WOHA’s Futurists

 

Wong Mun Summ

Prof. Wong Mun Summ is the WO in WOHA, and cofounded the studio in 1994 with Prof. Richard Hassell and has been a key developer of this field of regenerative urbanism over 3 decades.

He is a Professor in Practice at the National University of Singapore, his alma mater. Mun Summ has lectured at many universities worldwide including the GSD at Harvard, UCLA, Chinese University of Hong Kong, National University of Singapore, Taiwan’s Feng Chia University, Bangladesh’s BRAC University and Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. He has given keynote speeches at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat international conferences, and regional national institutes’ architect’s conferences such as Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and India.

Prof. Wong has sat on numerous public sector boards and advisory panels, including the National Environment Agency, National Heritage Board, DesignSingapore Council Advisory Board, Board of Architect’s Design Panel, Singapore Land Authority, Land Transport Authority, and various design panels for the Urban Redevelopment Authority and Housing and Development Board.

Professor Wong has been a jurist for the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize and speaker at the World City Summit.

Professor Wong has led a masterclass at the National University of Singapore on a unique programme, the Masters in Integrated Sustainable Design directed by Professor Nirmal Kishnani. This cross disciplinary studio has used the design-based, systems approach to regenerative urbanism used by WOHA and expanded the participants to economists, planners, engineers and other allied professionals. WOHA Futures’ team includes alumni from this prestigious and innovative post-graduate degree.

 

Richard Hassell

Prof. Richard Hassell is the HA in WOHA, and cofounded the studio in 1994 with Prof. Wong Mun Summ. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia, and has previously been adjunct professor with the University of Hawaii Manoa and UTS in Sydney. Richard has lectured at many universities worldwide including the GSD at Havard, UCLA, University of Hong Kong, University of Sydney, Melbourne University, and National University of Singapore. Prof. Hassell has sat on numerous public sector boards and advisory panels, including the Building Construction Authority of Singapore, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the Land Transport Authority, and the Design Singapore Council.

Richard Hassell has long been interested in sustainability, due to his father Dr. Cleve Hassell’s involvement with the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERIWA) of Western Australia in the 1970s and 1980s. Dr. Hassell converted his Perth office’s airconditioning to a remarkable custom solar powered airconditioning system in 1979, using parabolic tracking solar collectors on the roof.

Prof. Hassell studied architecture under environmental scientist Dr. Derek Carruthers in the 1980s, and used some of the first software to track shading and thermal performance during this time, which were used to develop high performing passive designs. Fellow classmate Andrew Marsh went on to develop performance simulation software EcoTect which was acquired by Autodesk.

Since co-founding WOHA, Richard Hassell has been instrumental in developing the big-picture regenerative and systems-thinking focus of WOHA.

Schirin Taraz-Breinholdt

Schirin Taraz is a director of WOHA, and the COO since 2017. She has been with WOHA for over 17 years. Schirin studied architecture at RWTH Aachen and ETH Zurich and worked as editor of leading German magazine Arc+ before joining WOHA.

Schirin was a co-studio leader with Richard Hassell on WOHA’s Singapore 2050 vision in 2005, and has continued to build future-city expertise through her involvement with new masterplans such as the Punggol Digital District in Singapore. Schirin has a wide network of consultants in the smart city and sustainable city field, through her assemblage of multi-disciplinary teams for international city masterplan competitions.

 Schirin is an experienced trilingual communicator, and has been interviewed on the work of WOHA for major documentaries in both English and German. She has been a guest critic at the NUS Masters in Integrated Sustainable Design, as well as external examiner for other courses in the school.

Schirin has prepared major exhibition and congress contributions for WOHA that have been exhibited in Singapore, Germany, USA, Mexico, Italy and Taiwan.

 

WOHA Futures’ Network of Experts

WOHA Futures have built a community of collaborators in academia, research and practice. WOHA Futures assembles a team from these experts depending on the specific requirements of the consultancy. Some of the key personnel are:

 
 

  • Nirmal Kishnani

    For more than twenty years, Dr Nirmal Kishnani has been at the frontlines of sustainability, advising on projects and policies in Asia, formulating new platforms and scrutinising the space between front-line theory and design practice.

    His involvement in projects includes ground-breaking works such as Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and SDE4, the net zero energy building at NUS. His books Greening Asia: Emerging Principles for Sustainable Architecture (2012) and Ecopuncture: Transforming Architecture and Urbanism in Asia (2019) argue for methods and frameworks, linked to principles of regenerative design.

    Dr Kishnani has collaborated with WOHA over many years and in different roles. Most recent has been the close working relationship on the Masters of Integrated Sustainable Design at NUS.

    Presently, Dr Kishnani is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s College of Design and Engineering where he teaches sustainable design practice.

  • Sarah Ichioka

    Sarah Mineko Ichioka is a strategist, urbanist, curator and writer. She is Founding Director of Desire Lines, a consultancy for environmental, cultural, and social-impact organizations and initiatives.

    In previous roles, she has explored the intersections of cities, society and ecology within leading international institutions of culture, policy and research.

    She is co-author of Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency (2021) with Michael Pawlyn. Ichioka has been recognized as a World Cities Summit Young Leader, one of the Global Public Interest Design 100, and a British Council / Clore Duffield Cultural Leadership International Fellow. She holds degrees from Yale and the LSE.

    Sarah has had a long relationship with WOHA through professional seminars as well as stimulating discussions on art, philosophy and the future of humankind.

  • Anuj Jain

    Dr. Anuj Jain founded bioSEA with an aim to make our built environment good for people, species and the climate. As an ecologist and a trained biomimic , he works at the intersection of architectural design, landscape architecture and wildlife conservation.

    Anuj is active in the conservation world as a National Geographic Explorer, preventing extinctions coordinator at BirdLife International and core member of Nature Society (Singapore). He is also the co-founder of the Biomimicry Singapore Network and lectures at the National University of Singapore.

    bioSEA is an ecology and biomimicry design consultancy that specializes in ecological placemaking, conducting biodiversity surveys and ecosystem service assessments across all scales from buildings to urban. It promotes the adoption of biomimicry in the built environment.

    Anuj has worked with WOHA for many years as a consultant on both design and post-occupancy evaluations of WOHA’s projects, as well as guest critic at the Masters of Integrated Sustainable Design. Through his work with WOHA, Anuj has been developing new methodologies for evaluating and communicating environmental performance and ecosystem services for development projects.

  • Swinal Samant

    Swinal Samant is an architect, educator and researcher with a diverse global experience in the UK, India and Singapore. She was previously the Co-Programme Director of the Masters in Integrated Sustainable Design at the National University of Singapore with Dr Nirmal Kishnani, and taught alongside Prof. Wong Mun Summ for many years.

    Swinal is a researcher of international standing in the field of Environmental Sustainability focusing at building and urban scales resulting in over 40 peer-reviewed publications, editorial refereeing and board memberships for numerous international journals and conferences, invited lectures, and research grants.

    Her recent research focusses on sustainable vertical urban spaces, such as atria, sky-courts, sky-gardens and sky-bridges and their interface with mobility systems. This research examines specific notable case studies in Singapore. Her collaborative research argues for new and hybrid building typologies, 3D planning, and networks that enable the flow of resources.

    This research in new forms of sustainable design at building, precinct and urban scales undertaken as part of the MSc ISD programme has culminated in a book co-authored with Dr Kishnani, entitled Form Intelligence.

  • Alakesh Dutta

    Alakesh is currently a Research Associate and studio tutor for the master’s programme in Integrated Sustainable Design at the College of Design and Engineering in NUS. His current research topic is regenerative & systems-based approach to architecture and urbanism.

    Alakesh has a master’s degree in Integrated Sustainable Design from NUS. He has extensive industry experience working in India, the US and Singapore for over 11 years.

    His past experiences include cutting-edge, innovative projects such as the NUS SDE4 Net-Zero Energy Building, the Vertical Fish Farm for Apollo Aquaculture Group, the Jurong Innovation District by JTC and the Connect@Changi facility Singapore Expo set-up in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Alakesh is specialising in urban agriculture and forestry in high density environments.