President*s Design Award 2023 – AR. TAN KAY NGEE (Designer of the Year)

Описание: AR. TAN KAY NGEE
Principal Architect 
Kay Ngee Tan Architects 

DISCIPLINE 
Architecture  

A house where rooms flow from one to another in the manner of a Baroque palazzo. Shelves for a Japanese bookstore that mimic the way a kimono folds. A building facade that resembles the dim sum baskets that its owner serves in their food catering business. Architect Tan Kay Ngee finds sources of design inspiration everywhere, from traditional creative forms to everyday life. 

This expressive and diverse design approach stems from his wide-ranging architecture training in Singapore, the UK, and Italy during the 1970s and 1980s. Tan then spent almost a decade practising in Europe before returning home to Asia at the turn of the millennium. He rediscovered the region’s rich cultures and began integrating them with his interest in Western classical architecture. Most recently, Tan and his team completed the Gallop Extension for the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which combined his lived experience of English architecture and landscapes with an intimate knowledge of the tropics.  

Amidst his illustrious architecture career stretching over nearly four decades, Tan has run a photography gallery, designed theatre sets, and served as an educator. He has regularly written about art, architecture, and the city. Such unbounded creativity comes naturally for an individual who believes that life is never about the destination; it is about the surprises that one discovers along the journey – wherever it may take you.