Location: Architecture Building Auditorium
Lecture, followed by Q and A. This event is open to the public
Speaker:
Johannes Widodo
National University of Singapore College of Design and Engineering
Architecture is understood as stewardship grounded in ethical responsibility to people, place, and planet; planning is practised as social responsibility that shapes equitable and resilient communities; and preservation is embraced as a future‑making practice that uses cultural continuity, adaptive reuse, and environmental care to design sustainable urban futures.
This lecture reframes heritage conservation as a forward‑looking climate strategy rather than a backward‑looking cultural obligation. Drawing from Southeast Asian cosmopolitan palimpsests, vernacular environmental intelligence, and contemporary conservation practice, the talk argues that the most sustainable building is the one that already exists, and that cultural identity is a critical resource for climate resilience.
Through case studies from Asia, the lecture demonstrates how communities adapt to environmental forces, how ethical governance shapes sustainable outcomes, and how conservation can serve as a living laboratory for decarbonization, biophilic urbanism, and human‑centred design.
The session proposes a paradigm shift: architecture and preservation must move from “saving the past” to “designing the future ethically,” where cultural continuity, community empowerment, and environmental stewardship form the foundation of sustainable urbanism.
About Johannes Widodo:
A professor at the National University of Singapore, teaching in the MA Architectural Conservation Program. Affiliations: mAAN (modern Asian Architecture Network) founder & executive, AAHM (Asian Academy for Heritage Management) executive committee, UNESCO Asia Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation jury, ICOMOS ISC member, ICOMOS National Committee (Indonesia and Singapore) founder, DoCoMoMo (Macau and Singapore) founder, iNTA (International Network of Tropical Architecture) founder & executive, TCHS (The Circle for Human Sustainability) member, and SEACHA (South East Asian Cultural Heritage Alliance) founder and advisory board member. Member of Urban Housing Society (Japan), Preserving Legacy – Climate Adapt! Network, and Steering Committee member of UHC-HEI (Urban-rural Heritage Conservation in Higher Education Institutes) Network.