Ken Yeang

Ken Yeang
Born	1948 Penang, Malaysia
Nationality	Malaysian
Other names	杨经文/楊經文; [pinyin]: Yáng Jīngwén
Occupation	Architect, Writer
Known for	sustainable design architecture

Dr. Ken Yeang ([Chinese]: 杨经文/楊經文; pinyin: Yáng Jīngwén; born 1948) is a prolific Malaysian architect and writer best known for advancing green design and planning, differentiated from other green architects by his comprehensive ecological approach.

Ken Yeang is an ecoarchitect and an early pioneer of ecological design and planning, carrying out design and research work in this field since 1971. He is widely regarded by his fellow ecodesign peers as a ‘guru’ of green design.

Yeang works between the UK architect and planning firm, Llewelyn Davies Yeang (as Design Director (2005) and Chairman, since 2010) and his Asia office, T. R. Hamzah and Yeang (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Llewelyn Davies Weeks (rebranded as Llewelyn Davies Yeang) was founded in the mid-60's by Lord Llewelyn Davies. T. R. Hamzah & Yeang was formed in 1975 with Tengku Datuk Robert Hamzah, his friend and contemporary at the AA School, and a Prince in the Malay Royal family.

Early education

Born in 1948 in Penang, Malaysia, Yeang attended Penang Free School and Cheltenham Boys College (a British 'public school' in Gloucestershire, UK), obtained his first qualifications in architecture from the Architectural Association School (London), and received a PhD in ecological design and planning from Cambridge University's Department of Architecture for his dissertation, "A Theoretical Framework for Incorporating Ecological Considerations in the Design and Planning of the Built Environment", published as Designing with Nature (McGraw-Hill, 1995) that became the springboard for his pioneering work in ecodesign, green architecture and ecocity masterplanning.

Architect offices, Ecoarchitecture, Ecocities

Yeang is best known for his ecology based, deep green architecture and ecomasterplans that go beyond conventional rating systems such as LEED, BREEAM, etc.

His architect and planning firm, T. R. Hamzah and Yeang (www.trhamzahyeang.com) has sister offices in UK as Llewelyn Davies Yeang (www.ldavies.com) and in China as North Hamzah Yeang Architectural and Engineering Company (Beijing), a joint venture with NORINCO with branch offices in Shenzen, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing. His innovative ecodesign work led his firm, T. R. Hamzah and Yeang to being cited in the US magazine, Fast Company (March 2011) as among the top 8 most innovative architect firms in the world. The UK Guardian newspaper (January, 2008) further lists Yeang as '..one of the 50 People who could save the Planet..’,

The relevance in Yeang's ecoarchitecture, differentiating his design work from other ecodesigners is his authentic ecological approach to architecture and masterplans. Whereas others are based on rating systems (such as LEED, BREEAM, ‘Living Building Challenge’, etc.) or on ecoengineering (cleantech, carbon neutral, etc.), his is ecology based - an environmentally more inclusive approach, founded on the premise that ecodesign or ecological design should be derived from ecological principles being an obvious endeavor.

The uniqueness in Yeang's work lie in its authentic ecological approach that is combined with his innovative ideas-driven designs that sets his work apart from other sustainable design and ecocity work e.g. the 'vertical linear par in Solaris building [1-north, Singapore]; the continuiusly-linked 'green ecoinfrastructure' in SOMA Masterplan [Bangalore, India, etc.]. Furthermore, this ecology based approach enables him to continue to advance green design technically, aesthetically, theoretically and architecturally beyond other approaches such as those based on accreditation systems (eg. LEED, BREEAM, etc.) or ecoengineering or carbon foot-printing.

Yeang attended courses in ecology at the Department of Environmental Biology at Cambridge University (under Professor J.W.L. Beament), becoming a member of the British Ecological Society and committed his entire professional life to the pursuit of this ecological design agenda. His declares his professional mission to be, ',. making our human world and built environment green by design innovation..'.

Yeang's extensive experience as a professional architect lends immense credibility to his work on ecodesign, registered as a professional architect (ARB, UK, etc.) since 1972. He has seen to completion over a dozen skyscrapers, several thousand dwellings (terraced houses), over two million sq.ft. interior design space and completed over a hundred building projects of all types (high-rise apartments, retail complexes, offices, mixed-use developments, industrial buildings, educational, hospitals, etc.). Yeang has designed buildings and ecocity masterplans worldwide including New York, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Canada, China, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, UK, Malaysia and China.

Key Buildings and inventing the 'Bioclimatic Skyscraper'

His early work started with applying bioclimatic (climate-responsive) principles to building design as low-energy passive-mode design (which he regards as a subset of ecodesign) that at the same time bears 'critical regionalist' features. This work subsequently became the armature for his ecological design agenda.

The 'Roof-Roof' House (1985), his own signature house (in Ampang near Kuala Lumpur) is one of his early experimental bioclimatic built work which remains one of his more important, emblematic and instructive buildings. The dwelling's experimental features include a dramatic curved louvered umbrella-structure as an 'environmental filter' that serves as a second solar-shading roof (hence its name 'Roof-Roof') over the building's lower roof terrace (with louvres angled to let in the morning sun and keeps out the mid-day sun and hot western sun), side 'wind wing-walls' on the south side (that later influenced the natural ventilation device in his Menara UMNO tower, Penang) which redirects cooling breezes sideways into the dining and living areas, and an appropriately located swimming-pool on the east side that also serves as an evaporative-cooling device to cool the predominantly westerly wind before entering the immediately adjoining internal living spaces. This small building, viscerally detailed, with perhaps too many experiments in it, might be regarded as the quintessential prototype for the bioclimatic climate-responsive building. The builtform greatly influenced his later work on designing bioclimatic skyscrapers.

Yeang turned his attention to applying these bioclimatic and passive-mode principles to high-rise design, and built several climate-responsive experimental towers from the mid 70's to the late 90's (see Plaza Atrium with the giant wind-scoop, Menara Boustead with planted corner sky-terraces, Plaza IBM with the continuous stepped planting system, Central Plaza with its solar oriented facade).

His signature Mesiniaga Tower (for the IBM franchise) is regarded as his most didactic bioclimatic tower, designed as a prototype climate-responsive tower culminating in one single building all his earlier experimental ideas from his previous towers projects - the use of the elevator core as a buffer to the tower's hot side, placement of toilets and stairwells with natural ventilation opportunities (low energy), use of solar-path guided sun-shade design (climate-responsive facade design), use of vegetated and stepped sky-terraces (as interstitial spaces). The building received numerous awards including the Aga Khan Award (1993) including a citation from the AIA.

Yeang is credited as the inventor of the 'bioclimatic skyscraper' as a genre of the tall building type, largely the result of these high-rise esperiments and his book, The Skyscraper: Bioclimatically Considered (1997, John Wiley & Sons). University of Washington's Professor Udo Kulterman states, “..Professor Ken Yeang is internationally renowned as the 'father' of the sustainable bioclimatic building..". Yeang further applied the results from these early experimental bioclimatic high-rise work to other low and medium-rise building typologies, and in a variety of climatic zones.

Developing a 'Vertical Theory of Urban Design'

Yeang started to rethink the high-rise typology as vertical urbanism that sought to reinvent the skyscraper as 'vertical urban design'. These ideas are presented in his book, Reinventing the Skyscraper: A Vertical Theory of Urban Design (John Wiley & Sons, 2002), authored as a sequel to his earlier, The Skyscraper: Bioclimatically Considered (John Wiley & Sons. 1997).

These ideas inverted the high-rise typology as a 'city-in-the-sky' that he first exemplified in his landmark project in Singapore, the 120m-high National Library Singapore (2005), featuring 'public realms-in-the sky' as two large 40m-high verdantly landscaped 'skycourt gardens', an open-to-the-sky public plaza at the ground plane (for cultural and festival activities) that also serves as an evaporative cooling device to the lower parts of the building, multiple sky-bridges at all upper floors linking the two blocks (the library collections block and the programming activities block) within a naturally-ventilated atrium, a louvered canopy over the roof as its 'fifth facade', two multi-volume reading rooms, an uppermost viewing pod. The building's built form is organically-shaped as part of Yeang's exploratory endeavor to derive an ecological aesthetic. Well detailed but not elaborately articulated, the building is BCA rated Green Mark Platinum.

Yeang's idea for a 'vertical linear park' as a park-in-the-sky is adopted in his Solaris Building (2011) at 1-North Singapore that is a milestone in his progressing the green agenda to design buildings as 'constructed living systems' (see his 'biodiversity targets matrix' in the GyeonGi Masterplan, Seoul, Korea). The building has an innovative ecologically-linked ramp and walkway that is 1.3 km long as a 'vertical linear park' that opens out into sky-terraces at the corners, linking with the mid-level and the uppermost roof gardens. His ideas for this vertical linear park and for vertical urbanism were first explored in his unbuilt EDITT Tower (Waterloo Road, Singapore). The project has an 'ecocell' (a green integrative device developed from his masterplan for Kowloon Waterfront, Hong Kong), 'rain-check' glazed walls at the side-walls of the non-airconditoned ground floor, automated-operable glass-louvres over the central atrium to naturally ventilate the atrium and the ground floor.

The Solaris' vertical linear park idea led to his developing the concept of the 'green ecoinfrastructure' that enables a vital ecological nexus between the builtform and landscape, that became a crucial biodiversity component in all his subsequent masterplanning and ecocity design work (SOMA Masterplan, Bangalore, India) and in his architecture (Spire Edge Tower, Gurgaon, India, completion 2012). The concepts led to his developing a platform for ecomasterplanning that is the 'weaving of four ecoinfrastructures into a unified system' (see below).

Yeang worked on the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Extension (London, UK) (2011) as a hyper green healthcare facility. The building has a corner mixed-mode flue-wall (providing natural ventilation during the mid-seasons to the Walt Disney operated ground floor cafe), a sedum planted roof, various low energy building systems (CHP, etc.), green materials, etc. The building is BREEAM (Building Research Establishment, UK) rated 'excellent'.

Theoretical basis of work and impact on architecture

The key significance and impact of Yeang's work on architecture is his revision of architectural design no longer as simply designing synthetic inanimate objects, but now as one of designing the built environment as 'constructed living systems', that are also experiential and pleasurable spaces for users. Yeang applied this concept for ecodesigning to all his work, advancing through on-going experimentation and further developing this idea of architecture as built habitats.

He recognized 40 years ago that environmental devastation and increasing contamination of the natural environment would adversely affect the planet's natural balance, ecosystem biodiversity and biospheric processes (global warming and climate change). This spurred him to undertake a doctorate in ecological design at Cambridge University in the early 70's.

Yeang's most important and instructive contribution to ecological design is his advancement of the macro ecology-based landuse planning approach of one of his mentors, the landscape architect Professor Ian McHarg (University of Pennsylvania) beyond large-scale ecological design at the urban planning scale, and extending these to architecture, at the building scale, which McHarg as a landscape architect was unable to achieve.

Continuing to carry out an in-house programme of research matched with his experimental actual built works undertaken over several decades, enabled Yeang to acquire an international reputation as a pioneer, advocate, writer and innovator in authentic ecological design. By the mid 1990’s both private and public sector clients worldwide, many dissatisfied with conventional accreditation systems (LEED, BREEAM, etc.) and ecoengineerimg-based designers, sought him for their signature (iconic) architectural ecodesigned projects, ecomasterplans and ecocity designs.

Yeang's design work is characterised as ideas-driven with each project usually expounding one or more of his newly invented eco system idea or novel devices (such as the eco land-bridge and the eco-undercroft (in the Guangzhou masterplan, China), the 'ecocell' (in the Kowloon Waterfront Masterplan, Hong Kong), the 'Green Ecoinfrastructure' (in the SOMA Masterplan, DiGi Data Centre, Spire Edge Tower), the 'Vertical Linear Park' (in Solaris) and others.

His recent work investigates 'ecomimicry' as designing the human built environment as constructed ecosystems that mimic the processes, structure and attributes of ecosystems, such as ecosystem's biological structure, materials recycling, increasing efficient energy use, etc. ‘Ecomimicry’ is a term he is held to have invented, adapted from ‘biomimicry’. This is physical, structural and systemic mimicry, and not to be mistaken with a simplistic 'visual' mimicry which he regards as superficial. This work is developed from his earlier research (in his Cambridge doctoral dissertation, 1974) on the use of biological analogies in design, or 'bionics' (see his paper in Architectral Association Quarterly (AAQ) 1972).

A fundamental to Yeang's design work is the maintenance of ecological nexus. All of Yeang’s architecture and ecomasterplans seek an internal and external continuous link and ecological connectivity within each built form that is further tied to the landscape and where possible, to the landscape's hinterland, seeking a benign biointegration between human activities and its built systems with the surrounding ecosystems in the landscape (e.g. in the Zorlu Masterplan, Istanbul, Turkey). He draws a systemic analogy here in designing for biointegration of our synthetic constructed systems with their host organism, with 'prosthesis' in surgery. He identifies three levels of biointegration: physical, systemic, temporal.

Current environmental concerns have produced a generation of architects and engineers who approach “green” design and construction through ecoengineering or simply through compliance to green accreditation systems. To Yeang, these practices while relevant and can be progressive, do not constitute authentic “green” design nor are environmentally comprehensive.

Yeang states, “..it is easy to be misled or seduced by technology and to think that if we assemble enough eco-gadgetry (e.g. in the form of solar collectors, photovoltaic cells, biological recycling systems, building-automation systems and double-skin facades, etc.) in one single building that this can automatically be considered ecological architecture..". Yeang contends that although these technologies are commendable ecoengineering systems, they are merely useful components leading towards an ecological architecture as some of the means for achieving an ecological outcome. Yeang's asserts that ecological design is not just about cleantech or ecoengineering or carbon neutral systems; but that to be fully effective and inclusive these ecotechnologies must be integrated with and influenced by the ecology, climate and physical conditions of the site.

Yeang sees our existent built environment as having alienated humans from nature. He defines ecodesign as 'achieving a benign and seamless biointegration of the built environment and human activities with the natural environment', He sees this biointegration to include enhancing biodiversity, repairing human-caused fragmented ecosystems, enhancing ecological nexus (through devices such as eco land bridges, eco-undercrofts, vertical green walls and landscaping), using ecocells, using constructed wetlands, creating ecological corridors and fingers (which reach out in an ecological nexus to the landscape and the hinterland and upwards within built systems), minimising disruptions with adjoining ecosystems, maintaining sensitive ecobalance, enhancing urban greenery, reducing or having zero dependency on non-renewable sources of energy, designing for water conservation, management and sustainable drainage systems, using green building materials that are recyclable, reusable and re-integratable into the environment, and others. His recent advances (see below) include designing built systems as 'living systems', through creating constructed habitats (in Gyeongi Masterplan, Seoil, Korea)

Many mistake Yeang’s work as simply putting vegetation in buildings or as just creating an ecological nexus within his builtforms to enhance local biodiversity, but Yeang’s work does much more than just that. What is unique is that his buildings and masterplans are designed as total 'living sysytems' as constructed ecosystems with the creation of new habitats within and around the development, involving the matching of selected native species with these constructed habitats, setting their ‘biodiversity targets’, and then providing physical conditions within these habitats to enable their survival over the four seasons of the year. By achieving this, his built work become more than just ‘vertically-landscaped architecture’ but are in effect constructed ‘living systems’ (See pages 252-253 in Hart, Sara (2011), 'Ecoarchitecture – The Work of Ken Yeang', publ. John Wiley & Sons, UK), and advance beyond being just buildings with planting as in work of those who imitate his work.

One of his key contribution to the field of ecological masterplanning is his development of a 'platform' for designing ecocities. The approach involves the establishing by design, a total living system that is both interactive and functional through the biointegration of 'four ecoinfrastructural armatures' into an overall coherent system: 1) the 'green infrastructure' (which he describes as 'nature's utilities') which includes nature’s corridors and networks that link existent and new open spaces and the various habitats for fauna and flora, natural resource management and integrated urban food production systems, 2) the 'grey infrastructure' which includes ecoengineering and cleantech systems such as sustainable energy systems, transportation/movement systems, sewage systems, materials recycling systems (including ‘designing for disassembly’ construction), built enclosural systems, hardscapes and other green engineering utilities; 3) the 'blue infrastructure' which encompasses hydrological management, 'closing the water cycle', water conservation, grey water reuse. rainwater harvesting, sustainable drainage, bioswales, filtration strips, black water treatment, detention ponds as storm water management; 4) the 'red infrastructure' being our human societies which includes creating new sustainable ways of life, providing new food production and distribution systems, human laws and legislative systems, revisioning existent socio-economic, industrial and political systems into sustainable systems. This novel approach to ecocity design and ecomasterplanning provides an indeterminate general framework that enables an inclusivity of constantly changing complex factors with a flexibility that allows for obsolescence while encouraging innovation (See page 18 in Hart, Sara (2011), Ecoarchitecture – The Work of Ken Yeang, Publ. John Wiley & Sons, UK; and Yeang, K. (2009), Ecomasterplanning, Publ. John Wiley & Sons, UK).

Few designers are theoreticians, and few theoreticians are designers. Yeang is uniquely both. It is his theoretical rigorousness that firmly underpins his architecture and planning work and which gives critical substance and a legitimacy that anchors his work, absent in that of others. Yeang's work on the theory of ecodesign and its advancement is then another area where Yeang has significantly contributed to this field of endeavor. In his Cambridge doctoral dissertation, Yeang presented a unifying comprehensive theoretical model for ecodesign, defining its key factors as sets of interrelated 'environmental interactions', described in the form of a mathematical partitioned-matrix of four sets of interdependent environmental interactions that became the guiding framework for all his subsequent work.

Architecture, the built environment: contributions and impact

Yeang’s single minded pursuit of ecodesign and ecomasterplanning and their aesthetics for close to four decades have influenced countless architects and professionals whose work impinges on the environment not just in the way they approach design, planning and the natural environment but aesthetically (greatly encouraged by his former PhD Supervisor at Cambridge University, Professor John Frazer) – in what a green building and masterplan should look like?

What is particularly motivating in Yeang's work is his original eco aesthetic, as an aspect of ecodesign that is close to Yeang’s heart. Yeangs contends that an ecological architecture should look natural and green, in making nature and its processes visible in the biointegration of the synthetic physical components of building with the organic constructed habitats. Much of those existent architecture and masterplans that lay claim to be green are simply commonly-styled or iconically-styled builtforms stuffed internally with ecoengineering gadgetry. Yeang contends that an ecoarhitecture and an ecocity should look 'alive' like a living system, not 'de-natured', nor look predominantly inorganic, artificial and synthetic. Yeang asserts that ecoarchitecture and ecomasterplans demand their own 'style'. It is often Yeang's ecoaesthetic that brought considerable international attention to Yeang's work and to his selection as their architect of choice.

This work being his relentless pursuit of an original biointegrated 'ecological aesthetic' may be Yeang’s other significant contribution to this field.

Because ecodesign in the 1970s did not have the benefit of prior research or theoretical models and frameworks, Yeang early years involved doing empirical research, experimental design, and investigative studies of ecological processes that he could replicate or mimic in his humanmade structures. His early research work is found in several of his key books including, Designing with Nature (1995, McGraw-Hill) (see above), The Skyscraper, Bioclimatically Considered: A Design Primer (1997, John Wiley & Sons)), The Green Skyscraper: The Basis for Designing Sustainable Intensive Buildings (1999, Prestel), Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design (2006, John Wiley & Sons), Eco-Masterplanning (2009, John Wiley & Sons), Eco Design Dictionary (an Illustrated Reference with co-author Lillian Woo (2009, Taylor and Francis)). He is currently researching a monograph, Ecomimesis: Bases for Designing the Built Environment, based on mimicking the ecological properties and attributes of ecosystems (Taylor and Francis).

Few architects design, build, teach, research and write – Yeang’s does all these prolifically and these in aggregate lends further credibility to his work.

There have also been several monographs authored by others on Yeang’s work since 1989 (Robert Powell, Leon van Schaik, Ivor Richards and others). The most recent is, Ecoarchitecture – The Work of Ken Yeang, authored by Sara Hart (2011, John Wiley & Sons).

Yeang has lectured extensively in over 30 countries at conferences and schools of architecture to proselytise his ideas. He is the Distinguished Plym Professor (University of Illinois at Champaign, Urbana), and has been the Professor of Practice (Texas A & M University); the Graham Willis Professor (University of Sheffield), the Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Scholar (University of Southern California); Advisory Professor (Tongji University, Shanghai), Honorary Professor (University of Hong Kong) and Adjunct Professor (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of Hawaii, University of New South Wales, Curtin University, University of Malaya, Deakin University); and Visiting Eminent Scholar (Florida Atlantic University).

He has taught senior students at design workshops at the University of Hong Kong (China); University of Nebraska; Louisiana State University; University of Illinois, Florida Atlantic University, (USA); University of Cardiff (Wales); University of Sheffield (UK); University of Newcastle (UK), Deakin University; Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of New South Wales (Australia), NUS (Singapore0 and Inha University (Korea).

Architectural design: aesthetics, awards, key projects

Ken Yeang has created outstanding designs throughout his 40 plus years professional career and continues to develop his original and fresh approach to the forms and systems of his buildings while pursuing theoretical and technical advancements and the ecological architectural style for ecodesign – as a new “green” aesthetic.

His new ecoaesthetic does not have the shape or form that in any way resembles existent architectural styles. His aesthetic might be regarded as an independent style that encompasses ecodesign holistically that is derived from an understanding and inclusion of ecological systems and processes. This is an emergent authentic ecological aesthetic whose shapes and forms combine and incorporate built features that have a nexus with adjoining ecosystems, that harmonise with the site’s ecology, enhance local biodiversity, minimize polluting emissions and other negative consequences, and are more energy and water efficient and carbon neutral than conventional buildings. Yeang demonstrates that ecodesigned architecture and ecomasterplans can have a green aesthetic of their own. Lord Norman Foster of Thames Bank states, '.. Ken Yeang has developed a distinctive architectural vocabulary that extends beyond questions of style to confront issue of sustainability and how we can build in harmony of the natural world..' (2011).

Yeang’s recent projects exemplify the maturing of his design work with a growing complexity and confidence in creating an ecoarchitecture with an evident luxuriant greening that defines and becomes his own identifiable architectural style. With the high level of verdant landscape in his builtforms, whether externally (or internally within the builtform in his projects in temperate and cold climates), his ecoaesthetic is sometimes described by his colleagues as 'indeterminate', 'hairy', 'constructed habitats'. 'vertical landscaping'.

Yeang's design and built work have been internationally recognised by the many awards received since 1989 (over 40) that include the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (for the Menara Mesiniaga, an IBM franchise), the Prince Claus Award (Netherlands), the UIA (International Union of Architects) August Perret Award, the Malaysian Institute of Architects Gold Medal (2011) and its design awards, the WACA (World Association of Chinese Architects) Gold Medals (for the Solaris Building, 2011 and for the National Library Singapore), the Government of Malaysia’s ‘Danjah Mulia Pangkuan Negen (DMPN) award that carries the official title of ‘Dato’ (2003, generally regarded as the Malaysian equivalent of the UK’s OBE), the Holcim Regional Award for Sustainability (Switzerland) (for the Putrajaya Phase 2C5 building, Malaysia, 2011), the Merdeka Award (for the 'environment' category, 2011), an award regarded by the Malaysian government as its national equivalent of the Nobel prize.

Menara Mesiniaga in Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Yeang has completed over 200 projects since 1975. His benchmark buildings, projects and their innovations include:

• The Roof Roof House - Selangor, Malaysia (1985) – his own experimental climate-responsive house that rethought bioclimatic passive-mode low-energy building design.

• Menara Mesiniaga Tower - Selangor, Malaysia (1992) - a climate-responsive tower that exemplifies Yeang’s key principles for 'bioclimatic skyscraper' design, which received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the RAIA (Royal Australian Institute of Architects) International Award, the Malaysian institute of Architects Design Award.

• Kowloon Waterfront Masterplan - Hong Kong (c. 1998) - a green masterplan where Yeang developed the green ecoinfrastructure concept and the novel use of 'ecocells'.

• National Library - Singapore (2005) - a green library tower (120m) with large sky courts (40m high) that received the BCA Green Mark Platinum Award 2005, and the Singapore Institute of Architects Award.

• SOMA Masterplan - Bangalore, India (2006) - a signature ecomasterplan that espouses his innovative idea for ecocity masterplanning as the integration of four ecoinfrastructures, with the use of ecobrdges and ecoiundercrofts to enable ecological nexus.

• DiGi Technical Office - Shah Alam, Malaysia (2010) - that advances the idea of a 'living' ecowall as a nexus of greenery linking all the facades, that received the Malaysian Institute of Architects Design Award (Commendation, 2010) and Green Building Index Gold rating.

• Solaris - 1-north, Singapore (2010) - that has the innovative 1.5 km long 'Vertical Linear Park' that wraps itself around the tower’s facade enhancing the site's biodiversity, which received the SIngapore Institute of Architects Award (Commendation, 2011), the Malaysian institute of Architects Gold Award 2011, the WACA (World Association of Chinese Architects) Gold Medal 2011 and BCA Green Mark Platinum rating.

• Spire Edge Tower – (Gurgaon, Haryana, India), under construction with anticipated completion 2012, a signature tower that espouses the idea of a vertical green ecoinfeastructure, and rated LEED Platinum.

• Ganendra Art House - Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (2011) - Art Gallery with accommodation for live-in artist has an experimental 'down-draft' ventilating flue for enhancing comfort cooling, which received the Malaysian Institute of Architects Design Award (Commendation) 2010.

• The Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital Extension (2011) – London, UK, green hospital rated BREEAM 'excellent'.

Exhibitions and Media

Yeang has exhibited his ecodesign work in galleries and museums internationally since 1985: from Tokyo (Ginza Pocket Park, Tokyo Designer's Space at Axis Building, Roppongi) and Nara in Japan, Berlin (Aedes) Germany, New York (MOMA) and Washington DC (Building Museum) USA, London (Building Centre) UK, Rotterdam (NAI) Netherlands, dating from 1985 to present date. The German Government's IFA will exhibit Yeang's work together with Landscape Architect Seksan at the IFA Gallery in Stuttgart, opening 18 October 2012.

Yeang and his ecodesigns have been featured in a number of special broadcasts, including BBC (UK) television and radio, NHK (Japan), Asia Discovery Channel (Asia), PBS (USA) ‘design=e2’ (in which the actor Brad Pitt refers to Yeang's work, '...wind, rain and the sun, in the minds of most architects, they are the enemies.. but what if buildings can utilise and respond to the conditions of the environment? What if that urban environment becomes a living, breathing organism? To Ken Yeang it is..'). Some of these can be viewed in YouTube.

Corporate and Business

A not commonly known fact that may explain Yeang's success as a professional architect and his ability to maintain a pole position as an innovative leading ecodesigner is his business acumen acquired from his attendance in his early years of courses in business management at the Malaysian Institute of Management and the Singapore Institute of Management, and a short course at Harvard Business School. Upon his mother's untimely demise in 2002, she made him in her will the Trustee and CEO of the family's property holding, investment and development company, The Yeangs Sdn. Bhd., which he continues to successfully run and grow in tandem with his architect firm. Yeang had also served as a Board member of the MBf Unit Trust and the PAM Education Fund. His CPD lectures on 'business strategies' at the Malaysian Institute of Architects and SIngapore Institute of Architects are popularly attended.

Chronology of key completed projects

• Plaza Atrium, Kuala Lumpur, 1981
• Roof-Roof house, Kuala Lumpur 1985
• Menara Boustead, Kuala_Lumpur, 1986
• Menara Mesiniaga Subang Jaya, Malaysia Selangor, Malaysia 1992
• MBF Tower, Penang, Malaysia1993
• TTDi The Plaza and Residence, Kuala Lumpur, 1996
• UMNO Tower, Penang, 1998
• Mutiara Mesiniaga Penang, Penang, 2003
• Mewah Oils Headquarters, Malaysia 2005
• National Library of Singapore, Singapore 2005
• Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (Main campus, Cyberjaya), Malaysia 2006
• TA2 Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2005
• DIGI Technical Office, Shah Alam, Malaysia 2010
• Solaris, Singapore 2010
• Ganendra Art House 2010

Current projects under construction

• Spire Edge, Gurgaon, Delhi, India (Completion 2012)
• Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Extension, London (Completion 2012)
• Fu Gong Shan Monastery, Johore Baru, Malaysia (Completion 2013)

• Calvary Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Completion 2012)

Other projects

• Putrajaya office and retall complex Phase 2C5, Putrajaya, Malaysia
• Tokyo-Nara Tower, Tokyo, Japan, 1994
• Editt Tower, Singapore, a signature tower with a ramped greenery system
• Elephant and Castle EcoTower, London
• Al-Asima, Kuwait
• CAAG Tower, London
• Enterprise Building 4, Cyberjaya, Malaysia
• Jabal Omar Towers, Mecca, Saudi Arabia
• Dubai Towers, UAE
• Beijing Mega Hall North
• Taipei Capital Plaza
• Chongging Tower, China
• Vancouver Waterfront, Canada
• Premier City, Almaty, Kazakhstan
• LGT Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

External links

• Online version of Yeang's book "Bioclimatic Skyscrapers"
• Website of Llewelyn Davies Yeang
• Website of T. R. Hamzah & Yeang Sdn. Bhd.
• Biography and interview with Ken Yeang, and an image gallery of his work. CNN, July 2007
• A description of varied green techniques used in varied projects
• Asia Design Forum question and answer session
• Various Yeang Publications on ArchNet
• Interview with Ken Yeang 2009(Video)
• 2009 Green Source Magazine Article on Solaris, Singapore