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Ken Yeang
Ken Yeang is an inventive and prolific architect working in the rapidly developing economy of south-east Asia. Underlying the buildings and projects of his office, T R Hamzah & Yeang Sdn Bhd, based in Kuala Lumpur, is a programme of cutting edge research, design and development, concerned with the bioclimatic design of tall buildings.
The nature of theory
The first questions to be asked are: what is a tall building and is there a theory for the design of the tall building? But an even more niggling question is, can there be architectural theory at all? For architectural theory can be perceived as an admirable endeavour to make architecture theoretical rather than a body of theory that is architectural (cf M Linder, 'Architectural Theory is No Discipline', in J Whiteman, J Kipnis, R Burdett (eds), Strategies in Architectural Thinking, MIT Press, 1992).
Being theoretical involves the architect borrowing the techniques and disciplines of the scientist or the philosopher. While this may be grand in describing a particular architect's oeuvre, or beneficial in propping up an architect's work or approach to design, it ignores the fact that architecture does not share many features with philosophy or science.
The practice of architecture
In practice, architectural design is a craft, and a variable one at that. Post modernism has successfully shown up the volatile nature of this craft by its unrestrained use of architectural symbolisms, its frivolous multiplication of the surface area of the built envelope, its prodigious use of unnecessary building materials, its indifference to engineering economy, its extravagant use of land, and its irrational subservience to whim and history instead of the allocation and restriction of excessive consumption of energy resources.
The energy equation
Looking at the global economy today, one has to be increasingly aware of energy as a scarce resource; the need for...