CHAN SOO KHIAN

Architect (1962 - )
SCDA Architects Pte Ltd
Designer of the Year - President*s Design Award 2006

"Besides having an ability for problem solving, a great architect has to have passion; he has to have lived life, and has to have love for the arts. He has to be very singular in his vision." Soo K. Chan

Soo Khian has impressed the Jury with a wide repertoire of projects in Singapore and abroad. His design is driven by an interest in new ways of organizing space, resulting in the creation of distinctive forms. His work displays originality and skilful control over proportion, massing and the use of colour. The high level of ambition evident in his work is also complemented by his drive to experiment and constantly challenge accepted norms, yet within the framework of a consistent architectural language.
Soo Khian’s work challenges us to remain modern yet rooted in the Southeast Asian context. His design solutions have demonstrated an awareness of wider urban design considerations. He is an excellent role model.

Heeren Street Shophouse Project, Malacca, Malaysia, 2002

 
Andrew Road House, Singapore, 2002

It was around the age of 7 that Chan Soo Khian began to be aware of design. He had to choose a bike and he chose one on the basis of aesthetics. He then had the stickers removed and the tires changed.

Soo Khian was born and grew up in Penang, Malaysia. As his father was in the construction and building industry, the young Soon Khian would pay visits to construction sites. His early interest in model kits also hinted of his love for both design and for building things. At school, he displayed an affinity with the arts, being a member of the school art club, although he was in the Science stream.

Lincoln Modern, 20 Lincoln Road, Singapore, 2003

He studied architecture at Washington University and Yale University, acquiring his grounding in classical and modern classical design and cites architects like Otto Wagner, the late 19th century Austrian architect, who pioneered uses of new construction technologies and materials, Mies Van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn as his design heroes. It was at Washington University where he met Professor Leslie Laskey, Emeritus Professor of Architecture who greatly influenced him. “He taught me to be true to the materials I was working with and to design with an economy of means. Good design is a direct expression of its utilitarian nature.”

After more than 10 years away from Singapore, during which he worked with Kohn Pederson Fox in New York, he returned to Asia, trying to understand the Southeast Asian vernacular. The motivation then tended to be very regionalist, centering too frequently on Balinese or Thai-style architecture to typify what might be called a tropical style of architecture.

In 1995, he set up SCDA, a multi-disciplinary practice founded on the principle of combining the constraints of each site and climate with a strong overall concept to fulfil the needs of the client. “I would say my designs respond to climate and place, and strive for clarity, simplicity and integrity. I like to use materials in a clear and direct way. It is not style per se, but rather a consistent way of putting together a building.”

The Heeren Street Shophouse project in Malacca remains one of Soo Khian’s favourite projects. The existing façade of an old Malaccan shophouse was retained, despite its state of disrepair. In contrast, a new façade highlights a room beyond one of the existing walls. Intended as a space for contemplation, the design used modern structural methods to insert the four rooms between party walls. Solids were replaced by voids and vice versa to achieve dynamism between the old and the new that co-exist and comment on each other. “It is small, low budget and conceptual. The project allowed me to express an idea freely about the use of a found ruin. It has won several international merit awards including the award for the Architecture Review World Emerging Architecture Award.”

Mint Museum of Toys, 26 Seah Street, Singapore, 2006

At the other end of the spectrum is his design for Lincoln Modern, a 30-storey residential development in the heart of the city. Contemporary architectural lines rendered in glass and metal are complemented by natural materials like polished beech timber and honed limestone making it a distinctive landmark. This impressive project caught the attention of the Royal Institute of British Architects, who presented their Worldwide Award 2005 to SCDA. The recognition given to Soo Khian’s work by this award has placed Singapore on the global architectural design map. There have been only six other winners, which include such internationally renowned firms as Richard Rogers, Fosters & Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects and Alsop Architects.

Soo Khian says, “The artistic portion of a design is in the poetic response to a site or design brief. The challenge in today’s practice is to continue to be true to one’s design philosophy whilst adapting it to the cultural, climatic and aesthetic nuances of the place. There is a need for universality balanced by regional specificity.”

“Chan's talent has been to develop a distinctive interpretation of Modernism, emphasizing horizontality through dramatic oversailing eaves, exaggerated stone coursing, and hovering prismatic form in a series of built works that range from houses such as the Andrew Road house (2002) and Dalvey Estate House (2004), to the interlocking apartments of Lincoln Modern (2003).” observes Professor Philip Goad of the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning of the University of Melbourne, “Taken together, the qualities of SCDA's work - the material inclusions that denote wealth and luxury, the sachlich experiments in apartment type, and the poetic juxtaposition of the ultra-designed and the as-found - signal diverse new directions available to a concept of Neo-Tropicality”


Singapore High Commission, New Delhi, 2008

Today, despite a hectic schedule of working on projects as diverse as the Singapore High Commission (New Delhi), hotels in Dubai, India, Maldives and Vietnam, and masterplanning works in the Middle East, Soo Khian still finds time to travel, to visit new places for both leisure and work.

“Engaging the new environment, culture and people often inspire new creative directions. I draw my inspiration from reading, from art, from nature. Passionate and committed people motivate me, politics and bureaucracy do the opposite.”

“I think on the whole, it is getting easier to work in Singapore. There is a drive towards building a city of excellence and all the various government agencies are buying into that vision. The clients are more enlightened, too.”

When asked if he would encourage his sons to follow in his footsteps, he replies “If they are keen and develop in that direction, I would be most supportive; they need to be passionate about design and be willing to live architecture.” In the meantime, Soo Khian spends time preparing the architects of the next generation by lecturing part-time at the National University of Singapore since 1996 and was Visiting Professor at Syracuse University in Fall 1998.

Advice to emerging designers:
“Dream, read, travel, persevere and broaden horizons beyond Singapore.”

Biography + Selected Projects
1962 Born in Penang, Malaysia
1987 Obtained Master of Architecture degree at Yale University
1995 Founding Principal and design director of SCDA Architects Pte Ltd
1998 Visiting professor to Syracuse University
2002 World Emerging Architecture Award by British The Architectural Review's ar+d 2002 for Heeren House in Malacca
2003 Practice was one of the Design Vanguard firms selected by American Institute of Architects' Architectural Record
2005 Soo Chan was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects Worldwide Award for the Lincoln Modern
2005 Gold Award for the Miami+Beach Bienal 2005 International Competition for The Ladyhill, Singapore
2005/06 Practice awarded Gold Medal for the ARCASIA Awards for Architecture, Heeren Street Shophouse, Malacca
2006 Soo K. Chan was the winner for the inaugural President's Design Award, Singapore Designer of the Year
2006 Soo Chan was the recipient of the SIA-Getz Architecture Prize by the Singapore Institute of Architects for Emergent Architecture Asia
2008 Entry for the Singapore High Commission in New Delhi was shortlisted at the World Architecture Award in Barcelona

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