WOHA. Breathing Architecture

Some of their structures remind us of bold visions of the future, in which plants reclaim nature for themselves. WOHA architects from Singapore – Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell – realize the permeation of buildings and landscape, of interiors and exteriors in projects such as the Singapore School of the Arts and the seminal residential high-rise The Met in Bangkok, which received the International Highrise Award 2010.

Duxton Plain Public Housing, Competition, Singapore, 2001/02. Rendering by WOHA.

Topics such as creating value added through communal areas and permeability for climate and nature will be presented in WOHA’s first monographic exhibition using examples of open tropical family homes, green highrises and projects still in the completion phase. For instance the future Singapore’s office and hotel ensemble PARKROYAL ON PICKERING is supposed to “disappear and just to mirror the plants”.

Read less

PARKROYAL on Pickering, Singapore, 2012. Rendering by WOHA.

The exhibition at the DAM. Photograph by Uwe Dettmar.

View more images

Metalocus recommends

Almazara Acesur by Mollinedo Arquitectura. Photograph by Jesús Granada

An integrated and humanized landscape. Almazara Acesur by Mollinedo Arquitectura

Gimnasio de escalada Spluga por Enrico Scaramellini. Fotografía por Marcello Mariana

Prepare to climb. Spluga climbing gym by Enrico Scaramellini

KOI Building by Ortiz Leon Arquitectos. Photograph by David Frutos

A wavy glass skin. KOI Building by Ortiz Leon Arquitectos

More information

Wong Mun Summ, Richard Hassell. WOHA

WOHA is a multidisciplinary design firm led by directors Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell. Creative and technical staff are grouped in teams, that follow projects all the way through from concept to completion.

Wong Mun Summ was born in 1962, and graduated with Honours from the National University of Singapore in 1989. He is a member of the Singapore Institute of Architects, and served on the board of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) from 1999 to 2005. He has also served on the International Design Consultancy for the Waterfront at the Downtown at Marina Bay, and as a member of URA design advisory panels for such projects as the Singapore Sports Hub, the Marina Barrage, and the Integrated Resort at Marina Bay.

Richard Hassell was born in 1966, and graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1989. He was awarded a Master of Architecture degree from the RMIT University, Melbourne, in 2002. He is currently a board member of both the DesignSingapore Council and the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore, and has also served on committees for the URA, SIA and Board of Architects (BOA) in Singapore. He has lectured at universities in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, the USA, and the United Kingdom, and was an adjunct professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, from 2006 to 2009.

WOHA associates are Chan Ee Mun, Donovan Soon, Esther Soh, Francis Goh, Pearl Chee and Sim Choon Heok.