Architecture Competition Milan Navigli Canal Challenge 3rd and Sustainability prize winners – HORTIAN CONSULTANCY PTE. LTD

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the 3rd and Green prize winners of our "Milan Navigli Canal Challenge" competition – Xin Kai Tham, Ahrum Oh, Jason Ng and Jianyu Lou from Singapore!

3rd and Sustainability award winners from Singapore

Hortian Consultancy is a landscape, interior and architectural design company based in Singapore and China. Founded in 2020, our headquarters in Singapore comprise a 5 people while our office in Hangzhou, China, has 4. We are a team of free-spirited professionals who avoid undifferentiated template solutions and strive to set new frontiers in design. Our guiding principle of a good design is an honest and collaborative, open-minded approach in engaging the various stakeholders to identify and solve key issues. Using a people-centric design thinking approach, we devise innovative solutions that seek to create positive impacts that are practical and sustainable.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been involved?

To date, we complete several interior and landscape architectural projects, from commercial, including retail areas, residential, public parks and gardens, to healthcare landscapes. One significant project by our Singapore team is a therapeutic garden for a senior care nursing home in Singapore, where we worked closely with the client and healthcare professionals to create a senior and dementia-friendly garden which they can enjoy and use. Another project worth mentioning is a homestay interior and landscape revitalization project in Suzhou, China. This is a joint-design consultation project between our Singapore and China office where we collaborated to provide a seamless experience for the users between the interior to the outdoor spaces, using principles of therapeutic landscapes and biophilic design.

What does architecture mean to you, and what is the role of an architect in your society?

As professionals in the built environment industry, architecture (including landscape and interior design) is about how space functions (both actively and passively) for the physical, psychological, social needs of its users. In Singapore, architects play an important role in transforming our city into a City in Nature, while solving complex issues with limited land space. Here, the role of an architect is to find ways of optimizing space without compromising on its livability, while also ensuring that elements of nature can find its way back to the build environment.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

Here at Hortian Consultancy, we are constantly looking for opportunities to challenge ourselves, and to test ideas for its novelty and feasibility. By participating in architecture competition, we can also expand our view and perception on how different solutions are considered by different culture and society.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

Taking part in architecture competitions allows one to test ideas in both hypothetical and real scenario. It is also a chance for you to share ideas with fellow team members and after the results are out, you get to learn from the other participants - gaining new knowledge and insights on how new ideas and methodologies can work!