SUTD 2026 Edition

For the record - four instructors and about 80 students at Singapore University of Technology and Design. We just concluded the SUTD 2026 Edition, what a talented group, again. Keep sketching!

Posted by Tia Boon Sim on Saturday 18 April 2026

building illustration in Hong Kong

Mission accomplished. Final piece of building illustration for Shama Service Apartment in Hong Kong. Resource : video taken by others.

building illustration in Korea

Another building illustration of Platinum Tower in Korea. I wish I was there but this was done according to video taken by others.

My other building illustrations are here and here.

building illustration in Japan

The first of the series of building illustration overseas. I wish I was there but my first attempt doing this based on video taken by others.

another building illustration

The new Katong Mall at East Coast Road. The building is now under construction and the building owner wants an artist's impression. I decided on a portrait format so that all the pieces are of the same format when these illustrations are framed with the same design. It will be unison if they are all hung on the wall.

Sky sprinkled with salt and road with lots of splashing.

building illustration

I agreed to do a visual for a newly completed luxurious condominium. I went to the site last Friday which was a public holiday; trying to sketch but was chased away by the security guards! They said I need a permission from CISCO! I could not even take a picture of the exterior so I went home and collected all the images on the web. Obviously, this piece was not drawn on location. I must admit I had lots of fun doing it under the air conditioning comfort of my tiny work space at the corner of my big bedroom. Perhaps it is time for me to set up a studio so I can do more paintings. I will put that in my "to do list".

A3 size, ink, watercolour and salt.

Central Business District

The best time to sketch the central business district in any city is on Saturday and Sunday. No crowd and no traffic. This sketch rekindles my memories as an architect except that the building is not designed by me. I used to pour coffee but this time I had fun experimentating with salt and lots of splashing.

A3 size, ink, watercolour and salt.

build london live 2009 competition

Tonight I visited members of the team who are taking part in an international competition called "Build London Live 2009". I contributed by sketching the group and they may use it as part of their submission tomorrow. The competition is a 48-hour event which will end tomorrow at about 6pm local time. These people are very professional and passionate about what they do. I hope they win the competition.

You can visit here to read more

old but charming hospital building

I sat in the car and sketched this old building which I wanted to take a close look at its charming architecture for a long time. It was built after a typical old Malay style that the building was raised by column stumps to prevent flood in the old days. The area beneath the building was also used for storage to rear livestock like pigs and chickens in the past. This old building which houses the Tuberculosis Control Unit, is part of a very big hospital complex with a mixture of new and old buildings.

Tan Tock Seng Hospital is today transformed from a village hospital to a state of the art medical institution. It is named after its founder who built it in 1844. He is also the donor of many other public buildings including this temple without nails I did earlier.

It was so quiet that I only noticed three old patients accompanied by their family members going in and out of the premises. Two gentlemen walked passed my car and gave me a nice smile when they saw what I did at my driver seat. "They can't be patients and must be researchers or doctors with that kind of smile on their face" I said to myself.

fat chips or new containers?

source : archinnovations inhabitat

A big sigh for Singapore architecture! What new residential typology?
I would prefer Ken Yeang's Eddit Tower

something different

Something different again. It is about an idea.

Balmoral Park

Those days in 1980s, we could get big job by showing our great ideas like this on butter paper mounted on boards. In just one week, I designed and did the visuals on butter paper with a lot of interesting interior spaces. I cannot find the big interiors drawings and this exterior view was found on my pc:

award winning building

I worked at Housing and Development Board in the late 80s and I was lucky to be given the opportunities to design a few buildings. Most of the HDB architects were either designing public housing or managing the construction projects. My design won the SIA Architectural Design Award in 1991. Here is the citation published for the award.

CITATION - SIA ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AWARD 1991
on Clementi Sports Hall by Housing and Development Board
"The dramatic form of the building is entirely appropriate to its setting with the Ayer Rajah Expressway on the south and the parking plaza on the north. The simple sculptural form is sensitively related to surrounding developments allowing for a harmony of geometries and sympathetic ground treatment.

The grammatical permutation of forms is reinforced by the choice of materials and the detailing of the junctioning of the different building elements and the use of the louvred facade cladding."

details

cover story by a practising architect on my design

The Straits Times, our local newspaper on 19 Feb 1992

"Any building worthy of an award must have three basic qualities - be appropriate, practical and pleasing to the eye.This may seem obvious but the truth is, many buildings in Singapore do not possess even one of these criteria.For a country with such a short history, Singapore has quite an impressive architectural infrastructure. The country has many fine traditional, colonial, as well as modern buidlings.

In recognising this rich heritage, the Singapore Institute of Architects(SIA) gives design awards every few years to projects which have contributed to Singapore's architectural excellence.The last SIA Design Awards were held in 1987.This year's award presentations, the third in the series, will be held on Saturday at the Alkaff Mansion. It will see 7 buildings receiving the SIA Design Award and 27 others, the Honourable Mention.

One of the winners of the Design Award is the Clementi Sports Hall, which was completed by the Housing and Development Board(HDB). A formal simplicity is evident in the building, which is essentially a square box with repetitive elevations, and is a deceivingly clever architectural statement.

It sits on a higher level than the entrance approach and the impact of scale is exaggerated as you step up to it.Four perimeter walls support a steel roof consisting of a spaceframe system providing a clear uninterrupted open space for the sports hall.The overpowering roof completely dominates the surrounding townscape, giving it an unavoidable sense of importance.Specially-fabricated, curved-sectioned metal louvres suspended vertically within the outward sloping roof profile allow efficient cross ventilation, yet effectively keeping out rain and glare.

This, and the other five projects highlighted here, represent milestones by which standards for architectural excellence in Singapore can be set. They are functional, economical and elegant. They fit in with the neighbourhood, are user-friendly and are well built. They prove that good design need not be extravagant or gimmicky.

They also prove that Singapore architects are more than capable of producing prize-winning architecture."