Architecture in Asia

- Next Program Offering: December 2021/January 2022
- Program Application will open in mid-May 2021 and be due by early or mid-September 2021.
- Discover amazing modern architecture in the megacities of Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo
- Visit cutting-edge architecture firms in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan
With a history spanning across several millennia and a rich cultural heritage shaped by diverse religions and ethnic groups, Asia provides an unparalleled context to experience life and loci that are vastly different from the western world. In order to provide you the opportunity for expanding your horizons of architectural and design sense and life, this Asia Study Abroad Program will take you to an unique part of South East and East Asia-Singapore, Malaysia and Japan. You will experience cultures and places that are based primarily on Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, Hindu, and Islamic principles, and that are strangely intermixed with colonial influences of the Portuguese, Dutch, and the British, as well as with postcolonial globalization. You will be exploring both historic and contemporary architecture, urban planning, and design in these countries, interacting with both graduate architecture students and faculty in the host universities, and networking with leading Asian design and construction companies.
Depart Kansas City: December 26, 2021
In Singapore: December 28, 2021 –January 3, 2022
In Malaysia: January 3–9, 2022
In Japan: January 9-15, 2022
Depart Tokyo and arrive in the U.S.: January 15, 2022
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Students will spend approximately 07 days in Singapore, 07 days in Malaysia, and 07 days in Tokyo. Most of the program will consist of planned group activities along with some free time.
Visits in Singapore: Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority and Museum; Marina Bay Sands by Moshe Safdie; Helix Bridge; National Library by Ken Yeang; Shopping Mall by Toyo Ito; LaSalle College of Art; The School of the Arts;Bugis Junction Shopping Mall Preservation Project; Subway Station Design Tour; Walk around Clark Quay, Boat Quay, Orchard Road
Shopping District, and Chinatown; New Chinese Temple; Gardens by the Bay; Public Housing Designs Phases 1, 2, and 3; Singapore Flyer; Henderson Waves; and visits to architecture firms and many other historic and contemporary architecture.
Visits in Malaysia: City of Johor Bahru, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, A Series of Barns, Factory in the Earth;Taman Mini Malaysia vernacular house forms, Hindu temple, early form of Malay Mosques); Capital City of Kuala Lumpur (Petronas Towers, Batu Caves Hindu Temple Precinct, Mesiniaga Tower by Ken Yeang, Houses by Jimmy Lee, National Arts & Crafts Museum, the POD Pavilion by Manfredi Nicolleti, The Torika by Norman Foster, One Mont Kiara Shopping Mall, Star Hill Gallery), Bamboo Play House, Lantern Hotel, Pint02, The Capers, The Arc at Bandar Rimbayu; Administrative City of Putrajaya (Its urban design, and Steel Mosque.
Visits in Tokyo, Japan: 1964 Olympic Pavilions and St. Mary’s Chapel by Kenzo Tange; Collezione and 21-21 Design Gallery by Tadao Ando; Mikimoto and TOD’s Omotesando by Toyo Ito; PRADA by Herzog & de Meuron; National Art Center and Nakagin Capsule Tower by Kisho Kurokawa; Nezu Museum, Suntory Musuem and Baiso-in Temple by Kengo Kuma; Tokyo University Library by Shigeru Ban); and visits to architecture firms and other contemporary architecture.
ACADEMIC INFORMATION: COURSES & CREDITS
ARCH 690 Architecture Study Abroad (6 credit hours) Required for all students.
ARCH 692 Documentation (3 credit hours) Optional. Check with program directors.
Arch 690 and Arch 692 for a total of nine hours fulfill the study abroad requirement for the School of Architecture, Design and Planning.
Students will stay in centrally located hotels in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo.
This program is open to all KU and non-KU students who have completed their first year of study. Priority is given to KU Master of Architecture students who have completed either ARCH 208 or ARCH 502.
Jae D. Chang is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning of the University of Kansas. He also serves as the Assistant Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Architecture. He received his Master and Doctorate in Architecture from the University of Michigan. Dr. Chang has worked with universities and companies in the US and internationally on research in healthy environments and environmentally responsive design.
Kapila D. Silva is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning of the University of Kansas. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, from where he received a doctorate in architecture, and at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka, from where he received professional architectural education. Dr. Silva’s research, in its broadest sense, focuses on the social, cultural, and psychological dimensions of architecture, urbanism, and historic preservation, with a specific focus on non-Western traditions. In narrower terms, his research has so far been on global heritage conservation and management, addressing theoretical and pragmatic issues related to UNESCO’s World Heritage Program, which attempts to preserve and manage historic monuments and sites with outstanding universal value. He is the co-editor of Asian Heritage Management: Contexts, Concerns, and Prospects (Routledge, 2013) and Cultural Landscapes of South Asia (Routledge, 2017), and the editor of The Routledge Handbook on Historic Urban Landscapes in the Asia-Pacific (Routledge, 2020).
For more information contact:
Jae D. Chang Ph.D., Associate Professor
Department of Architecture
jdchang@ku.edu
Kapila D. Silva Ph.D., Associate Professor
Department of Architecture
kapilads@ku.edu