TAN Beng Kiang (Dr)
Associate Professor (Educator Track)
Department of Architecture, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore 117566.
- TEL:
- 6516 1357
- EMAIL:
- akitanbk@nus.edu.sg
Associate Professor Tan Beng Kiang is an educator and a registered architect in Singapore with rich practice experience in both the public and private sectors prior to joining academia. She is the former Deputy Head of the National University of Singapore, Department of Architecture and leader of Community and Housing Section. She served as a council member of the Singapore Institute of Architects and currently sits on various technical and advisory committees. She is a recipient of several design and teaching awards including the Pacific Rim Award for Excellence in Public Interest Design for Smile Village project in 2018, the inaugural Most Energy-Efficient Building in ASEAN Award for Revenue House in 2000. In recognition of her teaching contribution she was inducted as Fellow to the National University of Singapore Teaching Academy in 2021.
Her teaching and research interests are in Participatory Community Design & Planning, Service Learning, Social Housing, Design for Aging and Learning Environments. She conducts professional and continuing education courses on Participatory Community Design. As a strong advocate of participatory community design, she leads community centric Design Studio projects and service learning projects in Singapore and ASEAN. The projects have been exhibited in Archifest and Design for the Common Good International Exhibition at Denver, USA in 2022. She has been invited to speak at various conferences and her publications are in journals, books and conference proceedings.
She holds a Doctoral degree from Harvard University, Master of Architecture from UCLA and Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) from the National University of Singapore.
Associate Professor Tan Beng Kiang and her team (team leaders: Kally Quah, Joel Tan, Marina Rani, Sheila Ong, Mary Ann Ng, Lam Ching Yan, Dennis Holmberg, Lee Han Jie and Ning Shoujie) for winning the Pacific Rim Award for Excellence in Public Interest Design for the project Smile Village Preschool, Playground and Public Space. It is a sustained engagement of a series of projects by different cohorts of students from 2012 to 2017.
Design and built project, Ah Ma Drink Stall on Pulau Ubin, by Associate Professor Tan Beng Kiang and students (Team leaders: Lam Ching Yan, Ethan Chung and Tu Tungyun) has been selected for exhibition at the Design for the Common Good International Exhibition held at the Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Center for Visual Art (CVA) from January 14 to March 19, 2022. The exhibition showcases public interest design projects from six continents and twenty-two countries. “The Design for the Common Good International Exhibition asserts the value of public interest design, an emerging practice that envisions a community-centered approach in the design of buildings, environments, products, and systems. It is a practice that champions growing knowledge, evolving processes, and activating participation while tackling complex issues. The direct involvement of people—communities, stakeholders, designers, as well as educators and their students—is the heart of this work.”
