Between Capricorn & Cancer - A Daylight Talk by SHAU Architects

The 2023 Daylight Talk series continues with SHAU Architects, Daliana Suryawinata (ID) and Florian Heinzelmann (DE) with the Daylight Talk ‘Between Capricorn & Cancer.’ Dr Nirmal Kishnani, Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s College of Design and Engineering, will present the talk.  
  
‘Daylight Talks’ is organised by the VELUX Group in collaboration with individual schools of architecture and they are endorsed by the International Union of Architects (UIA) and the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE). Click the link in the bio to learn more.  

Daylight Talk #17: ‘Between Capricorn & Cancer’  with SHAU Architects

The lecture by SHAU addresses daylighting in tropical regions, exploring design approaches between the quantitative and qualitative, rational and intuitive, formal and informal, while oscillating within these boundaries. Partly growing up and having been trained in the North but operating in the Global South (even though it is geographically more in the middle), SHAU’s journey is one of learning, unlearning, and relearning. The more extreme one is positioned on this planet, say on the poles, the starker the difference between periods of presence and absence of daylight. Less so in the equatorial regions, with a tropical climate where all year-long daylight is available for around 12 hours, where temperature extremes and winter-summer differences are non-existent, but cycles are defined by rainy and dry seasons, ultimately leading to another usage of space resulting in architecture of mediated openness and layering.

The Daylight Talk will be available to watch on the D/A website from 14 December 2023.

About SHAU Architects

SHAU is an architectural and urban design practice founded by architect couple Daliana Suryawinata (ID) and Florian Heinzelmann (DE) in the Netherlands and Indonesia –together with Tobias Hofmann (DE) operating in Germany. Before establishing SHAU, Florian and Daliana studied at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam and taught and researched at TU Delft and TU Eindhoven, where Florian obtained his Ph.D.

SHAU is known for its performance-driven environmental and societal design agenda. Their work has won them numerous awards, including the Good Design Award Japan 2023, an ArchDaily Building of the Year 2021 Award in the Public & Landscape category, three Architizer A+ Awards in 2017 & 2020, three WAF highly commendations in 2021, a WAFX Award 2017, a shortlist for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2019, a Holcim Silver Award Asia-Pacific in 2017, and a Firm of the Year from the American Architecture Prize in 2017.

SHAU’s projects are characterized by a fusion of tropical architecture, community interests, passive climatic design strategies, and material experimentation into novel multi-programmatic typologies. So far, they have realized key public projects in Indonesia: a 9,300 square meter multi-ethnic student housing in Surabaya, which was inaugurated by President Joko Widodo recently, public space projects in West Java from Taman Film (Film Park) under a flyover in Bandung, Alun-alun Cicendo in Bandung, Alun-alun Kejaksan in Cirebon, and ​several projects for the New Capital of Indonesia. SHAU initiated the Microlibraries, which are a series of contextually designed, low-cost, and environmentally friendly reading facilities under 250m2. They have completed seven of them successfully, with new ones in the pipeline. They are also working on Jakarta’s new Performing Arts Center, among other projects for private and public clients.

Florian is an Associate Professor in Practice at the National University of Singapore, Department of Architecture. Daliana is an Asia Pacific jury member for the 2023 Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction.

‘Between Capricon & Cancer’ 

The Daylight Talk by SHAU addresses daylighting in tropical regions, exploring design approaches between the quantitative and qualitative, rational and intuitive, formal and informal, while oscillating within these boundaries. Partly growing up and having been trained in the North but operating in the Global South (even though it is geographically more in the middle), SHAU’s journey is one of learning, unlearning, and relearning. The more extreme one is positioned on this planet, say on the poles, the starker the difference between periods of presence and absence of daylight. Less so in the equatorial regions, with a tropical climate where all year-long daylight is available for around 12 hours, where temperature extremes and winter-summer differences are non-existent, but cycles are defined by rainy and dry seasons, ultimately leading to another usage of space resulting in architecture of mediated openness and layering.  

About Dr Nirmal Kishnani 

Dr Nirmal Kishnani is a design strategist, educator, and author who, over two and half decades, has scrutinised the space between theory and practice, between frontline thinking on sustainability and design-at-large. As consultant, he has led the design process of several noteworthy performance-led projects such as the Retrofit of the Asian Development Bank Headquarters (Philippines), Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (Singapore), and SDE4, the Net Zero Energy Building at the National University of Singapore. As critic, he has been vocal about the reductivism of ‘Green’. His 2012 book, ‘Greening Asia: Emerging Principles for Sustainable Architecture’, was one of the first to differentiate Green from sustainable. His subsequent book, ‘Ecopuncture: Transforming Architecture and Urbanism in Asia’ (2019), explored new ideas and methods that placed form-making and nature-based solutions at the heart of performance. Dr Kishnani is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s College of Design and Engineering. He is co-programme director of the MSc Integrated Sustainable Design where he brings systems thinking to the drawing board, bridging architecture and urbanism. On his days off, he is host of the ground-breaking podcast, Ecogradia.   

About NUS 

NUS Architecture is Asia’s premier school of design, architecture, landscape and urbanism. Led by a multidisciplinary and international faculty, we champion design excellence through a vision of ‘Architecture for Asia’. We advance impactful architectural solutions in the heart of Asia, and in the tropical centre of the world. Our design and research respond specifically to the challenges of the equator. 

We are growing to meet the needs of our international student population and the rapidly evolving environment around us. We offer six different programmes including landscape architecture, urban design, urban planning and integrated sustainable design. Our faculty and alumni comprise prestigious award winners including the Singapore President Design Award, World Architecture Festival Awards (WAF), International Architectural Award, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Awards, American Institute of Architects Awards (AIA), Society of American Registered Architect Awards (SARA) and Architectural Design Awards Singapore (SIA). 

Images:
Residence of Daliana and Florian.