SINGAPORE AND THE ASIAN CONDITION

Singapore is on the frontlines of environmental policy and action in Asia. It serves as an exemplar of sustainability, particularly considering its greening efforts since the 1960s alongside its innovative urban development. With the city-state as a springboard, students are led to explore issues specific to tropical/subtropical climates and high-density urbanism.

The curriculum additionally includes visits to completed projects (for example, the SDE4 Zero-Energy Building by Serie Architects, Multiply Architects and Surbana Jurong, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital by CPG Consultants, Kampung Admiralty by WOHA, Pioneer and Crescent Halls, Nanyang Technological University by Toyo Ito & Associates, and so on) as well as guest lectures by policy-makers and consultants, shedding light on the Singapore model.

THE MSD ISD APPROACH

Human actions are responsible for global warming and ecosystem losses. The solution to the crisis we face depends to a large degree on what we build, and how this shapes the way we live. The challenge here is technological, but it’s also cultural, economic and ecological. And the solution is predicated on our understanding of how these forces interact and how they might be integrated in positive, life-sustaining ways.

Three areas of focus differentiate the MSc ISD approach:

Multiscalar Approach

The programme examines different scales of the built environment. The first semester is devoted to the building scale; the second probes the urban. Students discover why scale matters to a discussion on sustainability; they are taught to visualise the interdependency of engineered, spatial and landscape elements, and to frame buildings within neighbourhoods, and neighbourhoods within cities.

Systems-Thinking

Systems-thinking aids the visualisation of connectivity and exchange.  It facilitates life-sustaining flows of resources and people in a manner that unifies and fortifies, and reverses fragmentation. The programme, for instance, investigates the interface between natural and human-made systems; it probes the links between social and economic networks. It emphasises integration, how to bind elements into new wholes, and goes beyond improving the performance of parts, an approach that limits environmental thinking today.

Project-Based, Cross-Disciplinary Learning

The programme is taught by highly qualified professors who offer cross-disciplinary viewpoints and undertake cutting-edge research. In-house teaching is augmented with masterclasses run by internationally renowned scholars and practitioners. Past masterclasses have included architects, WOHA, and climate engineers, Transsolar KlimaEngineering. The two integrated studio projects channel theory into problem-solving. Here, emphasis is placed on strategic, critical and collaborative thinking, past textbook learning.