This article is part of a series of SPOTLIGHTS showcasing our Community Partners, their ideologies, methodologies, challenges and triumphs. For more, click here.
Education has a crucial part to play in shaping our minds, from attaining knowledge to how we apply what we have learnt. In this second part of our feature with Professor Tay Kheng Soon, the renown local architect and industrial expert for our recently concluded Urban Sustainability and Architecture program shares with us his thoughts on how education has influenced the field of architecture in Singapore and how students should “sail the seven Cs” to break out of the current mould.
Singapore as an Industrialised City
The year 2015 marks Singapore’s 50th year of independence and also Prof Tay’s 50th year in his architecture career. He is passionate about pushing the boundaries of Singapore’s architecture and continues to churn out innovative ideas and actively participates in experimenting for better technologies for urban and rural economies. Prof Tay laments that local architects have a “lack of self-confidence” and are too engrossed with progress, which leaves little time for imagination and creativity. “They all think that progress, to be progressive and to progress, you must be like the west. They cannot define what their future ought to be. They define their future as the western future. Industralisation involves machinery, lack of human feelings. Machines eliminate humans.”
Industrialisation can permeate through every aspect of our lives and has greatly influenced education. Prof Tay explains,“ School education is turning students into robots, trained to conform to the industry, trained to listen to instructions. This affects your imagination. [Leading students to think that] conformation is the way to survive.”
However, Prof Tay believes that the younger generation of architect students can be the change makers that break free from the shackles of industrialisation-influenced architecture. “Young people are the future. But you can only be the future if you are not a problem. Right now, you are a problem. You have been made into a problem because of education, because of the way you are motivated. Be creative and learn to change the world. But before you change the world, you must change yourself.”
Professor Tay’s 7Cs to see life
To Prof Tay, this change can only come from the 7Cs:
1. Competence
2. Confidence
3. Courage
4. Curiosity
5. Creativity
6. Compassion
7. Collaboration
“ The first C is competence. Be competent in what you do. If you are good at something, be good at it. Mastery is important. Once you have competence, you will have confidence. And when you have confidence, you will have courage. When you have courage, then you can ask difficult questions, you can exercise your curiosity. When you are curious, you will find out a lot of things. When you find out a lot of things, then you can be creative. Without all these you cannot be creative, you can only be a copycat. However, creativity alone is not enough, you must have passion. You must feel for your fellowmen, you must feel for the environment (the plants, animals etc.) [This is] compassion. When you have compassion and creativity, then you can be a great collaborator.”
The role of architecture to mould the society is apparent in Prof Tay’s beliefs. “The kind of architecture for the future… is competent: you understand nature, environment, climate; compassionate: understand people’s needs; creative: invents a new ways of how humans should live with each others and the environment and be able to involve people in the making of the place. That is participation and you create a creative society. That is the role of architecture.”
Reason behind starting Kampung Temasek
Kampung Temasek (KT), situated near Sungei Tiram, Johor, Malaysia, is one of the innovative projects by Prof Tay to educate and equip the future leaders with these 7Cs.
“Sometimes, it is necessary to get people out of their usual environment. By putting yourself in a different environment, it allows you to see things in a different light.” he says. KT gives their visitors a chance to live in a different environment, bringing visitors back to the olden days where they get to enjoy the culture and ambience of kampung living. The ‘kampung’ culture is considered endangered with the development of cities.
“Changing the environment would change the minds of people. By that, you change yourself and how you interact with the world. If one keeps living in their comfort zones, they are simply repeating and reinforcing the same old habits. When nothing changes, there will be no improvements.”
Prof Tay encourages the future generations to challenge themselves, “Give yourself a jolt and challenge yourself to face unfamiliar circumstances. That is the way you learn to get confidence. Be daring to do it!”
Indeed, KT has served as a fantastic educational platform for Skillseed’s Urban Sustainability and Architecture program, where our participants from Beijing learnt basic architecture and construction skills from Architecture facilitators. In KT’s unfamiliar Kampung environment, we hope that our young urbanite participants were thoroughly challenged and gained the confidence to dare to dream big for their futures!
(Click here to see more exciting moments built during the program!)
With Love,
Brenda
