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FOREWORD xi

biophilic design (human well-being). The edge was no longer indoor vs outdoor; it was human-built

systems interfacing with natural ecosystems. He argued for a synthesis of organic with the inorganic,

what he calls ‘biointegration’. Ecology, once confined to the ground, would be drawn up into built systems

to becoming part of the fabric of architecture.

In both his bioclimatic and ecological models, Yeang makes a case for ‘aesthetic exploration’, the

expression of elements and processes that he says are necessary to fulfil the aesthetic and biophilic

needs of users. The design vocabulary would articulate what elements do and how they connect with

each other. Form would shape performance and offer a perspective on beauty.

In his earlier book, Constructed Ecosystems, Yeang explains biointegration as the union of space,

technology, and surface, seeking new form-patterns. An eco-cell, for instance, cleans water and draws

air and light vertically through a building; the linked green wall is a planted facade, made continuous, to

enhance habitat formation and species movement. In one of his built examples, the Solaris (2011), a

17-storey office building in Singapore, a diagonal light-shaft cuts through the building's mass; multiple-

stepped landscape decks are connected to a 1.5 km spiral garden, through an eco-cell. No biodiversity

audit has been carried out, but there are anecdotal sightings of squirrels, snakes, and hornbills .

Yeang's goal is to restore the broken link between human and natural systems. Biointegration

makes architecture a ‘prosthetic’ to nature. This aligns Yeang with the eco-modernists who speak of the

hybridisation of the natural and human-made. His projects, even where they do not reach full potential,

are prototypes, he says, to refine ideas that ‘for the potency of what they promise’ challenge the design

profession at a time when the restoration of natural systems has a newly found urgency.

Nirmal Kishnani (Dr.)

Associate Professor, School of Design and Environment,

National University of Singapore

Excerpt from ‘Ecopuncture, Transforming Architecture and Urbanism in Asia’, a 2019 book by Nirmal Kishnani, published by BCI Asia

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