SIA Archifest Conference 2023
2 Oct 2023 (Mon), 9.30am – 6.00pm, PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay, Garden Ballroom
CPD Points: 6
Bringing together leading voices from the industry, the Archifest Conference is a consistent highlight of Archifest. This year’s edition of the Archifest Conference assembles a line-up of global and local speakers each with a distinctive approach working in diverse contexts. The speakers will address the broad theme of Archifest 2023 “Interim: Acts of Adaptation” across three scopes of Interim Architecture, Interim Urbanism, and Interim Culture.
Held at PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay, the Conference kickstarts the Festival season with a full day’s worth of talks, panels and dialogues. The Conference presents a rare convergence of emergent voices in architecture, with unique perspectives and diverse manifestations of the “Interim”.
This year’s Conference focuses on amplifying the conversations around the applications of an “Interim” thinking in architecture and the city, with an emphasis not on a flat showcase of works, but on the cross-pollination of ideas, methods and visions.
Speakers:
Ma Yansong, MAD (China)
Beijing-born architect Ma Yansong is recognized as an important voice in the new generation of architects. He is the first Chinese architect to win an overseas landmark-building project. As the founder of MAD Architects, Ma leads design across various scales, with the vision to create a new balance among society, the city, and the environment through architecture. Since designing the “Floating Island” in 2002, Ma has been exploring the ideal future of living through international practices. At MAD, Ma has created a series of imaginative works, including Absolute Towers, Harbin Opera House, Hutong Bubbles, Chaoyang Park Plaza, Quzhou Sports Park, and Yiwu Grand Theater. In 2014, Ma was selected as the principal designer for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which made him the first Chinese architect to design an overseas culture landmark. Parallel to his design practice, he also explores the cultural values of cities and architecture through domestic and international solo exhibitions, publications, and art works.
In 2006, Ma was awarded the “Young Architects Award” by the Architectural League of New York. In 2008 he was selected as one of the “20 Most Influential Young Architects” by ICON magazine. Fast Company named him one of the “10 Most Creative People in Architecture in 2009” and one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business in 2014.” In 2010 he received the “RIBA International Fellowship”. In 2014 he was awarded “Young Global Leaders (YGL)” by the World Economic Forum.
Ma holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Yale University. He has been an adjunct professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Tsinghua University, and the University of Southern California.
Andra Matin, Andramatin (Indonesia)
Andra Matin – both the man and the firm, andramatin, are known for their clean and modern approach to architecture. The works of andramatin have been a constant reflection of contemporary take on traditional values, that are based on its context and its sensitivity to the environment. Aside from his architectural projects, Andra Matin is also one of the founders of Arsitek Muda Indonesia (AMI – eng: Young Architects of Indonesia), and has been a part of the progress in Indonesian architecture. He also has released books under a.publication that opens up discussions about architecture, along with being a frequent lecturer at universities, seminars, and architectural events both in Indonesia and in international events. His latest installation titled Elevation has been granted a Special Mention Award at the 16th Venice Biennale, for its traditional sense and its contemporary take. Inspired by his great love of travel, Andra Matin continues to search out more knowledge and experiences, in order to further celebrate the architecture of Indonesia.
Momoyo Kaijima, Atelier Bow Wow (Japan)
Momoyo Kaijima graduated from the Faculty of Domestic Science at Japan Women’s University in 1991. She founded Atelier Bow-Wow with Yoshiharu Tsukamoto in 1992. In 1994 she received her post-graduate degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. From 1996–97 she was a guest student with a scholarship from Switzerland at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETHZ). In 2000 she completed her post-graduate program at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. She served as an assistant professor at the Art and Design School of the University of Tsukuba during 2000–09 and continued to teach there as an associate professor. In 2012 she received the RIBA International Fellowship. Since 2017 she has been serving as a professor of architectural behaviorology at ETHZ.
Kaijima taught as a visiting professor in the Department of Architecture at Harvard GSD (2003, 2016), guest professor at ETHZ (2005–07), the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (2011–12), Rice University (2014–15), Delft University of Technology (2015–16), and Columbia University (2017). While engaging in design projects for houses, public buildings, and station plazas, she has conducted numerous investigations of the city through architecture such as Made in Tokyo and Pet Architecture. She was the curator of Japan Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
Craig Miller, Heatherwick Studio (UK)
As Project Leader, Craig Miller has led some of Heatherwick Studio’s largest and most complex commissions. After joining in 2008, Miller spent five years in Hong Kong delivering the rejuvenation of Pacific Place. He then led a team on the 1,000 Trees project in Shanghai before becoming the studio’s project leader on a new-build office for Google in King’s Cross, London. He has also played leading roles on the ongoing transformation of London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre and EDEN—a recently completed residential tower in Singapore. Now based in Singapore, Miller leads design teams on large-scale projects across the region.
Danny Wicaksono, Studio Dasar (Indonesia)
Danny Wicaksono is an architect from Indonesia. He graduated from Trisakti University, Indonesia. He founded studiodasar an architecture design studio, in 2014, and co-founded jongArsitek! an free architecture publication, with several of his friends, in 2008. He curates architectural exhibitions and actively writing for national and International publication. As a member of Indonesian Institute of Architect, he was given an award for his contribution in Indonesia’s architecture scene. He now resides in Bintaro, Indonesia and is the member of The International Committee for Architectural Critics (CICA).
Betty Ng, Collective Studio (Hong Kong)
Betty is the Founder and Director at COLLECTIVE. She is a Registered Architect in the Netherlands, a RIBA Chartered Architect in the United Kingdom and an Associate member of the AIA, United States. Betty holds an M. Arch. Post Graduate Degree from Harvard University and a B. Arch. Professional Degree from Cornell University.
Betty is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), co-teaching Master Architecture Design Studio with COLLECTIVE Directors Chi-Yan Chan and Juan Minguez. She is previously Visiting Professor of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, Adjunct Assistant Professor at CUHK advising Master Thesis, and Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. She has also acted as External Examiner and Final Review Jury at RMIT, SUTD, NUS, CUHK and HKU.
Prior setting up COLLECTIVE, Betty was Design Director at OMA Rotterdam with Pritzker Prize Laureate Rem Koolhaas, she co-led the winning proposal for the Axel Springer Media Headquarters in Berlin, the 80,000 m2 Hermitage Museum Art Repository in St. Petersburg and the 42 Hectares West Kowloon Cultural District Master Plan in Hong Kong among many projects. Betty was at OMA Asia working on the CCTV Headquarters interiors in Beijing, the 140-meter tall Baosteel Headquarters in Guangzhou, amongst many other architecture projects in Asia. Prior, she was at OMA New York working on the construction extension of the Architecture School Building Milstein Hall at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and a 214-meter tall mixed-use tower Museum Plaza at Louisville, Kentucky.
Betty has also practiced at Herzog & de Meuron in Basel and Massimiliano Fuksas in Rome. Throughout her career, she has worked on architecture projects located in China, Europe, United Kingdom, United States, Russia, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East.
Betty is currently a Board Director at Harvard Club Hong Kong, Board Member of The Cornell Club of Hong Kong and a member of the International Women’s Forum.
Sarah Ichioka, Desire Lines (Singapore)
Sarah Mineko Ichioka is an urbanist, strategist, curator and writer. She leads Desire Lines, a strategic consultancy for environmental, cultural, and social-impact initiatives and organizations. Her latest book, Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, co-authored with Michael Pawlyn, proposes a bold set of regenerative design principles for addressing our compound environmental and social crises.
Sarah has been recognized as a World Cities Summit Young Leader, one of the Global Public Interest Design 100, a British Council / Clore Duffield Cultural Leadership International Fellow, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. A sought-after public speaker, she regularly delivers keynote lectures and panels on regenerative culture, design and development at high-profile events around the world.
In previous roles Sarah has explored the intersections of cities, society and ecology within leading international institutions of culture, policy and research, including as Director of The Architecture Foundation (UK) and Co-Director of the London Festival of Architecture (both from 2008-2014).
Sarah’s critical writing has been published by Triennale di Milano (Electa), La Biennale di Venezia, Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (Hatje Cantz), Serpentine Gallery (Koenig), the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (Actar), Barbican (Prestel), Mies van der Rohe Award (Actar), and the Urban Age (Phaidon). Her work has been featured in outlets including the Financial Times, Dezeen, CNN.com, Channel News Asia, Monocle, publicspace.org, Folha de S.Paulo, BBC London, Wallpaper* and Bloomberg CityLab.
Sarah has served as an adviser or judge for many diverse projects, including the XXII and XXIII editions of the Triennale di Milano, the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge, Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia, the European Prize for Urban Public Space, and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
Raised in California and based in Singapore, Sarah holds degrees from Yale University and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Teo Yee Chin, Red Bean Architects (Singapore)
Teo Yee Chin is a registered architect leading an innovative practice improving continuity and connectivity in the city. Over the last 18 years he has had hands-on experience in commercial, residential and institutional projects. He was also formerly Chief Editor of a leading architectural journal. Shuttling between critical thinking (as writer/editor) and creative practice (design/architecture) in the past 18 years has kept him ahead of trends and issues changing academia and the industry. He is now pursuing a doctoral degree in human geography at the National University of Singapore, focusing on the production of rural space in Taiwan.
Dongwoo Yim, PRAUD (South Korea)
Dongwoo is the co-founder and principal of PRAUD. He received a Master of Architecture in Urban Design at Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University, and bachelor’s degree in Seoul National University. Dongwoo is a faculty member of Rhode Island School of Design since 2011 and teaches PRAUD’s architectural discourse “TOPOLOGY & TYPOLOGY.” His research interest focuses on integral urbanism and architectural typologies that catalyze urban transformation in various urban scales. Dongwoo is the award winner of Architectural League Prize 2013, and is the author of “Pyongyang, and Pyongyang After,” and co-author of “I Want to be METROPOLITAN” and “North Korea Atlas.”
PRAUD was founded in Boston as a design and research firm focused on understanding the effects of urban transformations and developing architectural responses through studies in Topology and Typology at various scales. Their architectural language has developed through a progressive methodology of contextual massing and structural systems. This holistic approach has lead them to explore the contemporary language in architecture as a critical approach to modernist systems and styles. Their work has been published and exhibited internationally.
Freek Persyn, 51N4E (Belgium)
Freek Persyn is co-founder of the office 51N4E, a spatial design practice focused on urban and social transformation. 51N4E works on a wide range of scales, from strategy to realization, and designs the built environment with an affinity for both the physical and the invisible dimensions of space. The work of 51N4E received the most attention for its adaptive reuse projects in Central Europe and for its intense engagement with Albania. Since 2019, Freek Persyn combines his partnership at 51N4E with the professorship of Architecture and Urban Transformation at the ETH Zürich.
Programme
9.00am | Registration |
9.30 am – 6.00 pm | KEYNOTE by Ma Yansong
3 PANELS
Interim Architecture Teo Yee Chin, Red Bean Architects Craig Miller, Heatherwick Studio Betty Ng, COLLECTIVE Studio
Interim Urbanism Dongwoo Yim, PRAUD Freek Persyn, 51N4E Danny Wicaksono, Studio Dasar
Interim Culture Andra Matin , Andramatin Sarah Ichioka, Desire Lines Momoyo Kaijima, Atelier Bow-Wow |