Carbon Symposium

Carbon Symposium

Carbon is everywhere: in the soil, in the air, in life. The foundation of architecture and the built environment, carbon is also infamous for intensifying the climate catastrophes around us. Addressing the climate crisis requires the building industry to reach carbon-neutral design & construction across all projects, as the real estate industry is responsible for roughly half of emissions contributing to global warming.

Architects and engineers, by the nature of their education and practice, transform carbon in every project. The Carbon Symposium for the Built Environment by College of Design and Engineering (CDE) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) serves as a scaffold for reflection, exploring research and design/technology solutions to tackle one of the most significant challenges of the 21st century. Nine international speakers present a constellation of voices surrounding carbon and its relationship with architecture, technology, material, form, and design pedagogy.

The Carbon Symposium will also discuss the launch of the Renovating Carbon book and the importance of adaptive reuse for low or zero-carbon developments. The book is grounded on architectural work of NUS SDE 1&3 as a super-low carbon and net-zero energy adaptive-reuse, demonstrating an effective strategy for urban sustainability by optimizing the operational performance of built assets, showing a strong integration of design excellence and sustainability leadership.

You may view the recordings at the NUS Department of Architecture’s YouTube Channel.

Session 01
Session 02

Kindly contact us should you have any enquiries.

Moderator

LAM KHEE POH (Professor, NUS CDE)
Lam Khee Poh is an educator, researcher, architect, and consultant who specializes in life cycle building information modeling and computational design support systems for total building performance analysis and building diagnostics. He is an emeritus professor of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University and is the currently appointed Provost’s Chair Professor of Architecture and Building and former dean of the School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore. He is a licensed architect in the UK as well as an elected fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) for his significant contributions to architecture, the profession, and the community. He has completed many major funded research projects in Singapore and the US, and his findings are widely published. He is a member of the editorial boards of Building Simulation (Springer and Tsinghua University Press), and Buildings (MDPI AG, Switzerland). He is a member of the Singapore Future Economy Council Urban Systems Cluster Sub Committee, a director of the Centre for Liveable Cities Ltd., Singapore, and currently serves as an advisory board member of the City Developments Limited Singapore Sustainability Academy as well as a management board member of the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies at NUS.

Session 1
ERIC HÖWELER (A/P GSD, Harvard University, Höweler + Yoon)
ERIK L’HEUREUX (A/P NUS CDE)
HO PUAY PENG (Professor, NUS CDE)
MOK WEI WEI (W Architects)
NADER TEHRANI (Professor, Cooper Union, NADAAA)

Session 2
HOSSEIN REZAI (Web Structures, Ramboll)
KUA HARN WEI (A/P NUS CDE)
NIRMAL KISHNANI (A/P NUS CDE)
WOLFGANG KESSLING (Transsolar)

Bio of Speakers:

Speaker: Nader Tehrani
Nader Tehrani is an Iranian-American designer and educator. In 2011, Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner co-founded NADAAA, a practice dedicated to the advancement of design innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and an intensive dialogue with the construction industry; later, Arthur Chang joined as a third partner. Tehrani was the dean of the Cooper Union’s Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture.

Previously he was a professor of architecture at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, where he served as head of the department from 2010 to 2014. In 1986, he founded Office dA with Rodolphe el-Khoury, and Mónica Ponce de León joined the firm in 1991.

Speaker: Eric Höweler
Eric Höweler, AIA, LEED AP, is an architect, designer, and educator. Höweler is a co-founding principal and partner of Höweler + Yoon Architecture LLP, a research-driven studio of more than twenty designers. HYA has a reputation for work that is both technologically and formally innovative and deeply informed by human experience and a sensitivity to tectonics.

He is currently an associate professor in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he teaches design studios and directs the Master of Architecture Thesis Program. Höweler’s design work and research focuses on building technology integration and material systems. He is the co-author of Expanded Practice (Princeton Architectural Press, 2009) and Verify In Field: Projects and Conversations Höweler + Yoon (Park Books, forthcoming 2021).

Speaker: Erik L’Heureux
Erik G. L’Heureux, FAIA, is a Dean’s Chair Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, College of Design and Engineering at NUS. He was Vice Dean (2018-2022), and the director of the Master of Architecture program (2020-22), where he teaches the next generation of architects to be committed to the complexities and potentials of architecture located along the equator. Before arriving in Singapore, he practiced architecture in New York City while teaching at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union. His creative practice combines passive performance, pattern, and simplicity as a response to the equatorial hot, wet climate and dense urban context manifesting through numerous buildings, including the design of SDE 1 & 3. The Wheelwright Prize from Harvard University has recognized his creative efforts, as well as several international design awards. In addition to his creative practice, his writing includes Deep Veils (ORO Editions, 2014); Drawing Climate (Birkhäuser 2021), and Renovating Carbon (ORO Editions, 2023).

In addition to his design practice, his writing includes Deep Veils (ORO Editions, 2014); he was coeditor for Drawing Climate (Birkhäuser 2021), this publication, and numerous articles.

Speaker: Ho Puay Peng
Ho Puay-peng holds the UNESCO Chair on Architectural Heritage Conservation and Management in Asia and was the former head of the Department of Architecture at the College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore. Following nearly thirty years of experience in academia, Professor Ho’s main research interests are in architectural history and conservation practices, and
how this knowledge can be translated into teaching and practice. Prior to joining the NUS in 2017, he was a professor of architecture and served as the director of the School of Architecture and the university dean of students at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

He has served as a conservation consultant, architect, and adviser to some 100 conservation projects in Hong Kong and Singapore since 2003, including PMQ, Haw Par Villa, Comix Homebase, Oil Street Art Space, Court of Final Appeal, and the new campus for the Chicago University Booth School. He is currently a member of the Senior Advisory Board of the Global Heritage Fund and a patron of the International Dunhuang Project of the British Library.

Speaker: Mok Wei Wei
Mok Wei Wei is presently Managing Director of W Architects Pte Ltd. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) in 1982 from the National University of Singapore. Mok’s numerous architectural projects have received critical acclaim both locally and internationally. His works have been featured in numerous regional and international publications. In recognition of his contributions to Singapore’s architectural scene, he was conferred the President’s Design Award in 2007, the nation’s highest honour for design.

Mok was a committee member of the Singapore Heritage Society from 1995 to 2001. He was a member of the Preservation of Monuments Board from 1999 and subsequently the Deputy Chairman of the Board until December 2016. He was a board member of the Urban Redevelopment Authority from 2006-2018, and a board member of the Singapore Land Authority from 2015-2021. He is currently a board member of the Jurong Town Corporation. In recognition of his contributions to public service, he was conferred the Public Service Medal (PBM) in 2014.

Speaker: Hossein Rezai
Dr. Rezai is an engineer, a design visionary and an educator. One of the initiators of the concept of “fusion engineering”, he is the first and only engineer to receive the coveted title of “Designer of the Year” from the President of Singapore. He is very passionate about the process of advanced computational design, and a holistic approach to architecture + structure + environment. Dr Rezai’s high- profile contributions to industry discourse include his involvement on the 13th cycle Aga Khan Award for Architecture’s Master Jury in 2016, as a jury member for the Singapore President’s Design Award (2017 – 2018), as Vice Chair (2019-2020) and as Jury Chair (2021-2022)).

Dr Rezai is the Global Design Director of Ramboll and founding Director of Web Structures and Web Earth. His latest initiative, on Advanced Computational Design aims to redefine the collaborative nature of designers working with machines to overcome the compound challenges faced by the building industries, and the environments within which they are deployed.

Speaker: Kua Harn Wei
Associate Professor Harn Wei Kua is currently the Vice Dean (Alumni Relations) of the College of Design and Engineering of the National University of Singapore (NUS). He has Masters degrees in theoretical physics, civil & environmental engineering, and technology policy from NUS and MIT, and his PhD is in sustainable building technology from MIT. His current research interest is in biochar building materials and life cycle sustainability assessment. He is a winner of the von Klitzing International Engineering Award, which was established in honour of the Nobel laureate in physics, Klaus von Klitzing. Kua is also a Fellow and Scientist Award winner of the International Association of Advanced Materials.

Speaker: Nirmal Kishnani
Nirmal Kishnani is a sustainability strategist, advising on projects and policies in Asia and scrutinizing the space between frontline theories and drawing-board pragmatism. As an author, educator, and advocate, he champions regenerative design tailored to the Asian context. His books Greening Asia: Emerging Principles for Sustainable Architecture (2012) and Ecopuncture: Transforming Architecture and Urbanism in Asia (2019) argue for upstream imagination over downstream mitigation and seek to reframe the role of the architect.

As vice dean (2014 – 2017) at the School of Design and Environment, he steered the design process of the new net-zero energy building. An educator since 2007, his innovative studio-based teaching integrated systems thinking with cross-disciplinary learning.

Speaker: Wolfgang Kessling
Wolfgang Kessling is one of the directors of Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH, Munich, an international climate-engineering firm that approaches sustainability through innovative climate and energy concepts for buildings. Founded in 1992, the practice focuses on enhancing human comfort with minimum resource use. Kessling’s experience with ventilation systems and energy-efficient buildings have led him to develop innovative solutions with architects and design teams in diverse climates around the world; over the years, his team has developed projects to improve outdoor comfort in urban settings. He has managed high-profile international projects of different scales and complexities, realizing sustainable designs celebrated for their architectural qualities as well as adaptive comfort projects focusing on practical and context-sensitive solutions.

Kessling has been instrumental in spearheading the energy concepts of such prominent projects as the Cooled Conservatories at Gardens by the Bay, Singapore; the Zero Energy Office Building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and the Human Resources Headquarters at Novartis Basel, Switzerland.