Green Ink On An Envelope : The Architectural practice Of Chan Sau Yan Sonny

Modern, tropical with a touch of the Malayan — these qualities characterise the works of architect Chan Sau Yan Sonny, realised over more than four decades of practice, and counting.

Conferred the President's Design Award Singapore 2011 in the category for Designer of the Year, Sonny Chan is one of the few practitioners of his generation who continue to actively push the envelope of design.

Green Ink on an Envelope traces the professional and soul searching process of an architect deeply influenced by the 1950 Malayan landscape of his childhood, his modernist schooling in post-war Britain, and the heady years of nation-building of Singapore and Malaysia in the 1960s to 70s.

Exploring ideas through his green ink sketches, Sonny Chan returns to the elemental issues of climate, culture, technology, and community for each design project. The works are highly varied in form, but always elegantly configured. More often than not, they exude a tropical sensibility inspired by the spaces, craft and detailing of vernacular and colonial architecture.