Singapore University of Technology and Design
The SUTD offers four key academic pillars: Architecture and Sustainable Design, Engineering Product Development, Engineering Systems and Design and Information Systems Technology and Design.
“The design for the SUTD consciously avoids over-articulation and instead focusses on infrastructural qualities, on connectivity and the creation of an open, transparent and light facility that responds to the requirements of the contemporary campus.”
Ben van Berkel
A seamless 24/7 network of education
We believe that interaction is the key to a progressive educational model. Within the SUTD campus, the faculties are distributed and overlapped through the four connecting blocks, amplifying moments of interaction between all disciplines.
The various programmes, such as classrooms, laboratories and meeting rooms, are connected both vertically and horizontally to promote interactivity. Both large and small communities can form as a result of the programme clusters, and the voids and staircases that link them.
Social spaces
The Campus Centre forms the intellectual heart of the campus. It directly links the main programmatic anchors of the Auditorium, the International Design Centre and the University Library. Creating such a distinct anchor programme activates a natural concentration of people throughout any given day.
Learning beyond the classroom: quiet niches offer moments of solitude and privacy
Sustainable Campus
The SUTD is a highly sustainable building that utilises specific design strategies to counteract the conditions of Singapore’s tropical climate. Based on orientation and wind studies, natural ventilation principles are applied alongside cooling techniques, covered walkways and louvred facade shading.
The overall design responds to the natural landscape of Singapore, both through colour application and the incorporation of facade planters, green roof terraces and sky gardens. Green pockets are planted with native trees and flowering plants.
“Verdant foliage integrates seamlessly with buildings whose facades are in most cases glazed. Plants are everywhere, from the handful of courtyards, both sunken and at ground level, to the unsheltered pockets that form open plazas on upper levels.”
Yeng Ping Chua, Mark Magazine, 2015
Work & Campus
How to design an inclusive campus of the future?
The requirements of learning institutions today are developing and changing at a fast pace. Connectivity, collaboration, co-creation, innovation and sociality are at the core of new, non-linear design approaches and bring together people, ideas and innovation. These concepts are central to both the working and learning environments of the future. Read about our ongoing explorations of this theme in the Work & Campus workfield.Work & Campus
The Work & Campus workfield examines affinities within new ways of working and learning, and how these may affect the office and campus models of the future. Our multidisciplinary teams investigate behavioural patterns and trends at the intersection of education and employment, including accelerated learning and production, emotional economy, distance learning services and examine how technology can be implemented in a balanced way. These tendencies are explored with a focus on their effect across scales – from the individual, to the group, to the community – with a view to developing relevant, impactful new design concepts that enhance working, learning and productivity.
Read moreSelected Projects
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Singapore University of Technology and Design
Singapore, 2010
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Columbia Business School
United States, 2009
Selected Articles
Concept and Design
- Connectivity
- Sustainable Learning
Connectivity
The campus is designed along two main axes for living and learning. They overlap both laterally and vertically to create a central hub while binding all corners of the campus. Additionally, the intersections between laboratories and classrooms create spaces for collaboration, connection and social engagement.
Sustainable Learning
An holistic approach to sustainable design was adopted to ensure that the passive building design and technologies resulted in a building that is 30% more energy efficient than a typical institutional building. The design for the SUTD campus achieved the highest Green Mark rating (Platinum) available in Singapore.
