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“I started reading d+a when I was a student.” This is an enthusiastic refrain I often hear from the local architects I meet.
As we mark our 20th anniversary this year, I realised we have grown up with an entire generation of architects, serving as companions to them through their university days, those early years as young practitioners and later, ascension to senior positions or even the setup of their own firms.
Over the past two decades, we have featured their projects, supporting them in their contribution to Singapore’s built environment, while also subliminally giving definition to the country’s architecture. It is therefore apt that this become the focus of a feature, where we trace its evolution in the last 20 years.
Yet, even as we look back, we must look forward. We have singled out eight architects to keep our eyes on, making up the next generation who will shape Singapore’s buildscape. Visit our website for the extended versions of our interviews with them, progressively published from July till the end of the year.
While you are online, participate in the activities we have planned to celebrate this major milestone of ours. Have a spot of fun on social media throughout July by guessing the project on the respective d+a covers we have dusted off from our archives. We are also running a competition for architecture and design students to conceptualise a building for Singapore in the year 2041.
Turning back to Issue 120 (yes, we have also published 120 issues to date), read about the project featured on the cover, Dusit Thani Laguna Singapore, a hotel and clubhouse conceptualised by Mercurio Design Lab. This remarkable piece of architecture is distinctive for its swooping roof, which reflects the silhouette of the golf course it is sited by, giving it that all-important contextuality.
I must highlight too Gibert&Tan’s ECT Headquarters in Klang, Malaysia. We have identified how it is the latest in a slew of award-winning industrial architecture projects in the country that eschew boring and boxy for creativity and consideration.
I like to think it is our ability to spot trends like this (among other reasons) that keep you, our reader, loyal to us since your days as an architecture student. From my team and I, we would like to express our sincere gratitude for that and look forward to remaining lifelong friends with you.
