architecture enlightens life

OK, remember the last time I mentioned we need to revolutionise malaysian architecture? well, here is my second step. it appears there is no general knowledge on who is the most famous architect in malaysia, so let me introduce this to the malaysian public; yangsquare.com presents you..

the most famous malaysian architect goes to;

dato’ dr. ar. ken yeang

disclaimer: who cares about the long prefix of one person’s name? it sounds lots better with “architect, ken yeang”. btw, you might notice I wrote quite a lot about ken yeang recently, but believe me, I’m not really ken yeang’s idol - I just wanted to touch more on malaysian grounds.

ar. ken yeang studied in architecture association school (AA, arguably the most famous architecture school) and received phd for his ecological studies. believe it or not; ken yeang did his research for sustainable architecture for 10 years. he introduced what he described as bioclimatic skyscrapers into architecture, with his signature building, the mesiniaga tower. more on mesiniaga tower, here.

of course he is a big voice in green architecture (ecological, sustainable, whatever!), but CNN described him as ‘world’s leading architect in ecological and passive low energy design’. why you ask, among so many architects I awarded him the most famous architect in malaysia;

• easily the first ‘malaysian architect’ you get when you asked any graduate architecture students or architects in malaysia
• ken yeang is in the top 50 people that can change the world
• arguably the only malaysian architect that you hear overseas in architectural lectures
• the only malaysian architect in wikipedia

very well, famous architects are featured in banknotes;

le corbusier (master of modern architecture) is featured in swiss’ ten francs

alvar aalto in finland’s fifty markka

and to commemorate ken yeang as the most famous malaysian architect, this is malaysia’s limited edition five ringgit. wait for it…!

notice the difference?

if until now you still doesn’t think that ken yeang’s green architecture isn’t cool…

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