Ken Yeang (born 6 October 1948) is a Malaysian architect, ecologist, planner and author, noted for his work in ecological architecture and eco-masterplanning. Since the early 1970s he has developed an approach to design grounded in ecology and environmental sustainability. In 2008, The Guardian included him in its list of "50 people who could save the planet".[1] Yeang’s architectural practice, Hamzah & Yeang, is based in Kuala Lumpur, with associated offices in London as Llewelyn Davies Ken Yeang Ltd. and in Beijing as the North Hamzah Yeang Architectural and Engineering Company.
He qualified in architecture from the AA (Architectural Association) School of Architecture (London) where he did freelance illustrations and graphic work for the AD, AAQ magazines and for the AA. His dissertation at Cambridge University, "A Theoretical Framework for Incorporating Ecological Considerations in the Design and Planning of the Built Environment" earned him a PhD, published as ‘Designing With Nature’ (McGraw-Hill, 1995)[3] and as 'Proyectar Con La Naturaleza’ (Gustavo Gili, SA, 1999). Academically, he holds the Distinguished Plym Professor chair (University of Illinois, USA, 2005). His honorary degrees include D.Litt.(Hon.) (Sheffield University, UK 2004), PhD (Hon.) (University of Malaya, 2013), D. Arch (Hon.) (Universidad Ricardo Palma, Peru 2016), D.Sc (Hon..) (Taylors University, Malaysia 2017).
Professional career
He is registered as an architect with ARB (Architects Registration Board) (UK, 1972), RIBA (Royal Institute of Architects) (UK), PAM (Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia), and Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA). He is a Fellow of the SIA, Fellow (Hon.) of the AIA (American institute of Architects), Fellow (Hon.) of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, and Fellow (Hon.) Wolfson College, Cambridge University.
Yeang interned at S.T.S. Leong (Singapore, 1969–70), worked at Louis de Soisson Partnership (1969), Akitek Bersekutu (Kuala Lumpur,1974) and joined fellow AA alumni, Tengku Datuk Robert Hamzah as T. R. Hamzah & Rakan-Rakan)[4] (1975) which became T. R . Hamzah & Yeang Sdn. Bhd. (1976). Yeang also served as Design Director and Chairman for Llewelyn Davies Ken Yeang (UK, 2005) until it was dissolved in 2012 .
Yeang has completed over 12 bioclimatic eco high-rise buildings, several thousand dwellings (terraced houses), over two million sq. ft. interior design space, numerous eco-master plans and eco-city designs.
His key built work include the Roof-Roof House (Malaysia), Menara Mesiniaga (IBM franchise) (Malaysia), National Library Singapore (Singapore), Solaris (with CPG Consult, Singapore), Spire Edge Tower (with Abraxas Architects, India), DiGi Data Centre (Malaysia), Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Extension (under Llewelyn Davies Yeang, UK), the Genome Research Building (Hong Kong with ALKF & Associates), Suasana Putrajaya (Putrajaya, 2017).
Work on Ecological Design
Yeang’s research has focused on ecological architecture and masterplanning, particularly on the integration of built structures with natural systems. His approach emphasizes bioclimatic design, climate-responsive, passive, and low-energy strategies, as part of a broader ecological framework. He has also explored how biodiversity can be incorporated into buildings through habitat creation and vegetation systems.
One of his early experimental projects was his own residence, the Roof-Roof House (1985) in Selangor, Malaysia, which included features such as a louvred roof canopy for solar shading, wind-directing walls, and a pool designed to assist with evaporative cooling. Elements from this house informed his later large-scale work.
The Mesiniaga Tower with its elevator core on the left side of the photograph
Yeang extended his principles to high-rise design, developing the concept of the “bioclimatic skyscraper.” The Mesiniaga Tower (1992), an office building for IBM in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, incorporated strategies such as a shaded façade, recessed terraces, a rooftop pool, and a vegetated exterior. The building received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1995 and other regional architectural awards.
In Singapore, Yeang’s Solaris building (2008) featured a continuous vegetated ramp forming a “vertical linear park,” integrating green spaces into the circulation of the tower. His later projects, such as Suasana Putrajaya (2017) and the National Library of Singapore (2005), further developed ideas of “vertical green urbanism,” including sky gardens, naturally ventilated atria, and green infrastructure networks. He has also applied these principles internationally in projects such as the SOMA Masterplan in Bangalore, India, and the Spire Edge Tower in Gurgaon, India.
Yeang’s theoretical work includes proposals for “eco-mimicry,” or designing buildings and cities as constructed ecosystems that reflect ecological processes and structures rather than imitating their appearance. His doctoral research at the University of Cambridge in the 1970s laid out a systemic model for eco-design, which continues to inform his later architectural and planning work.[5][6]
Recognition and awards
Hamzah & Yeang's design and built work have been recognised by the over 70 awards received since 1989 that include the:
Several Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) annual design awards
The WACA (World Association of Chinese Architects) Gold Medals (for the Solaris Building, 2011 and for the National Library Singapore)
The Holcim Regional Award for Sustainability (Switzerland) (for the Putrajaya Phase 2C5 building, Malaysia, 2011),
His personal awards include:
• Liangsicheng Prize (2017), Architectural Society China
• Greenseal Award (BCA, Singapore, 2016)
PAM (Malaysia Institute of Architects) Gold Medal
• UIA Auguste Perret Award
Government of Malaysia’s ‘Darjah Mulia Pangkuan Negeri (DMPN) Award (that carries the official title of ‘Dato’ (2003) generally regarded as the Malaysian equivalent of the UK’s OBE)
Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (USA)
Merdeka Award (for the 'environment' category, 2011) from the Government of Malaysia, regarded as its national equivalent of the Nobel prize.
5. Ecological Aesthetic.
Yeang pursuit of eco-architecture and eco-masterplanning theories, concepts and ideas have been carried out in parallel with an exploration for an 'ecological aesthetic', in questioning "...What a green building and masterplan should look like?"
Yeang contends that an ecological architectural aesthetic should resemble a living system, looking natural, verdant and hirsute with nature and its processes visible in the bio-integration of the synthetic builtform's physical constituents (abiotic) with the native fauna, flora (the biotic constituents) and the environmental biological processes of the land. He contends that much of existent architecture and masterplans that lay claim by other elsewhere to be sustainable are simply commonly-styled or iconically-styled builtforms stuffed internally with eco-engineering gadgetry and with occasional vegetation in its upper open courts. Yeang contends that an eco-architecture and an eco-city should be 'alive' as a living system, analogous to a constructed ecosystem and not 'de-natured' nor look predominantly inorganic, artificial and synthetic. He adopts these assertions as the basis for his eco-architecture.
Yeang contends that eco-architecture and eco-masterplans demand their own identifiable 'style'. It is this distinctive green vegetated eco-aesthetic in Yeang's architecture and masterplans that brought international attention to his work. His eco-aesthetic does not have the shape or form that in any way resemble existent architectural styles. This aesthetic is an independent aesthetic that encompasses eco-design holistically and which comes from an interpretation, an understanding and the inclusion of ecological constituents and processes of its locality in its built form. This can be regarded as an emergent ecological aesthetic, where its shapes and forms have a nexus with adjoining ecosystems, which harmonise with the site's ecology, enhance local biodiversity, besides having other eco performance features such denying negative consequences, avert polluting emissions, be more energy and water efficient and carbon neutral than conventional buildings, and other eco-design attributes. He sees the eco-architecture as designed like a 'constructed living system'. Lord Norman Foster of Thames Bank refers to Yeang's eco-aesthetics, "Ken Yeang has developed a distinctive architectural vocabulary that extends beyond questions of style to confront issues of sustainability and how we can build in harmony of the natural world." (2011). Yeang's work in his relentless pursuit of an original bio-integrated 'ecological aesthetic' can be regarded as Yeang's other contribution to this field.
Key Projects
Yeang has completed over 200 built projects since 1975. His benchmark buildings, projects and their innovations include:
The EDITT Tower (unbuilt) – Waterloo Road, Singapore – a 2ndn prize winner, EDITT competition.[7]
The project has been published in over 30 international publications for its hirsute extensively-vegetated ramp façade and aesthetic.
The Roof Roof House – Selangor, Malaysia (1985) – an experimental climate-responsive house that rethought bioclimatic passive-mode low-energy building design.
Menara Mesiniaga Tower – Selangor, Malaysia (1992) – a climate-responsive tower that exemplifies Yeang’s key principles for 'bioclimatic skyscraper' design, and received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the RAIA (Royal Australian Institute of Architects) International Award, the Malaysian institute of Architects Design Award.
Kowloon Waterfront Masterplan – Hong Kong (c. 1998) – a green masterplan where Yeang developed the green eco infrastructure concept and the novel use of 'eco cells'.
National Library – Singapore (2005) – a green library tower (120m) with large landscaped sky courts (40m high) that received the BCA Green Mark Platinum Award 2005, and the Singapore Institute of Architects Award.
SOMA Masterplan – Bangalore, India (2006) – a signature eco masterplan that espouses his innovative idea for eco city masterplanning as the integration of four eco infrastructures, with the use of eco bridges and eco undercrofts to enable an ecological nexus across the terrain.
DiGi Technical Office – Shah Alam, Malaysia (2010) – advances the idea of a 'living' eco wall as a nexus of greenery linking all the facades. It received the Malaysian Institute of Architects Design Award (Commendation, 2010) and Green Building Index Gold rating.
Solaris Tower – 1-north, Singapore (2010) [with CPG Consult]- with a 1.5km long 'Vertical Linear Park' vegetated ramp that wraps itself around the tower's façade, a diagonal light-shaft, automated glass-louvers roof over the atrium, rain-check walls at the ground floor, which received the Singapore Institute of Architects Award (2011), the Malaysian institute of Architects Gold Award 2011, the WACA (World Association of Chinese Architects) Gold Medal 2011 and BCA Green Mark Platinum rating.
Spire Edge Tower – (Gurgaon, Haryana, India), under construction with anticipated completion 2013, a signature tower that espouses the idea of a vertical green eco infrastructure, LEED Platinum rating.
Ganendra Art House – Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (2011) – Art Gallery with accommodation for live-in artist has an experimental 'down-draft' ventilating flue for enhancing comfort cooling, received the Malaysian Institute of Architects Design Award (Commendation) 2010, Green Building Index certification rating.
The Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Extension Phase 1 (2011) [with Llewelyn Davies Yeang] – London, UK, BREEAM 'excellent rating'
GyeongGi Development, Seoul, Korea (unbuilt) – habitat creation that exemplifies the use of a Biodiversity Matrix that makes the development into a total 'living system'..
↑ Rethinking the Skyscraper, Introduction: A European Upbringing, pp. 7–12 [verification needed]
↑ Rethinking the Skyscraper, Introduction: A European Upbringing, pp. 7–12 [verification needed]
↑ Rethinking the Skyscraper, Introduction: A European Upbringing, pp. 12–13 [verification needed]
↑ Ecoarchitecture – The Work of Ken Yeang, page 18; and Yeang, K. (Publ. John Wiley & Sons, UK, 2011), Ecomasterplanning, (Publ. John Wiley & Sons, UK, 2009) [verification needed]
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