Dr. Ken Yeang, a Malaysian architect and ecologist who has been designing ecological, bioclimatic and energy efficient architecture for 40 years. Beginning his architectural practice in l974, Yeang designed large scale projects, skyscrapers, and ecomasterplanning and wrote books on ecodesign, including “The Skyscraper: Bioclimatically Considered,” “The Green Skyscraper: The Basis for Designing Sustainable, Intensive Buildings,” “Ecodesign: A manual for Ecological Design.” He also worked as a visiting scholar at universities in over 30 countries including Australia, China, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Dr. Ken Yeang’s architecture feature eco-land bridges, vertical landscaping, ecocells, energy efficiency, light shelves, light pipes, stepped terraces, vertical linked enclosed atria, windscoops, bioswales, and deep green architecture. He is best known for his invention of the Bioclimatic skyscraper, and for his novel ideas on vertical urban design.

Menara Mesiniaga, the high-tech, 15-storey IBM headquarters in Subang Jaya near Kuala Lumpur. It is the recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 1995.

“Geometrically,” says Yeang in his book Bioclimatic Skyscrapers, “the skyscraper can be regarded primarily as an intensification of built space over a small site area (or over a small built footprint). The tall building type permits more useable floor-space to go higher, to make more cash from the land, put more goods, more people and more rents in one place. (…) The environmental justification is that the high-rise’s concentration of commercial activities in an urbanised location enables the reduction of energy consumption in transportation. Designing with the climate in mind comes with a functional aesthetic dimension in his skyscrapers that is rarely found in conventional high-rise buildings.