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Program
Day 1
08:30: Registration at the gate
09:00: Individual Free Tours
Pavilion tours
Malaysia pavilion (4 tours fast pass a day)
Singapore pavilion
More tbc
12:00: Lunch
14:15 – 14:30: Guests gather in front of the pavilion
14:30 – 17:00: German Pavilion Tour: Two groups of 15 people each (The panel discussion and presentation group will take the tour in rotation, one group at a time)
14:30 – 14:35: Opening Remarks (5 minutes):
Symposium Chair: Segene Park
AIA Japan President: Balazs Bognar
Schüco: Seng Chye Koek
14:35 – 14:50: Keynote Speeches / Presentations (15 minutes)
Speaker:
TBD
14:50 – 15:40: Panel Discussion 1 (50 minutes)
Moderator:
TBD
Panelists:
TBD
15:40 – 15:50: Q&A Session for Panel 1 (10 minutes)
15:50 – 16:00: Break (10 minutes)
16:00 – 16:50: Panel Discussion 2 (50 minutes)
This session will be organized by ACCJ and ULI Japan NEXT
Moderator:
TBD
Panelists:
TBD
16:50 – 17:00: Q&A Session for Panel 2 (10 minutes)
17:00 – 18:00: Networking Session in the stage area: Beer and snacks will be provided
18:00 – 19:00: Artist Program
19:30 – 20:30: Fountain Show
21:00 – 22:00: Drone Show
21:00: Pavilion Closing Time
22:00: EXPO Closing Time
Day 2
08:30: Registration at the gate
09:00: Individual Free Tours
Pavilion tour
Malaysia pavilion (4 tours fast pass a day)
Singapore pavilion
More to come
12:00: Lunch
14:15 – 14:30: Guests gather in front of the pavilion
14:30 – 17:00: German Pavilion Tour: Two groups of 15 people each (The panel discussion and presentation group will take the tour in rotation, one group at a time)
14:30 – 14:45: Keynote Speeches / Presentations (15 minutes)
Speaker:
TBD
14:45 – 15:35: Panel Discussion 1 (50 minutes)
Moderator:
Silas Chiow
Panelists:
TBD
15:35 – 15:45: Q&A Session for Panel 1 (10 minutes)
15:45 – 15:55: Break (10 minutes)
15:55 – 16:45: Panel Discussion 2 (50 minutes)
Moderator:
Segene Park
Panelists:
TBD
16:45 – 16:55: Q&A Session for Panel 2 (10 minutes)
16:55 – 17:00: Closing Remarks (5 minutes)
Closing Remarks:
Symposium Chair: Segene Park
AIA Japan President: Balazs Bognar
Schüco: Seng Chye Koek
17:00 – 18:00: Networking Session in the stage area: Beer and snacks will be provided
18:00 – 19:00: Artist Program
19:30 – 20:30: Fountain Show
21:00 – 22:00: Drone Show
21:00: Pavilion Closing Time
22:00: EXPO Closing Time
Featured Speakers and Hosts
Ar. Segene Park, AIA
First Vice President / President-Elect, AIA International
Senior Professional / Architect / Masterplanner / Project Manager, Nikken Sekkei
Adjunct Professor, Nihon University
An accomplished architect and master planner, Ar. Park has built a distinguished career with renowned firms such as Epstein (Annex5) and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), and is currently based in Tokyo with Nikken Sekkei. His work has been widely published in leading media including Architectural Record, ArchDaily, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and other esteemed outlets, receiving numerous awards and honors.
Among his notable achievements is the design of a 354-meter tower in Russia, showcased at the Venice Biennale as a symbol of the country’s modern architecture. At Nikken Sekkei, Ar. Park has led teams to multiple international competition victories and has been honored with four major Architecture and Urban Planning Awards in Moscow. These accolades were awarded over four consecutive years, selected from among 1,513 nominated residential complexes by more than 400 independent experts.
With deep expertise spanning architectural design, urban planning, and firm leadership, Ar. Park has successfully overseen complex global projects across a wide range of sectors, including residential, office, hospitality, museums, convention centers, high-rise and supertall buildings, sustainable and interior design, TOD (Transit-Oriented Development), smart cities, and landscape architecture.
Beyond his professional practice, Ar. Park has made significant contributions to the global architectural discourse. He has served as a keynote speaker at the United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF) and as a panelist at the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Asia Pacific Summit. He has delivered lectures at architecture and urban planning conferences across APEC countries and has been deeply engaged in education, serving as an instructor for ULI Japan’s UrbanPlan Program at leading universities such as Waseda, Meiji, Tsukuba, Nihon University, and several others throughout Japan. Additionally, he has contributed as a design critic at these institutions and currently serves as an adjunct professor at Nihon University, the largest university in Japan.
Balazs Bognar, AIA
AIA Japan President
Partner at Kengo Kuma & Associates
Balazs Bognar is an American architect and Partner at Kengo Kuma & Associates in Tokyo, Japan. He has been working directly with Kengo Kuma to lead the office’s North American projects since 2007, combining imagination and rigor with a personable team approach.
He received his Master of Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (2003), and his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis (2000).
Notable completed work includes Amanpuri’s Retail Pavilion in Phuket, Thailand (2019), Rolex Tower in Dallas, Texas (2018, receiving the 2019 Engineering News-Record Global Best Office Building Project); Portland Japanese Garden’s Cultural Village in Oregon (2017, receiving the 2018 Eurasian Prize, and the 2019 American Institute of Architects Japan Award, among others); and Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo, Japan (2014).
Balazs is currently overseeing projects in Sydney and throughout the U.S., with ongoing construction in Vancouver, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
SengChye Koek
President of Schüco Japan
SengChye Koek has served as President of Schüco Japan since 2021, bringing a renewed focus on sustainability and digitalization to the Japanese building industry. Under his leadership, Schüco Japan aims to deliver new value propositions to developers and architects through advanced façade solutions and technologies not traditionally available in the local market.
Before joining Schüco, SengChye held various senior leadership roles at LIXIL, where he led strategic initiatives in business development, operational turnaround, and process innovation across multiple regions.
His earlier career was shaped at General Electric (GE), where he began as a Financial Management Program (FMP) trainee and went on to hold key roles in corporate finance, digital transformation, and business development across Japan and Southeast Asia for GE Capital and GE Healthcare.
SengChye graduated from University of Tsukuba, with a B.S.E. in Policy and Planning Science and recognizes through his experience in Japan, the Schüco business model has the opportunity to technologically innovate to positively improve the options for investors, developers and architects, whilst creating an ecosystem for aluminum fabricators (sash manufacturers) that improves efficiency, reduces risk and encourages a younger generation to be a part of the industry.
Ar. Silas Chiow, AIA, Adjunct Director
Sponsorship Director, AIA International;
Partner, Chief Strategist, Urban Development, urbangene
A licensed architect with 38 years of experience as an architect, urban planner, and project manager, Silas Chiow has helped clients successfully define their vision, goals, and requirements for a wide range of complex projects: new districts, large-scale master plans, mixed-use developments, and high-performance buildings for commercial, office, hospitality, cultural, educational, and healthcare purposes.
Silas Chiow endeavors to increase the “value” of every project he works on no matter what scale or location. He understands that successful development begins with a great vision. A great vision evolves from understanding the users, the project location, and the client’s goals. To successfully realize a vision into a reality will require collaboration between the client team, planner, architects, and related stakeholders. Silas Chiow’s extensive experiences working with local government, planning bureaus, public and private clients have given him the wisdom and insight to drive both the client and design team to deliver high “value” for any given development.
Silas Chiow believes in knowledge sharing of best practices and is an industry thought leader. He founded the Shanghai Chapter of the American Institutes of Architect (AIA) and was the Chapter President in 2019. He frequently works with AIA, ASSC, ULI, CTBUH in organizing lectures and conferences, and exhibitions on urban regeneration, sustainability, and green building design. He advocates fighting climate change and encourages his clients and his professional colleagues to join him.
Michel van Ackere, AIA
Professor in Practice at Meiji University I-AUD
Michel van Ackere is Professor in Practice at Meiji University I-AUD. He received his BA from Brown University in art and architecture history and his M.Arch from Harvard GSD in 1994, where he was awarded the AIA Gold Medal and the Julia Amory Appleton Travelling Fellowship. The Appleton Fellowship funded research on traditional Japanese urbanism, conducted at Kyoto University in 1994-1995.
From 1995-1997, Michel worked at Itsuko Hasegawa Atelier in Tokyo, where he served as the site architect for Miura Art Village in Matsuyama. Since 1997, he has been employed at Maki and Associates in Tokyo, working on the design team for the Sam Fox School of Art and Design at Washington University, St. Louis, the MIT Media Lab Complex, the Main Administration Building of Republic Polytechnic Singapore, and the Tokyo University Law / Political Science Learning Center. Following his promotion to Associate in 2007, Michel led a variety of projects including the Ocean Terminal Extension in Hong Kong (unbuilt), the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania (2009), the Jewish Community of Japan, Tokyo (2009), the Bihar Museum, India (2017), and the Museum Reinhard Ernst, Wiesbaden, Germany (opening in 2024). He also assisted on numerous competitions, exhibitions, and office publications.
Michel is a licensed architect in the United States and Japan and maintains both LEED and CSI (CDT) certification. He was the founding President of the American Institute of Architects fourth overseas chapter (AIA Japan) in 2005-2006 and remained on AIA Japan’s Board of Directors through 2022. He also served as a visiting design critic at Kokushikan University in Tokyo between 2007 and 2021.
