DPSD Attends DesignFUTURE Conference 2024

On 22^nd November, we joined fellow DPians at Raffles Girls School (Secondary) for the much-anticipated biennial DP DesignFUTURE Conference. This fifth edition, organised by DP Architects and aptly titled Future(set), turns its focus to what a better-than-sustainable urban future entail, the challenges we face, and the opportunities present; raising the question of whether we are set for Armageddon or can we reset our course in time to avoid a complete social and ecological collapse?

The conference, thus, convened a multidisciplinary panel of thought leaders across the field of urban design, technology and healthcare research. They were Dr Winston Chow, professor of Urban Climate and Lee Kong Chian Research Fellow, College of Integrative Studies at Singapore Management University (SMU) and the first Singaporean to be elected into the United Nations top climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) where he co-chairs Working Group II on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability; Dr Sam Conrad Joyce, associate professor (joint appointment) of Architecture & Sustainable Design and Design & AI, and Head of Meta Design Lab at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) where he, as the founder, focuses on working on interdisciplinary research and AI using informatics applied to urban and architectural design; Prof Teh Bin Tean, who is the deputy CEO (Research) of the National Cancer Centre Singapore, founding director at SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Biodiversity Medicine (BD-MED) and professor at Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore where he leads health-related plant biodiversity and translation cancer research; and, Chan Hui Min, director at DP Architects and Head of its Smart Sustainability Unit. The panel discussion was moderated by Ar. Ong Ker-Shing, co-founder of Lekker Architects and associate professor (Practice) of the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Each a distinguished expert in their respective fields, the panel offered us a differentiated but necessary cross-disciplinary insight on the compounding climate and socio-economic issues of today. As an ESD firm embedded within the larger multidisciplinary DPA group, the afternoon’s discourse left us inspired—and more importantly, prompted—to think deeper, hold harder dialogues and push for greater collaboration to engender action and innovation towards a more liveable, inclusive, biodiverse and resilient future for all.

Deep dive into each distinguished speaker’s presentations in Design in Print Vol. 15.1.