ARCHITECT’S CORNER Interview with Dr Liu Thai Ker
108 SEAB MAY-JUNE 2018
many religious sites we needed in each
new town. That is, how many for Chinese
temples, mosques, Hindu temples and
churches. We went to that extent after we
sorted out the needs for big components.
Q
What challenges do you see for
architects and urban planners in
the next few years?
A: For urban planners you must know
what it takes to put a city together; that
is: right thing, right size, right number,
right mix and right place; for architects,
what it takes to put a building together is
easier to understand and not as nebulous
as urban planning. But as the world
is changing and the stature of Asia is
rising rapidly, I believe it is increasingly
more important for us as architects to
design buildings with Asian identity. I
subscribe to three basic principles. One,
the building must be modern, using
modern technology, modern aesthetics
and so on. Two, it must be locality related
to geographical and social context such
as climate, lifestyle, customs and so on.
ADVERTISERS’ INDEX
ARCHIDEX 2018 2
ARCHXPO 2018 50
ARCHITECT THAILAND 2018 20
ASEAN M&E SHOW 2018 22
ASEAN SUSTAINABLE ENERGY WEEK 24
BMAM EXPO ASIA 2018 26
BONA 9
BUILD4ASIA 2018 30
BUILDTECH ASIA 2018 36
CAMBUILD 2018 38
CT-ART CREATION 7
DORMAKABA OBC
FENESTRATION BAU CHINA 2018 IFC
GEBT 2018 44
HUNTER DOUGLAS 1
LANKABUILD 2018 72
LAOBUILD 2018 74
MALAYSIAN TIMBER COUNCIL 13
MAPEI 5
MYANBUILD 2018 78
MYANMAR BUILD & DÉCOR 2018 82
PARK GAMES EQUIPMENT 11
PISCINE GLOBAL EUROPE 2018 17
PLAYPOINT 3
SAPA BUILDING SYSTEMS 15
THAILAND LIGHTING FAIR 2018 86
VICTAULIC 19
Three, it must be expressive of ethnic
culture. Even in Singapore, I often ask
myself, “When will Singapore step out
of its colonial mentality?” It hasn’t quite
yet. We are still ever ready to believe
that things from the west are presumed
good. For example, we often see in a
newly completed building architectural
design elements easily recognizable
from western architectural magazines.
That is neither good for us nor for visitors
from the West. When people from the
west come to Asia, they don’t want to
see another western building. They
want to see Asian buildings. They want
to see something that reflects locality
and culture.
If they are in Singapore, they would
appreciate seeing a kind of modern
tropical architecture incorporating all
the tropical expressions rather than one
copying the features from the western
temperate climate. In short, modernity,
locality and ethnicity are three factors
we must think of more consciously now
than ever before.
Q
What is your biggest goal now
and what do you want to be
remembered for?
A: I want to help my staff become highly
respected planners and architects in
the hope that they can make bigger
contributions to the world. To sum up my
philosophy, either in architecture design
or planning, it is: ‘form follows function
follows fun’. You create environment
that people enjoy – fun. Once you know
what functions you need to include
for people to enjoy, then you create
the form to incorporate the functions.
But unfortunately, a strong tendency
nowadays is for architects and planners to
subscribe to ‘form follows fashion follows
fame’. In order to become famous, you do
the fashionable things which determines
your form. Actually when you do that,
you may get short term fame, but sooner
or later when fashion changes, you are
forgotten. But if you do ‘form follows
function follows fun’, people may not
remember your name but will appreciate
your good works for a long time.