FUTURARC INTERVIEW
9
and in different aspects of things that complement design. I think young people should go back and study sustainability, because our basic education in architecture doesn’t equip us adequately; we don’t have the scientific basis in our education to be knowledgeable about environmental science. I think everybody needs to go back and learn, including myself. We need to go back and learn a lot more about environmental science to understand and ground our work, move away from the greenwash approach into the genuine, deeply sustainable approach to design. We can see it all around us. We can see things that endure, and we can see new things that get replaced very quickly.
CL: Recently, I came across this book about how to survive as generalists in a specialised world. How do you think that applies to architecture? MW: This is what the hobby has taught me—it’s ok to change your hobby and learn different skills every couple of years. In other words, spend six months doing a deep dive into say parametric design if that’s what one is into and get really good at it, and then spend two to three years doing it, but be prepared to move on—don’t get stuck. You still need to develop all the facets of your talent as an architect—to get site experience, project management experience, design experience—you need the whole range to be a full-fledged architect. So I would discourage people from becoming so specialised that they only do one thing in their whole career, but become very good at certain things and use that as an opportunity to try and experience new things. I think that people shouldn’t be afraid to not have a long career with a firm. Traditionally, the notion that you join a firm and stay with that firm for 20 years equals success—it’s rare today. That doesn’t happen often. It’s the exception to see people who do that. But the vast majority does move and they say “I want to experience something new, I want to try something different, I want to go into a different industry”. Because the more specialised the industry, like if they get stuck in hospitality, then they’ll never experience commercial or healthcare or education—they’ll want to experience other things. I would also encourage designers to go back to school and get into further studies, either in environmental design or landscape design. I think there’s going to be a huge future for landscape designers throughout the region.
CL: Now they can’t think of landscape design as merely coming up with pretty gardens— that’s an outmoded way of thinking. Landscape is a huge part in everything. MW: If you look at our nature reserves, parks and gardens, you can see some world-class excellence. Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, which is near my home, is an incredible social experiment that engages people of all ages in healthy activities. On weekend mornings, you can see many people from 80-year-olds to infants with their parents interacting, doing yoga, tai-chi, playing games, dance, Zumba, everything going on at once. There’s even a farm there, where seniors can go and do farming, which is therapeutic, and a good social activity. So we have the resources, and our government has been behind the scene developing this infrastructure for decades, and now it has become so exciting.
CL: What are the three ‘truisms’ in your life? MW: People are at the core of what architecture is all about. Nature can heal you—it can heal individuals, a society and a nation. I have two more that are equally important to me: We can’t live without technology—we have to embrace it, go with it and avail ourselves to it and really make the most it. Art is always the inspiration.
FUTURARC 89 9 Namly Treehouse, Singapore
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