The inaugural episode of Ecogradia features Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell, co-founding directors of WOHA, a firm that offers architectural and urban solutions to the challenges of the 21st century.
WOHA’s trailblazing strategies for liveable and sustainable solutions are outlined in their book “Garden City Megacity: Rethinking Cities for the Age of Global Warming”, and its 2022 sequel, “WOHA: New Forms of Sustainable Architecture”.
| 00:07:35 | Challenging the precepts of urbanism today |
| 00:10:11 | “It’s necessary for us now to start thinking about the future of mobility. The future of mobility is not going to be what we have today — it will change drastically.” |
| 00:11:21 | What is the shape of future cities? |
| 00:12:58 | “We need to conceive of a vertical 15-minute city. It’s definitely more compact, it’s not spread out, and that we need to think about vertical zoning and stacking of uses, multiple ground levels, multiple uses, multiple owners and stakeholders.” |
| 00:17:56 | “Micro-urbanism concept refers to the way you experience the building — you don’t feel like you’re entering a building… You’re still in the public realm when you’re within this three-dimensional environment… They’re not just big buildings, they’re actually three-dimensional chunks of a city.” |
| 00:27:38 | Managing trade-offs: density vs. livability |
| 00:36:10 | “If you look at the megacities in the world, you have Chinese ones which are based on 20th-century model, basically Western import models. And the rest grew larger because of acceleration of population without much planning and thinking about it. Both models didn’t quite work.” |
| 00:36:59 | Nature within cities |
| 00:43:14 | “If cities have to be a high-density, high-rise, think about nature. Think about what nature can do for us and for the planet, providing ecosystem services.” |
| 00:49:28 | Becoming WOHA |
| 00:58:36 | “We get knocked down but we stand up again and we continue to go in the same direction. We don’t turn back, and I think that may be the difference.” |
In this episode, Mun Summ and Richard make the case that bridging architecture and urbanism is paramount if we are to unlock the potential of the future city.
They first offer a pointed critique of 20th-century urbanism, arguing that it was overly centred on private cars and mono-functional zoning. The city, visualised as a 2D plan, failed to meet the challenges posed by urbanisation and climate change.
By contrast, a 3D model embraces density head-on by stacking layers and programmes, pioneering typologies and urban forms that redistribute public space and mobility systems.
Sky gardens at SkyVille @ Dawson (Singapore) illustrate vertical stacking of public space in high-density housing.They also address the importance of natural systems in their built projects. Vegetated surfaces such as green walls are not only good for human well-being, they can make room for biodiversity in dense urban centres.
Vegetated facades of Oasia Hotel Downtown (Singapore), whilst appreciated by occupants and neighbours, are also habitats for birds and small animals.For them, the pursuit of new forms is crucial. Through novel concepts such as ‘macro-architecture, micro-urbanism’, buildings are reimagined as agglomerations of public space and programmes, pulled together and vertically distributed.
Kampung Admiralty (Singapore) combines public amenities and social spaces. It is itself a mini-neighbourhood arranged on the vertical axis. Seen here, on the ground, is a sheltered tropical plaza.
The roof of the Kampung Admiralty (Singapore) is both a park and a biodiversity hotspot.Mun Summ and Richard further discuss how experiments with building form can lead to innovative urban morphologies. They contend that mixed-use buildings, connected above and below ground to form networks, are not only efficient in land use, but they also result in neighbourhoods that can be more generous to social and ecological systems.
The 3D planning of Punggol Digital District (Singapore) illustrates vertical stacking and multi-layered connectivity.
The roof of Punggol Digital District (Singapore) may hold new generative systems, such as food farms and solar canopies.From a first chance meeting to the formation of their professional partnership, to a career of critical successes and awards, Mun Summ and Richard trace WOHA’s journey and revisit key moments and projects.
This episode is brought to you by:
| The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction The Holcim Foundation helps drive systemic change towards a more sustainable built environment. It was founded in 2003 to define and promote the key principles of sustainability for the construction sector and is committed to accelerating the sector’s transformation so that people and the planet can thrive. The Foundation has investigated various aspects of sustainable construction via a series of roundtables and conferences with international experts. It has also recognised excellent contributions to this field with the Holcim Awards which are considered the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design. Committed to a holistic approach that recognises the equal importance and interdependence of four key goals, the Foundation combines the collective knowledge, ideas, and solutions of our global community of experts with our recognised platform of international competitions to democratise thought leadership for the entire sector. Today, the Holcim Foundation is proud to accompany Ecogradia’s new podcast and its host, Nirmal Kishnani, with whom we share a common goal: contribute to a just, equitable, and sustainable future via sustainable construction and design. |  |
This episode is brought to you by:
The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction
The Holcim Foundation helps drive systemic change towards a more sustainable built environment. It was founded in 2003 to define and promote the key principles of sustainability for the construction sector and is committed to accelerating the sector’s transformation so that people and the planet can thrive.
The Foundation has investigated various aspects of sustainable construction via a series of roundtables and conferences with international experts. It has also recognised excellent contributions to this field with the Holcim Awards which are considered the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design.
Committed to a holistic approach that recognises the equal importance and interdependence of four key goals, the Foundation combines the collective knowledge, ideas, and solutions of our global community of experts with our recognised platform of international competitions to democratise thought leadership for the entire sector.
Today, the Holcim Foundation is proud to accompany Ecogradia’s new podcast and its host, Nirmal Kishnani, with whom we share a common goal: contribute to a just, equitable, and sustainable future via sustainable construction and design.
WOHA was founded by Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell in 1994. The Singapore-based practice focuses on researching and innovating integrated architectural and urban solutions to tackle the problems of the 21st century such as climate change, population growth and rapidly increasing urbanisation.
WOHA has accrued a varied portfolio of work and is known for its distinct approach to biophilic design and integrated landscaping. The practice applies their systems thinking approach to architecture and urbanism in their building design as well as their regenerative masterplans.
WOHA work at all scales, from interiors and architecture to public space and master plans; their projects are living systems that connect to the city as a whole. With every project, the practice aims to create a matrix of interconnected human-scaled environments. These spaces foster community, enable stewardship of nature, generate biophilic beauty, activate ecosystem services and build resilience.
Wong Mun Summ is also a Professor in Practice at the National University of Singapore, Department of Architecture. He sits on the Nominating Committee of the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize and other design advisory panels in Singapore.
Richard Hassell has served as a Board Member of DesignSingapore Council, the Singapore Board of Architects as well as the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore. He has lectured at many universities and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia.
“WOHA: New Forms of Sustainable Architecture” documents the complete corpus of WOHA’s pioneering sustainable and built work. It is an assessment of the practical realisation of WOHA’s theories and principles, and the environmental responsibilities now shouldered by architects and urban planners worldwide.
WOHA: New Forms of Sustainable Architecture
Patrick Bingham-Hall
with essays by Nirmal Kishnani and Timothy Beatley
375 colour illustrations | Hardback
ISBN: 9780500025307
WOHA
29 Hongkong Street
Singapore 059668
T |+65 6423 4555
E | admin@woha.net
W | woha.net
If you heard it in this episode, we likely have a link for it right here. Click on any topics, people, buildings, places, products and/or technologies listed below to learn more about each of them.
| 00:05:54 | “…the critical regional approach felt a little bit limiting…” “Critical Regionalism for our time” | The Architecture Review (AR) |
| 00:09:02 | “…how do we create regenerative cities…” “Regenerative Cities” | World Future Council (WFC) |
| 00:10:11 | “…it’s necessary for us now to start thinking about the future of mobility…” “The future of mobility is at our doorstep” | McKinsey & Company |
| 00:12:58 | “…We need to conceive of a vertical 15-minute city…” “Introducing the “15-Minute City”: Sustainability, Resilience and Place Identity in Future Post-Pandemic Cities” | MDPI |
| 00:13:37 | “…we are very much into being biocentric…” “biocentrism: ethics” | Britannica |
| 00:14:34 | “…You call this ‘macro-architecture, micro-urbanism’.” “Finding sustainability in a rapidly growing metropolis” | Architectural Digest India |
| 00:19:36 | “…There was an audit on biodiversity…” “Kampung Admiralty Singapore” | bioSEA |
| 00:28:22 | “…Other cities, which have very high livable rating…” “The world’s most livable cities for 2022” | CNN Travel |
| 00:33:24 | “…the design community recoils from the idea of […] megastructures and megacities…” “Megastructure” | Designing Buildings |
| 00:35:37 | “…We only had New York…” “Growth of the metropolis” | Britannica |
| 00:35:38 | “…and we had Tokyo, both are excellent…” “Tokyo megacity” | Designing Buildings |
| 00:37:22 | “…The last title of your book, ‘Garden City Mega City’…” “Garden City Mega City” | WOHA |
| 00:38:36 | “…Oasia Hotel Downtown has a green plot ratio of 1,100%…” “Green plot ratio” | Designing Buildings |
| 00:40:06 | “…one of our terms […] was the ‘domesticated megastructure’…” “Garden City, Megacity: Rethinking Cities For the Age of Global Warming” | Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) |
| 00:42:24 | “…we’ve got experts to measure the ecosystem services…” “Ecosystem Services & Biodiversity (ESB)” | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) |
| 00:48:56 | “…they spotted a pair of Himalaya vultures…” “Himalayan Vulture” | Animalia |
| 00:51:45 | “…the traditional architectural values of commodity, firmness and delight…” “Commodity, firmness, and delight”: the ultimate synthesis” | Britannica |
| 00:52:19 | “…We had the energy efficiency issues in the eighties…” “Reflecting on the History of Energy Efficiency, While Looking to the Future” | Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) |
| 00:52:23 | “…we had tropical thinking in the nineties…” “”Deviating Discourse: Tay Kheng Soon and the Architecture of Postcolonial Development in Tropical Asia” in in Abidin Kusno et. al. eds., Special Issue on “Changing Asia” in Journal of Architectural Education 63(2) (2010), pp. 153-158.” | Academia |
| 00:52:25 | “…and then came Green…” “Moving the Goalposts: The History of Green Building and Performance” | GRESB |
| 00:52:52 | “…it was called environmental science…” “Environmental Science” | Britannica |
| 00:54:13 | “…we were aware of global warming…” “Global Warming 101” | Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) |
| 00:55:18 | “…I think it was Al Gore’s movie, (An) Inconvenient Truth…” “An Inconvenient Truth” | IMDb |
| 01:02:28 | “…followed fairly closely behind by legislation or changes in (Singapore) regulation…” “…Updates to the Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High-Rises (LUSH) Programme: LUSH 3.0” | Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) |
| 00:02:17 | “…I studied at National University of Singapore…” National University of Singapore |
| 00:02:26 | “…I was an intern at Kerry Hill Architects…” KHA |
| 00:02:26 | “…I was an intern at […] William Lim Associates…” “William Lim Siew Wai” | Singapore Infopedia |
| 00:02:50 | “…that was founded by the late Kerry Hill…” “Kerry Hill “architect of exceptional sensibility and expertise” dies aged 75” | Dezeen |
| 00:06:36 | “…WOHA today, how big is it?…” WOHA |
| 00:28:54 | “…a very nice design by ARC Studio in Singapore …” ARC Studio |
| 00:54:34 | “…the late seventies with the Solar Energy Research Institute of Western Australia…” “Solar Energy Research Institute of Western Australia” | The Encyclopaedia of Australian Science and Innovation |
| 00:55:18 | “…I think it was Al Gore‘s movie…” Al Gore |
| 00:57:53 | “…400 entries around the world, including Norman Foster…” Foster + Partners |
| 00:57:53 | “…400 entries around the world, including […] Zaha Hadid…” Zaha Hadid Architects |
| 00:02:04 | “…WOHA was formed in 1994 in Singapore, almost three decades ago…” “Singapore” | Britannica |
| 00:02:57 | “…you were trained in Perth, Australia…” “Perth” (Western Australia, Australia) | Britannica |
| 00:06:16 | “…the first project I did, the Datai, Langkawi…” “Datai Hotel” (Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia) | Archnet |
| 00:14:59 | “…I would like to use Kampung Admiralty as an example…” “Kampung Admiralty” (Singapore) | WOHA |
| 00:16:11 | “…in the midst of the public housing estate in Singapore…” “Public Housing – A Singapore Icon” | Housing and Development Board (HDB) |
| 00:19:22 | “…what we call in Singapore Hawker centre…” “The Past and Future of Hawker Centres” (Singapore) | Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) |
| 00:22:04 | “…take your Punggol Digital District as a case study…” “Punggol Digital District” (Singapore) | WOHA |
| 00:28:03 | “…Hong Kong, for example, has densities…” “Hong Kong” (Special Administrative Region, Peopleʼs Republic of China) | Britannica |
| 00:28:33 | “…we should talk about Duxton Plain competition…” “Duxton Plain Competition” (Sinagpore) | WOHA |
| 00:28:52 | “…which ended up as the project, the Pinnacles…” “Pinnacle @ Duxton” (Singapore) | ARC Studio |
| 00:29:45 | “…had the humane qualities of the streets of Chinatown…” “Chinatown” (Singapore) | Passion Made Possible |
| 00:32:27 | “…which we had done through SkyVille…” “SkyVille @ Dawson” (Singapore) | WOHA |
| 00:37:49 | “…comes to mind right off the bat is Oasia Hotel Downtown…” “Oasia Hotel Downtown” (Singapore) | WOHA |
| 00:38:03 | “…in the heart of the Singapore Business District…” “Central Business District” (Singapore) | My Guide Singapore |
| 00:41:51 | “…as compared to Tanjong Pagar Centre which is glass…” “Guoco Tower” (Singapore) | SOM |
| 00:57:36 | “…which is the two MRT stations…” “Bras Basah MRT Station” (Singapore) | WOHA “Stadium MRT Station” (Singapore) | WOHA |
| 00:38:24 | “It’s one of the largest green wall installations in Singapore…” “What are Green Walls – the Definition, Benefits, Design, and Greenery” | NAAVA |
There are no products and technologies mentioned in this episode.
Host
Nirmal Kishnani
Producer
Maxime Flores
Editorial assistants
Amulya Dhulipala
Ann Mathew
Sound technician and editor
Kelvin Brown | Phlogiston
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