Last month, we concluded a year of thesis work with the NUS architecture students. I had the privilege of sitting in on the final reviews, alongside an inspiring panel of colleagues and external examiners. It was a moment filled with mixed feelings—but mostly pride.
I am grateful to Tan Teck Kiam for inviting me as a guest critic throughout the year, and especially for the chance to engage with the students even before their thesis began. I remember one June afternoon in 2024, sitting at Marina Square Starbucks, talking about the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of design research. Back then, the students were still finding their direction. Fast forward a year, and we saw work that had taken shape, gained clarity, and matured through the process.
I am equally thankful to my fellow panel members—Faiz bin Zohri, Eng Kiat (SJ), and Prof Joo Heng—for the learning I drew from your perspectives and worldviews. To the broader panel at the finals—Ivan, Sam Son, and the external examiners—thank you as well. Each discussion opened up questions not just about architecture, but about the crises and challenges facing humanity.
The studio worked with theme of incomplete urbanity, which the students were free to interpret in their own ways. The diversity of outcomes was striking:
- Jason offered a provocative vision of human-technology interdependencies, set against a backdrop of hyper-capitalism and consumerism. Drawing on Baudrillard’s ideas about reality and representation, his project asked what it means to live in a world increasingly mediated by images and simulations. Neo-Malthusian and neo-Cornucopian overtones made it both unsettling and exciting.
- Ziling imagined a future for Port Klang under the threat of rising sea levels, envisioning a new city and way of life emerging from coastal vulnerability.
- Zhe Wen challenged Western notions of time and space by turning to Chinese philosophies and architectural traditions. Her project, Manipuland, unfolded as a dark narrative—a bemusement park ending with a surreal ‘Judgement Day’ scene where visitors’ fates were sealed before being washed away. We joked that her landscape graphic would make a compelling carpet design.
- He Miao designed a contemplative ‘garden in the city’ within Marina Bay, critiquing urban obsessions with speed and efficiency. Her work, deeply personal, reflected her introverted character in both theme and expression.
Taken together, many of the projects leaned towards critical or even dystopian outlooks. They questioned the optimism that architecture often carries, choosing instead to grapple with uncertainty, climate threats, and the distortions of late capitalism. And perhaps that is what made the work so compelling—the honesty with which the students confronted the world they are inheriting.
As I reflect, I find myself grateful not just for the students’ courage, but for what I learnt through the process. Each project, each critique, and each conversation reminded me that architectural education is not only about design—but it is also about cultivating worldviews. Watching these young designers wrestle with the future has been humbling, and I look forward to seeing how their ideas will continue to grow.
