CL: Could you share a bit about how Green design came into your life from early on, and how you think it has progressed to today’s state of affairs? MW: From very young, I’ve had an affinity for landscape. I’ve always felt comfortable in gardens and amongst plants and especially trees. All my life. As a child, I was always aware of the trees on my street and in my garden; I’m very aware of how they change over the course of the year. I lived in a temperate place in Mexico City that had a pretty similar climate throughout the year, with subtle changes. But it was always there—that relationship and that awareness. And then I moved to Singapore almost 30 years ago. And of course this city is a garden city. We are very blessed to be surrounded by lush landscape; it is really an outstanding and unique feature of Singapore. Especially compared to our neighbours in the ASEAN region, we have an incredible Green Master Plan that was conceived of by the founders of the country, and which has been stewarded and seen through its development. It has continued to evolve and develop through the decades. I think it’s really one of the greatest assets of Singapore. Our natural assets will continue to make it a stand-out nation in the world of sustainability and environmental sensitivity. So it’s something we should continue to work very hard on to protect and conserve, and continue to steward.
CL: As a woman architect, do you think there’s a real difference when it comes to Green architecture or design? In this specialised area, is there a real difference between women and men designers, or is it more of a social conception? MW: The difference lies in peoples’ sensitivity to the environment, regardless of gender. As a woman in architecture, I definitely have faced a lot of challenges in my career, but as far as the love of the environment goes, and sustainability, I don’t think my gender has been a disadvantage or posed any particular challenges. I think the difficulty is to find like-minded people who are very committed to and passionate about the environment, and really understand how important it is that we make massive changes in the way we do things. In terms of profound and genuine commitment to sustainable design, and balancing the wellness of the environment with commercial gains, it is very difficult to do. Developers need to make money, first and foremost, but it’s very difficult to justify spending money on sustainability when they don’t see a return financially. We have a difficult hill to climb, which is to convince developers, governments and policy makers that sustainability is not an added cost and time in a development, but rather it’s a priority that will actually make developments more viable over the life cycle of the project.
CL: You mentioned there isn’t much discrimination or bias, but do you think there’s a shortage of women leadership in the profession? MW: Absolutely. It’s a huge issue. In leadership and in the profession, generally. We need to have many more women in leadership roles. But in order for us to get there, it’s not only women who need the world to change—it’s also men. This career has got to be more sustainable. People have to be able to balance family and career. And they have to be able to balance work and life. And we have to really re-conceptualise how our profession works.
COVID-19 has helped to bring about an awareness of the need for that change. And it has also allowed us to try, test, see and experience other paradigms, which is a good way to test possible alternatives. For example, we’ve seen roads without traffic; we’ve experienced cleaner air; we’ve seen more wildlife in our cities. We’ve seen the landscape flourish. I think over the next 10 years, it’s going to be something that will influence how things change. For example, we travel a lot for our work; we spent an enormous amount of time in various countries, because our work is mostly overseas. We now have learnt how to avoid non-essential travel by video-conferencing and teleconferencing to productively connect with our
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