Calvin Chua

Biography

Calvin Chua is an architect and urban strategist working at the intersection of sustainable design, planning and advocacy. He currently Spatial Anatomy, a strategic design practice working on projects across scales, culture and geographies. Recent completed projects include a concept regeneration masterplan for Paya Lebar Airbase and the Green Agora, a nature-based pavilion, which won the Special Judges Award at the 2021 Taipei International Design Award. Complementing his practice, Calvin engages the wider design community through writing op-eds and curating exhibitions, including the Seoul Biennale in 2017, 2019 and Venice Biennale 2021. In parallel, Calvin serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor SUTD and in 2022, he was a Visiting Professor at the Korea National University of Arts. Recognised for his unique approach towards design practice and social causes, Calvin is an Asia 21 Young Leader (Class of 2022), global top 10 finalists for the Lisbon Triennale Millennium bcp Debut Award (2022) and was longlisted for the Royal Academy of Arts Dorfman Award (2020). Prior to founding his own practice, Calvin worked with leading architecture and urban planning firms in Europe. A registered architect in the United Kingdom, Calvin graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

Education

• AA Diploma, Architectural Association, London, UK
• Postgraduate Diploma with Merit, University of Westminster, London, UK

Research Interest

• Architectural and Urban Typologies
• Urban Regeneration
• Environmental Systems
• Political Theory

Awards

• Longlist for Royal Academy of the Arts Dorfman Award, 2020
• Young Leader of Tomorrow and a Topic Leader for the St Gallen Symposium, 2015
• Awarded Design Residency in Doha under the British Council Old Doha Prize, 2013
• Winner of Wilmotte Foundation Prix W, 2012

Selected Publications

• ‘Four Columns and a Roof: An Insight into Architecture in Southeast Asia’ in Beyond the West (Die Gestalten Verlag: Berlin, 2020)
• ‘Strata Megastructure: Architecture of Flexibility and Enterprise’, in The Impossible of Mapping (Urban Asia), (NTU CCA: Singapore, 2019)
• ‘Productive Peripheries: Rethinking the HSR Project’, The Singapore Architect, 2018
• ‘Shorefront: A Microcosm of Georgetown’, The Singapore Architect, 2018
• ‘The Office Park: Architecture between Nature and Production’, The Singapore Architect, 2017
• ‘Pop-up Pyongyang´ in Dongwoo Yim et al, North Korea Atlas (Damdi: Seoul, 2014)
• ‘A New Design for DPRK’s Construction Industry’, East Asia Forum, June 2014
• ‘Greater Singapore: Exporting the City State’, MONU, Issue 18, 2013
• ‘The (non) Architecture of Sustainability’, Singapore Architects, Issue 274, 2013