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• Mr Khoo Peng Beng, who is known for transformational work like the Pinnacle@Duxton, will join the Singapore University of Technology and Design (����ɫ��) as Head of the Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) Pillar on 1 January 2025.
• His appointment is the latest in a series of organisational and structural changes at ����ɫ�� aimed at propelling it to the forefront of the Design and Tech IHL world.

Award-winning architect, Mr Khoo Peng Beng, will join the Singapore University of Technology and Design as Professor of Practice and new Head of the Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) pillar on 1 January 2025, bringing with him valuable real-world experience into the classroom.

A practising architect for the last 31 years, Peng Beng is co-founder of ARC Studio Architecture + Urbanism which has worked on projects in Singapore, Malaysia, China, India, Cambodia, Timor Leste and Rwanda. Renowned in the industry for redefining public housing architecture in Singapore through the Pinnacle@Duxton, Peng Beng was conferred the prestigious President’s Design Award Designer of the Year 2020 award for developing socially meaningful, community-focussed projects and outstanding contribution in mentoring and developing young and aspiring architects. The project also won prestigious awards like the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) Best Tall Building in Asia Australasia, CTBUH Most Sustainable Tall Building Award, World Architecture Festival (WAF) Best Residential Building in the World and the FIABCI Prix d’Excellence Award.

Peng Beng, who was an Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, does not see his move into full-time academia as leaving practice. “I see it as an expansion of my practice into research, bridging from academia to industry. To me, the act of design is research, bringing new insights to what was previously unknown.

My field of interest and ongoing research – creativity and integral development for well-being in architecture and urbanism – is poised for growth from the perspective of integration with technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Joining ����ɫ�� allows me to dive deeper into this area and to bridge the gap between academia and practice. I love the fact that ����ɫ�� is located at the cutting-edge interface of technology and design which is the perfect space for this to happen. I look forward to collaborating with some of the top thinkers in the world at ����ɫ��, to bring truth, goodness and beauty by design into the world.”

Describing the latest appointment as another piece of the puzzle, ����ɫ�� Deputy President Tai Lee Siang, who is concurrently the incumbent Head of ASD, said: “Getting Peng Beng on board the ����ɫ�� team is a major coup. He is the perfect blend of industry and academia – something that is key to our ����ɫ�� Leap growth plan. With his extensive experience and network, we have no doubt that Peng Beng will not only be able to pass on valuable real-world skills to our students, but also contribute significantly to ����ɫ��’s new research frontier for the built environment called Regenerative Cities.”

����ɫ�� Leap, a multi-year, multi-pronged strategic plan, was launched in March 2024 with the aim of propelling the university to the forefront of the design and technology academic world. It also aims to create an environment that promotes design and creative co-solutioning with industry partners by bringing the real world into campus and vice versa through an unusual “cross-pollination” of academia and enterprise. By blurring the lines between academia and enterprise, students will be able to grow and innovate in a connected environment – and get a true sense of what real world demands are like. As part of ����ɫ�� Leap, a more focussed approach has also been adopted for key areas of research – cities, aviation, artificial intelligence and healthcare. In Regenerative Cities, research will be conducted to explore the inter-disciplinary approach to solving complex challenges faced by cities to address issues of sustainability, regeneration and social wellbeing.

Describing architects as “alchemists, inventors and master manipulators of space-time”, Peng Beng said: “The world’s population is growing exponentially. We will be more populous with greater powers to determine our future and our existence. I see that our interdependent world is faced with the triple challenge of technological alienation, social equity and environmental restoration. The world needs more architects than ever in the history of humanity. The conditions we face today brings danger but also great opportunity. There is a call on the virtues of creativity and fortitude in all architects to rise to this challenge.”

Set against this backdrop is the rise of AI, a phenomenon which is changing the way all industries are developing.

“In my years of practice, I have seen the world of technology transform the way we practise quite dramatically. When I was in university, I had the opportunity to learn the discipline of drawing with a technical pen and hand tooling my models with wood working machines. And fortuitously, I was also a pioneer student in using CAD 3-D modelling and animation when my computer at the architecture faculty was the size of a large room. I feel that while it is extremely important to keep pace with the evolution of tools and technology in our design field, it is even more important to be able to connect the mind, body and spirit to a deeper and unchanging core of virtues and values. The rise of AI certainly opens up many new possibilities to the field of architecture and I am very excited that ����ɫ�� is leading in this area through its strong focus on Design AI,” he said.