AIA Southeast Asia - Tour of Equatorial Student Commons
When: Saturday 3 May 2025 @ 10:00 (Singapore time)
Where: Yusof Ishak House, 31 Lower Kent Ridge Road
Speaker
Erik L’Hereux, AFAIA, (PhD) FAIA, LEED AP BD+C; Founder of Equator
Description
How can a 1970s modernist campus landmark be thoughtfully reimagined for a low-carbon future?
Join Docomomo Singapore for a guided tour of the newly completed Equatorial Student Commons (Yusof Ishak House) at the National University of Singapore, led by the building’s design architect, Professor Erik L’Heureux.
Through adaptive reuse and energy retrofit, this modernist building from the late 1970s has been critically redesigned to meet today’s environmental imperatives. During the tour, Prof. L’Heureux will walk us through his design process—one that balances strategic preservation with sustainable innovation. Key among his interventions is the transformation of the original six decorative vaulted arches into inside-outside barrel vaults that function as “climatic straws,” passively drawing in and expelling air to cool the building naturally.
Come explore how modernist heritage can be conserved and adapted for contemporary climate realities.
Speaker Bio
Erik G. L’Heureux (PhD) FAIA is an award-winning architect, educator and academic leader. Through his creative design practice Erik specialises in designing for the dense equatorial city, with a particular expertise in adaptive reuse. He uses simple monolithic forms and delicate veils to calibrate buildings, interiors, and experiences to the urban equator’s hot air in delightful and surprising ways.
Erik spent two decades at the National University of Singapore, where he served as Dean’s Chair Associate Professor, Vice Dean, and Director of both the Undergraduate and Master Architecture programs. In July 2025, he will join Monash University as Professor of Architecture and Decarbonisation and Head of the Department of Architecture.
Erik is committed to integrating creative practice, design research, and pedagogy to empower the next generation of architects to critically engage with the urgent challenges of a warming world—and to shape a more resilient, inclusive, decarbonised, and beautiful future.
