A complex and sophisticated building described by its authors as an exercise in functional character and simplicity. It never the less demands a long list of metaphors and superlatives to describe its exemplary sustainability, surface complexity and success as a local and national cultural magnet. The authors describe it as ‘a wilderness claimed by its inhabitants’ with the ‘geological innards of the mountain-like form’ housing a 1000 seat theatre. Here, the gelatinous luminosity of the ‘insect exoskeleton’ ceiling gives any show on stage a run for its money.

The ambitious program activates sport and dance halls, art and children’s galleries to dish out a feast of early childhood education, including the teaching of robotics. Given this programmatic extravaganza, there is still little chance that the architecture of the exterior will go unnoticed. The green roofed prismatic mountain mass intentionally and correctly speaks a different language to its surrounding forest of vertically extruded housing stalagmites.

In the same vein, the pixelated facades of the Youth Palace belong simultaneously to the genealogies of Dazzleships and Van Doesberg. These fields of light and colour are by night, an aestheticised oil refinery or a high-modernist’s Coney Island. This is an export of some import.

This is a textbook example of how to compose a school in the grand style – the style of Friedrich Froebel whose educational building blocks were Frank Lloyd Wright’s introduction to architecture.

Lego morphed with Snakes and Ladders; a fun place to be. Some of the windows can be opened, the architects tell us; beamlike walls are puncture-designed to keep out direct tropical sunlight and offer a lingering memory of cross-ventilation (once the be-all-and-end-all of tropical architecture).

Like a textbook functionalist diagram, beams of activities are stacked and colour coded – extra-curricular activities are purple, a sound lesson for the 2000 pupils’ later life. The shady and permeable spaces apart from their climatic appropriateness artfully fulfil the intention of offering a creative environment for learning and interactive pursuits.

We must now keep our eyes on the next generation in this part of the world; if these Froebel Blocks do their trick, they could well germinate an Indonesian variation of the Prairie School.

Asia Square brings conceptual and technical quality last seen in Singapore a generation ago to the new district of Marina Bay. The development is notable in its effort to overcome master-planned limitations in local circulation. A destination is created at level one, pulling the focus of city business away from Boat Quay and towards the ‘Cube’.

Opportunity has been sought within the constraints of the planning guidelines; a rigid envelope of almost square podium with a crowned tower over. The result is a dark, folded façade suggestive of the inherent weight and quality of its fabric. The towers are each a gathering of nine shafts drawn up to different heights to articulate the top, then further dissolved by a random patching of spandrels in shaft-specific grey shades.

Tower One is an entirely commercial office; Tower Two has 25 percent of its floor area assigned to hotel use. This has occasioned an alternative articulation of the peak of the second tower, four of the shafts flatten to a pool deck and the hotel is then accommodated within an L shaped plan extruding 11 additional storeys.

At the base of the carbon-black towers is The Cube; a brilliant external surface of crystal white glass, faceted by setbacks at the corners. Its lower edge is a floor above the footpath allowing an undirected flow of pedestrians through the lift lobbies, around retail outlets and into a 17 metre high ‘city room’.  This public forum, its insulated volume melted from any icy glass ‘Cube’, is at the urban scale the most important contribution from a very significant project.

A total of 70 small pavilions, scattered along the west Kunshan boulevard and parasiting in a high-dense residential area, offer an opportunity to facilitate for the local residents – a social gathering venue in a publicarea. Each pavilion provides a centre point as well as a surround, catering to the experience of gathering, union and engagement. Although it is conceived as small in scale and simple in its function, it is still significant in being a ‘social facilitator’.

The pavilions were designed without a sophisticated program. They were built as a simple structure, an object on a piece of open ground; however, it is because of this simplicity and ‘non-specificness’ in program, and lack of definition in function that gives them a great opportunity for being pragmatically flexible. The program of these pavilions is not so much defined by their walls, materials, shapes and styles; it is defined by the activities of people gathered around them, which dictates a  constantly variable program.

However, the architect did consider the relationship between the pavilions and their surroundings, and that is why the module components and Kit of Parts used for the assembly of the pavilions are each designed to specifically respond to individual context in a harmonious way.

The modules are generally 3 metres tall and built with only basic materials; however, they enable the pavilion to be configured in different geometrical shapes and can easily be expanded and shrunk in size. Walking along the boulevard, the pavilions are served as points of reference that assist visitors to navigate throughout the space. The coloured glass boxes provide points of attraction, interventions and experience along the path.

The scale, materials used and construction methodology employed, have being carefully considered with regards to the environment during the design process. Furthermore, the ideas of being contextual as well as environmentally sustainable have been embedded and embodied throughout the creation of and the very existence of these pavilions.

The Regional Terminal of Christchurch Airport is a joint development between Air New Zealand and Christchurch International Airport. The project is purposely designed with a ’humble and delightful’ feel for its interiors so as to represent the cultural and natural essence of the South Island in New Zealand.

The overall architectural expression of the project is relatively minimal, yet it is fine and thoughtful in its details. Timber, concrete and steel are appropriately used to achieve a good balance between hard and soft materials and textures. The long spanned, high volume ceiling and column-free internal space allows for an uninterrupted visual connection as well as a continuous circulation path. With the diffusion effect of the natural daylight, the perception of the building’s interior is sensational; the warm, comfortable and harmonious atmosphere enhances the notion that the terminal is a ’welcoming gateway’ to the city.

The design ideas, as stated by the architect, were inspired by local cultural and natural heritage. The repetitive triangulated timber ceilings are abstract representations of the South Alps and the expressive large timber trusses find their origins from the old timber trussed bridges found throughout the South Island.

In contrast to the triangular-cut folded ceilings, the organic forms of the furniture are seemingly less controlled and more free and dynamic, adding a playful character to the interior setting. The freedom of the seating layout also creates an interesting composition in the space.

With the intent of the building to be contextual and memorable as opposed to the traditional concept of ‘placeless’ and ‘inauthentic’ in terminal design, the architect has successfully designed a place with a strong local character and identity.