, be they structural, or microclimatic. Secondly, by building a prototype that (re)acts on or alters the climatic conditions between inside and outside, students will obtain first-hand feedback for further design iterations. It also creates credibility through proof of concept. Thirdly, it is important to learn how to mediate between quantitative, measurable performance aspects and qualitative design aspects. Sometimes, a designed outcome may conflict with several design parameters, and the overall performance may be suboptimal, which then requires further design iterations and testing. At other times, it might be that an unintended and not preconceived design quality will emerge solely from experimentation through ‘thinking by doing’, which, once discovered, can be synthesised and become part of the design system.

The studio intends to focus on the physically obtainable and verifiable while discovering qualitative aspects through the process of design exploration. It is essential to understand that if the quantitative aspects fail, a building does not perform as a form of shelter or an improvement of microclimatic conditions for the inhabitants; the qualitative and other design aspects become meaningless. Architectural design always encompasses both quantitative and qualitative aspects, and the question for this studio is: How can one achieve both via a thinking-through-making, bottom-up design exploration?

Image Credits: Close up of kinetic façade apertures at Institut du Monde Arabe by Architecture-Studio and Jean Nouvel, Paris, 1987. Photo by Florian Heinzelmann, 2008

DESIGN 5 DENSITY, URBANISM, PUBLICNESS

Design 5 Year Leader; Unit 1 Leader

JACQUELINE YEO

Unit 2 Leader

WU YEN YEN

Unit 3 Leader

Design 5 introduces ways of looking at architecture posited in the city, asking and defining the role buildings play when situated within a larger, messy urbanism made up of energy and labour exchanges, climatic and transport flux, bureaucratic, community and capitalistic balances. Tangible dimensions like form, density, scale and volume weigh equally alongside intangible conditions that involve policies, heritage-culture and unequal public-private relations around ownership of public space. Testing architecture within these larger contexts manifests contestations between multiple factors, and students are invited to respond and understand consequences that are brought to the foreground between their formal prototypical architectural insertions and the built/un-built environment around. Students are guided to appreciate their prototypical interventions, when designed and applied as a system, can become a wide-reaching and impactful stakeholder in the city, rather than architecture as esoteric, individual responses.

From this perspective, strategically co-coordinated architecture is augmented into sizable networks that can challenge existing city-planning paradigms and define new ones speaking to our issues of choice, such as a constant urban renewal and densification, place-space making and social equity. Architecture becomes agents of change in the re-distribution of rights; an advocate and champion for ownership (or a sense of) and civicness.

Design 5 approaches the investigation of architecture in the urban city in different stages. Firstly, through learning, applying, then innovating research in site analyses, students learn to apply means and methods of documenting, hard and soft aspects of urbanism found through conceptual lens such as edges and boundaries, demographics and sensorial thresholds etc. Second, these cognitive mapping documentation can extend to the formal-social-cultural forces that inform them, and subsequently in turn, induce opportunities of new dynamic relationships brought about through operative and/or programmatic interventions. Third, through design, studios innovate acupuncture-like prototypical interfaces in a pedagogical pairing of formal component vehicles /probes and issues spotlighted in each of the 3 unit briefs. Lastly, rounding a comprehension of these insertions in the city as these ultimately settle into a self-regulating environment of constant negotiations. Particularly in Singapore, where constant urban renewal and intensification occur at paced speeds, we invite students to speculate the lasting impacts of their projects as forward projections of new urban relations and hence, a new type of urbanism. To close the loop by way of introspection, cause and effect, come full circle where projects end with a series of documented mapping that validate their architectural responses.

Image Credits: Photo by John T on Unsplash

JOSHUA COMAROFF

DESIGN 6 SYSTEMS,

COMPREHENSIVENESS, INTEGRATION

CHAW CHIH WEN

Design

6 Year Leader, Unit 1 Leader

ADRIAN LAI

Unit 2 Leader

CHRISTO MEYER

Unit 3 Leader

Emergent Systems

Design 6 invites students to re-evaluate the role of systems by considering the trans-disciplinary ambitions put forth by Austrian biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s General System Theory where novel outcomes could emerge when several apparently isolated parts/ sub systems interact to form more complex unexpected behaviours as a collective.

Folding this back into Architecture, we see parallels with Christopher Alexander’s “Systems Generating Systems”, where he urges us to consider two ideas embedded in the word “System”

1) A System as a “whole” is not an object. Rather it is a holistic and abstract way of looking at an object as an emergent system.

2) A Generating System is a kit of inter-scalar parts/sub systems with rules governing how they may interact. These parts/sub systems could also be located on the periphery of design and in our case, beyond the normative tangible considerations of Architecture.

Concluding these two ideas, Alexander suggest that a novel piece of design can never be reached through a summative process of solving design problems in a procedural manner. Neither can it be achieved through a comprehensive knowledge of its parts without the knowledge of how they interact.

The final and perhaps the most intriguing point in this piece of writing is Alexandar’s proclamation that every “System as a whole” is generated by a Generating System. Therefore, if we wish to design things as “wholes”, it is imperative that the creation process involves the invention of Generating Systems. This not only suggests a move beyond the categorical thinking and stratification of building systems, it implies a transformative scope for Architects where we depart from a mere manipulator or passive organiser of apriori systems to a designer of Generating Systems for emergent systems. Systems become a form of seeing and making. This recalibration forms the launching point for Design 6.

Image Source : https://yourbasic.org/algorithms/graph/

BA ARCH DESIGN STUDIO FACULTY

AR1101A DESIGN 1 AR1102 DESIGN 2

_YEAR LEADER/UNIT LEADER (YL/UL)___________________

FREDRICK CHANDO KIM

PhD (EPFL); M Arch (Harvard Graduate School of Design); BS Art & Design (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

_UNIT LEADERS

NG SAN SON

(UL)__________________________________

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

ISABELLA ONG

M Arch (The Bartlett UCL); BA Architecture (National University of Singapore)

_STUDIO LEADERS (SL)_______________________________

GYN KONG

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore)

TAN JIA YU, FIONA

M Arch (The Bartlett UCL); BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

SEAN CHIA

M Arch (Harvard Graduate School of Design); BA Architecture (National University of Singapore); MAIA

PEERAYA SUPHASIDH

M Arch (Harvard University); BA Architecture (Rhode Island School of Design)

FONG HOO CHEONG

B Arch (Hons), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore), Dip Illum Des (Sydney University); GMAP, MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

KELLY KOH QIAN WEN

M Arch (University of Michigan); BA Architecture ( National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, New York State

_YEAR LEADER/UNIT LEADER (YL/UL)___________________

WU YEN YEN

Adjunct Assistant Professor; M Arch (Columbia University), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Green Mark AP, MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

_UNIT LEADERS (UL)__________________________________

ELAINE LEE WEI MEIN

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore)

LEE HUI LIAN

M Arch, B Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

_STUDIO

LEADERS

(SL)_______________________________

_TEACHING TRAINEE (TT)_____________________________

MUHAMMAD AKMAL BIN MOKSIN

M Arch, BA Architecture (National University of Singapore)

CHIN KEAN KOK

B Arch (Hons), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore), Dip Illum Des (Sydney University); GMAP, MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

NG WILLIAM

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

MICHAEL BUDIG

PhD (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology); M Arch (University of Innsbruck); Registered Architect

JEROME NG XINHAO

M Arch (ARB/RIBA Part II) (The Bartlett UCL), Architecture BSc (UCL), BFA Visc Comm (ADM, NTU)

EVY SUTJAHJO

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

_TEACHING TRAINEE (TT)_____________________________

LIU HENG

M Arch, BA Architecture (National University of Singapore)

AR2101 DESIGN 3

_YEAR LEADER/UNIT LEADER (YL/UL)___________________

LEE KIAN ENG, VICTOR

Adjunct Assistant Professor; AA Dip (Architectural Association), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, ARB, Registered Architect, Singapore and the UK

_UNIT LEADERS (UL)__________________________________

ADRIAN LAI

Adjunct Assistant Professor; AA Dip (Architectural Association), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, ARB Registered Architect, Singapore and the UK

TIAH NAN CHYUAN

Adjunct Assistant Professor; AA Dip (Architectural Association), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

_STUDIO LEADERS (SL)_______________________________

LEE MAY ANNE

M Arch, B Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

SRI SARAVANAN

M Arch, B Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

CHAW CHIH WEN

Adjunct Assistant Professor; M Arch, B Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

NEO SEI HWA

Adjunct Associate Professor; B Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

LEE HUI LIAN

M Arch, B Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

CHAN WAI KIN

B Arch (University of Melbourne); Registered Architect, Singapore

JEROME NG XINHAO

M Arch (ARB/RIBA Part II) (The Bartlett UCL), Architecture BSc (UCL), BFA Visc Comm (ADM, NTU)

YANG HAN

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

CHU LIK REN

B Arch (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

SAPTARSHI SANYAL

PHD ( The Bartlett UCL);

M Arch, BA Arch ( School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi)

AR2102 DESIGN 4

_YEAR LEADER/UNIT LEADER (YL/UL)___________________

FLORIAN HEINZELMANN

Associate Professor in Practice; PhD (Eindhoven University of Technology), M Arch (Berlage Institute), Dipl-Ing (Munich University of Applied Sciences); Registered Architect, the Netherlands

_UNIT LEADERS (UL)__________________________________

TIAH NAN CHYUAN

Adjunct Assistant Professor; AA Dip (Architectural Association), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

LEE KIAN ENG, VICTOR

Adjunct Assistant Professor; AA Dip (Architectural Association), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, ARB, Registered Architect, Singapore and the UK

_STUDIO LEADERS (SL)_______________________________

HUAY WEN JUN

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

RONALD LIM

M Arch (Yale University), BA (Wesleyan University); MSIA, RIBA, Registered Architect, Singapore

SEAN CHIA

M Arch (Harvard Graduate School of Design); BA Architecture (National University of Singapore); MAIA

ROY PANG PING JING

B Arch (RMIT University); GMM, UDA, DfSP, MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

WU HUEI SIANG

M Arch (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

KEVIN LIM

AA Dip (Architectural Association), BA Architecture (National University of Singapore); IGBC

THAM WAI HON

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore)

YANG HAN

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

FONG HOO CHEONG

B Arch (Hons), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore), Dip Illum Des (Sydney University); GMAP, MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

ROBIN HARTANTO HONGGARE

PHD (Columbia University); BA Arch (Universitas Indonesia)

_TEACHING TRAINEE (TT)_____________________________

LIU HENG

M Arch, BA Architecture (National University of Singapore)

_TEACHING TRAINEE (TT)_____________________________

MUHAMMAD AKMAL BIN MOKSIN

M Arch, BA Architecture (National University of Singapore)

AR3101 DESIGN 5 AR3102 DESIGN 6

_YEAR LEADER/UNIT LEADER (YL/UL)___________________

JOSHUA COMAROFF

Adjunct Assistant Professor; M Arch (Columbia University), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Green Mark AP, MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

_UNIT LEADERS (UL)__________________________________

WU YEN YEN

Adjunct Assistant Professor; M Arch (Columbia University), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Green Mark AP, MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

JACQUELINE YEO

AA Dip (Architectural Association), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); ARB, Registered Architect, Singapore and UK

_STUDIO LEADERS (SL)_______________________________

TAN TECK KIAM

M Urban Planning (University College, London); BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

WONG CHONG THAI, BOBBY

Adjunct Associate Professor; Dip Arch (Aberdeen), MDesS (Harvard); MSIA, Registered Architect Singapore

KEVIN LIM

AA Dip (Architectural Association), BA Architecture (National University of Singapore); IGBC

CHRISTO MEYER

PG Dip PP (RIBA Part III) (University College London), PG Dip Arch (RIBA Part II) (London South Bank University), BA Arch Studies (RIBA Part I) (University of the Free State); ARB, RIBA, Registered Architect, UK

ROY PANG PING JING

B Arch (RMIT University); GMM, UDA, DfSP, MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

RONALD LIM

M Arch (Yale University), BA (Wesleyan University); MSIA, RIBA, Registered Architect, Singapore

ASMA KHAWATMI

Diploma of Architecte DPLG (École Nationale D’architecture); DEFA (École Nationale D’architecture)

JAYDE LIN-ROBERTS

PhD, M Arch (University of Washington); BA Arch (University of California, Berkeley)

THAM WAI HON

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore)

_YEAR LEADER/UNIT LEADER (YL/UL)___________________

CHAW CHIH WEN

Adjunct Assistant Professor; M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

_UNIT LEADERS (UL)__________________________________

ADRIAN LAI

Adjunct Assistant Professor; AA Dip (Architectural Association), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, ARB Registered Architect, Singapore and the UK

CHRISTO MEYER

_STUDIO LEADERS (SL)_______________________________

FRANÇOIS BLANCIAK

Associate Professor; PhD, M Arch (University of Tokyo), DPLG (École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Grenoble); Registered Architect, France

JOSEPH LIM EE MAN

Associate Professor; PhD (Heriot-Watt University), MSc (University of Strathclyde), B Arch (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

NG SAN SON

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

WONG KER HOW

M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

JACQUELINE YEO

AA Dip (Architectural Association), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); ARB, Registered Architect, Singapore and UK

CHEAH KOK MING

Vice Dean (Academic), Associate Professor; B Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

CHU LIK REN

B Arch (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

LEE MAY ANNE

M Arch, B Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

PETER SIM

Adjunct Assistant Professor; B Arch (Hons), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); ARB, Registered Architect, UK

CHAN WAI KIN

B Arch (University of Melbourne); Registered Architect, Singapore

_TEACHING TRAINEE (TT)_____________________________

MUHAMMAD AKMAL BIN MOKSIN

M Arch, BA Architecture (National University of Singapore)

_TEACHING TRAINEE (TT)_____________________________

LIU HENG

M Arch, BA Architecture (National University of Singapore)

Picture credit: Landon Ding Shan Wei

DESIGN STUDIO REVIEW CALENDAR

Orientation 0 4—9 Aug ‘25

- Vacation (5 weeks)

2 18—22 Aug ‘25

3 25—29 Aug ‘25

4 1—5 Sep ‘25

Recess Week 1 11—15 Aug ‘25

5 8—12 Sep ‘25

BA Arch Year 1: Interim Review 1 (Thu)

BA Arch Year 2: Interim Review 1 (Mon)

BA Arch Year 3: Interim Review 1 (Thu) 6

BA Arch Year 1: Interim Review 2 (Thu)

BA Arch Year 2: Interim Review 2 (Mon)

BA Arch Year 3: Interim Review 2 (Thu) 10—14 Nov ‘25

BA Arch Year 1: Final Review (Wed)

BA Arch Year 2: Final Review (Thu)

BA Arch Year 3: Final Review (Fri)

1 12—16 Jan ‘26

2 19—23 Jan ‘26

3 26—30 Jan ‘26

4 2—6 Feb ‘26

5 9—13 Feb ‘26

BA Arch Year 2: Interim Review 1 (Mon)

BA Arch Year 1: Interim Review 1 (Thu)

BA Arch Year 3: Interim Review 1 (Tues)

Apr ‘26

BA Arch Year 2: Interim Review 2 (Mon)

BA Arch Year 1: Interim Review 2 (Thu)

BA Arch Year 3: Interim Review 2 (Tues)

BA Arch Year 1: Final Review (Wed)

BA Arch Year 2: Final Review (Thu) BA Arch Year 3: Final Review (Fri)

EVENTS & GUEST LECTURES

EMERGENT SYSTEMS: AN EXHIBITION OF DESIGN 6 STUDIO WORKS

25—27 June ‘25

Marina Bay Sands Hall C

28 June—04 July ‘25

Kallang Wave Mall Level 1 Lawn

This exhibition presents the creative projects of our BA (Arch) Year 3 students from the Design 6 Studio. This year, the studio explored the theme “Architecture of Sports” in collaboration with SportSG. The course reimagines the design of sports facilities by integrating core architectural systems with specific sporting typologies and their associated systems — creating a more meaningful and dynamic convergence between these two disciplines.

Curated by: Adj. Asst. Prof. Chaw Chih Wen Liu Heng

Organised by: Archifest 2025

NUS Department of Architecture

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE GRADUATION EXHIBITION FOR CLASS 2025

08 May—29 May ‘25

NUS SDE 3, Level 1 Exhibition Space

The Landscape Architecture Graduation Exhibition features the work of both Master and Bachelor students and we are thrilled to share their projects with you. This year, we proudly present the second cohort of MLA students who have completed an independent design thesis project, as well as the third graduating cohort of BLA students since the establishment of the programme in 2020.

The projects delve into advanced research and design topics that define our times, from issues of waste and consumption, landscape infrastructures, and climate change to encounters with more than humans and experiential qualities of landscapes.

Organised by: NUS Department of Architecture

DESIGNING COLLECTIVE GAMES

31 Oct—29 Mar ‘26

Singapore Art Museum (SAM)

Singapore Art Museum and artist-theatre director Takayama Akira collaborate with architecture students on “Theaterchen Project: Boardgame Café/Travel Agency”, a project for the Singapore Biennale 2025 (SB2025). Theater-chen Project blends urban exploration, interactive gameplay, and architectural design, offering fresh perspectives on the city and its stories.

Selected NUS Architecture students, under the mentorship of Dr Federico Ruberto, will participate in a two-part workshop— focusing on ideation and prototyping—with Takayama Akira and Port B. Led by Takayama Akira, the workshops will involve site research, investigations into the theatrical dimensions of urban space and the development of board game prototypes. Each workshop session spans up to five days (up to 8 hours per day), scheduled for 10–15 May 2025 & 15–21 June 2025

Curated by: Takayama Akira Federico Ruberto

Organised by: NUS Department of Architecture

Singapore Art Museum

Singapore Biennale 2025

RE-THINKING LONG ISLAND EXHIBITION

12 Jul—27 Jul ‘25

341 Joo Chiat Road

“Singapore – Re-Thinking Long Island” presents the design work of 39 students from NUS’ Master of Arts in Urban Design (MAUD) programme, who tackled the Long Island project first introduced in 1991 and revived under URA’s Draft Master Plan 2025. This 800-hectare reclamation off East Coast Park would create a new freshwater reservoir while offering integrated coastal protection, flood resilience, and 20 km of public waterfront spaces. Divided into three teams, the students focused on Katong, Marine Parade–Bedok, and Bedok–Tampines—each with unique historical, ecological, and sociospatial characteristics.

Through multi-scalar and interdisciplinary approaches, the students developed master plans that respond to Singapore’s climate and urban growth challenges. Their proposals integrate nature-based climate resilience, low-carbon urban design, and community-centered strategies. Addressing issues such as historical land reclamation, ecological change, and future population infrastructure, the projects reimagine Singapore’s eastern coastline as a sustainable and resilient urban frontier. This exhibition showcases their critical work, developed in collaboration with URA, JTC, and NParks.

Organised by: Archifest 2025

NUS Department of Architecture

NUS MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE GRADUATION SHOW

2025

19 Jul—01 Aug ‘25

URA Centre

The Graduation Show is an annual celebration of students’ efforts and collaboration with their thesis advisors and the faculty. This year’s theme ‘Threshold’ is a celebratory pause in a creative journey that is far from over and has only just begun. Threshold offers a space of mediations – between our graduates’ past/present – as students of the architectural discipline, and future – as professionals of the wider creative practice. Through this zone of uncertainties, we hope new pathways may emerge.

Organised by: NUS Department of Architecture

_GUEST LECTURES___________________________________

DIGITAL TIMBER: FROM FREEFORM TO FACTORY

Speaker: Russell Loveridge

DEMOLITION AND RECONSTRUCTION: BALANCING GROWTH AND BUILDING WITH NATURE

Speaker: Anton Siura

LO-HI TECH: PRIMITIVE FUTURES

Speaker: Kevin Lim

RESTLESSNESS IN ARCHITECTURE

Speaker: Wu Yen Yen

LANDSCAPE AS HISTORY: ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSES, TRANSFORMATIONS, AND THEIR LEGACIES

Speaker: Maxime Decaudin

RESILIENT URBAN LANDSCAPES: GEOAI FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH AND CLIMATE ADAPTATION

Speaker: Yue Zhu

PLACE MAKING: A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH

Speaker: Alain Bourdin

RE-TERRITORIALIZING LANDSCAPE

Speaker: Xiaoxuan Lu

OLD AND UGLY? HOW TWO BOOKS ON AGING MODERNIST BUILDINGS IN SINGAPORE CHALLENGE THE STEREOTYPE

Speaker: Calvin Chua Sam Chia Finbarr Fallon

DRIFTING BODIES: ENTANGLED STORIES OF SAND, WATER, STONE AND PEOPLE

Speaker: Jingru (Cyan) Cheng Chen Zhan

IN SEARCH OF ANTI-HATE ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICES

Speaker: Yutaka Sho

AS FREE AS THE GRASS GROWS

Speaker: Fieldoffice Architects Huang Sheng-Yuan

ENTANGLED HISTORIES: ALBIZIAS AND THE MAKING OF NEW ECOLOGIES

Speaker: Robert Zhao Renhui

FREECAD AND MOTION SIMULATION

Speaker: Aik-Siong Koh

PROCESS

Speaker: Kevin Mark Low

CRAFTING THE INTANGIBLE

Speaker: Twitee and Amata Department of ARCHITECTURE Co.

‘DREAMS + DISILLUSIONS’

Speaker: CJ Lim

VISITING PROFESSORS

& EXTERNAL REVIEWERS

_VISITING PROFESSORS_________________ _(FOR AY2024/25)_______________________

WOLFGANG KESSLING

Visiting Associate Professor

H. KOON WEE

Visiting Associate Professor

XIAOXUAN LU

Visiting Senior Fellow

_VISITING PROFESSORS_________________ _(FOR AY2024/25)_______________________

CASEY NAI-HUEI WANG

Visiting Senior Fellow

_EXTERNAL REVIEWERS_________________________________________________________ _(FOR AY2024/25)_______________________________________________________________

Over the course of each academic year, DOA also invites leading international practitioners and experts in the field to serve as external reviewers.

_BA ARCH EXTERNAL REVIEWERS________ _AY2024/25 SEMESTER 1________________

TERRENCE SEAH

Director, Benoy Architects

JASON LIM Lecturer, SUTD Architecture and Sustainable Design

AR. PEARL CHEE Director, WOHA Architects

MS. TANG HSIAO LING Director, JTC Urban Planning and Architecture Division

_M ARCH EXTERNAL REVIEWERS_________ _AY2024/25 SEMESTER 1________________

TRACEY HWANG

Director for Urban Design, Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)

EVA CASTRO

Professor of Practice, EVA CASTRO Co-founder, FormAxioms lab, Plasma Studio Professor of Practice, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Director CCA (Centre for Climate Adaptation)

THOMAS TSANG

Associate Professor, University of Hong Kong

LIN CHIAJU

Director and Architect, OMA, Taiwan

_BA ARCH EXTERNAL REVIEWERS________ _AY2024/25 SEMESTER 2________________

WTANYA CHANVITAN

INDA Program Year 4 Coordinator Co-Founder of Bangkok Tokyo Architecture

DR. CONSTANCE LAU Westminister University

AR. PHUA HONG WEI Director, WOHA

AR. DONOVAN SOON Director, FDAT Architects

_M ARCH EXTERNAL REVIEWERS_________ _AY2024/25 SEMESTER 2________________

ASAMI TAKAHASHI Principal Architect, YUME Architects

KAORU SUEHIRO

Professor, Faculty of Human Environment Studies, Kyushu University Deputy Director of BeCAT, Kyushu University Partner, NKS2 Architects

KO SHIOU HEE

Principal Architect and Director, K2LD Architects

VERONICA NG FOONG PENG

Professor, Head of Architecture Department, Sunway University, Malaysia

Picture credit: The Architectural Society (TAS)

STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES (SEP)

NUS DOA aims to make the most of Singapore’s strategic location and its networks to prepare our graduates to engage in the global practice of design. We create opportunities for our students to enhance their academic experience and cultural exposure through our extensive list of Student Exchange Programmes (SEP)* with leading architecture and industrial design schools.

We have in place various school-level and department-level exchange programmes with the following universities:

• Budapest University of Technology and Economics

• Chinese University of Hong Kong, CUHK

• Chongqing University

• Chulalongkorn University

• Cracow University of Technology

• Czech Technical University

• Delft University of Technology

• Ecole Speciale D’Architecture

• Eindhoven University of Technology

• ETH Zurich

• Ewha Womans University, Seoul

• Hanyang University

• Lund University

• McGill University

• Meiji University

• National Cheng Kung

• Polytechnic University of Turin

• Technical University of Munich

• The Chinese University of Hong Kong

SUMMER PROGRAMME

• The University of Manchester

• The University of Melbourne

• The University of New South Wales

• The University of Sheffield

• The University of Sydney

• Tianjin University

• Tongji University

• Tsinghua University

• Tunghai University

• UIC Barcelona

• Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (Spain)

• University of California

• University of Hawaii, Manoa

• University of Navarra

• University of Seoul

• University of Strathclyde

• University of Waterloo

• Yonsei University

• Zhejiang University

_DESIGN SUMMER CAMP (DSC)_____________________________________________________________________________

Design Summer Camp (DSC) is a three-week programme at the DOA, open to anyone from Junior Colleges and above, including university students* and working professionals who are interested to learn about Design Education. This studiobased programme offers an immersive experience that allows individuals without prior background, to engage and experience conceptual approaches and develop skills relevant to the design profession.

Website: https://cde.nus.edu.sg/arch/designsummercamp/ Instagram: @designsummercamp Enquries: designsummercamp@nus.edu.sg

*Students already matriculated into the BA Arch programme are not eligible to participate in this camp.

Picture credit: Design Summer Camp (DSC)

CONTACTS

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE (DOA)

Address NUS College of Design and Engineering 4 Architecture Drive Singapore 117566

Telephone +65 6516 8736

Website https://cde.nus.edu.sg/arch/ Facebook www.facebook.com/nus.aki

For more information on our programmes and on the DOA in general, please feel free to get in touch with the following persons:

DEPARTMENT UPDATES, ADMISSIONS AND GENERAL ENQUIRIES

Email: askdoa@nus.edu.sg

STUDENTS ENROLLED IN BA ARCH PROGRAMME

BA Arch Teaching Trainee: LIU Heng liuhengwork1@gmail.com

Muhammad Akmal BIN MOKSIN work.akmalmoksin@gmail.com

Management Assistant Officer (Academic): CHUA Lay Peng Lyn akiclp@nus.edu.sg

Executive Sheryl GOH sheryl_g0h@nus.edu.sg

STUDENTS ENROLLED IN M ARCH PROGRAMME

M Arch Teaching Trainee: Cindy KOO Xin Yu cindykoo@nus.edu.sg

Management Assistant Officer (Academic): Jason CHONG Woon Siong akicws@nus.edu.sg

Senior Executive: Vhaishnavi D/O V SELVARAJAH vhaish30@nus.edu.sg

Executive Sheryl GOH sheryl_g0h@nus.edu.sg

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Advised by Assoc. Prof. Thomas KONG Assoc. Prof. CHEAH Kok Ming WONG Foong Foong Alicia

Edited by Dr. Federico Simone RUBERTO Muhammad Akmal BIN MOKSIN LIU Heng