The Sane Thing To Do
BluPrint|May 2018

Something’s happened to hard-nosed businessman and architect Ong Tze Boon, who now uses the L-word and talks about making the world a better place

Judith Arellano Torres
The Sane Thing To Do

The last time BluPrint interviewed Ong Tze Boon, president and CEO of Ong&Ong, he was just weeks into his three-year term as president of the Singapore Institute of Architects. Ebullient and blunt, he spoke of his plans for the organization—boosting membership numbers by 80%, injecting business talks and experiential visits into their Continuing Professional Development program, and getting architectural firms in Singapore to change the way they practice.

“The way we practice is over,” he told us in 2015. “When I say architecture has evolved, I don’t mean the profession has evolved. I don’t mean the buildings have evolved. It’s the service, the way we put things together that’s changed. This is something I’m telling all academics in the world. Every time I meet with the Dean of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, I keep saying, ‘you gotta get with the real world!’ We have been educating based on pillars—architecture, interiors, landscape, graphic design, brand identity. We go to four or five years of school—we graduate with a degree in one of the pillars. I’m telling everyone, customers don’t want that shit from us.”

The hyperbolic Ong would say things like, “We suck,” and called his SIA colleagues and the design industry in Singapore, “crazy.” When we interviewed him again in March of this year, he was on his last week as SIA president. Membership in the SIA hasn’t gone up by much, but he did introduce new content in the CPD program, and some firms seem to have taken pages from his playbook and adopted a 360-degree approach to problem-solving and design.

This story is from the May 2018 edition of BluPrint.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the May 2018 edition of BluPrint.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM BLUPRINTView All
Windows Over Windows
BluPrint

Windows Over Windows

It’s what you do when you’re a green-loving architect like Formzero’s Cherng Yih Lee, and your client isn’t interested in the forest outside

time-read
5 mins  |
Volume 4 2019
The Office Of New Life Stories
BluPrint

The Office Of New Life Stories

D-Associates Architect’s office building in Jakarta is just how principals Gregorius Yolodi and Maria Rosantina want it— green, creative, and nurturing—just as they want their team to be

time-read
5 mins  |
Volume 4 2019
Stark Beauty
BluPrint

Stark Beauty

When you’ve got great bones designed by Park + Associates, the structure should be the architecture

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 4 2019
Sunday's Best
BluPrint

Sunday's Best

Willis Kusuma’s multi-functional Mister Sunday elevates the Jakarta café scene with the timelessness and formal honesty of concrete

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 4 2019
Brut Force
BluPrint

Brut Force

Raw concrete is experiencing a renaissance, but how compatible is it with tropical weather? Jakarta-based architect and frequent concrete user Willis Kusuma responds

time-read
6 mins  |
Volume 4 2019
Workaholics Finish First
BluPrint

Workaholics Finish First

Bangkok’s Architectural Studio of Work-Aholic (ASWA) takes their first stab at WAF and counts on the power of spatial storytelling to take home the prize

time-read
3 mins  |
Special Issue 2
People Obssessed With Design
BluPrint

People Obssessed With Design

Park + Associates: Crafting architecture with good bones and spaces that resonate with individuals

time-read
5 mins  |
Special Issue 2
Firm Follows Feeling
BluPrint

Firm Follows Feeling

Bangkok-based landscape architecture firm P Landscape emphasizes the human experience and feeling through contemporary integration of art, culture, and ecology

time-read
5 mins  |
Special Issue 2
Tried and Tested
BluPrint

Tried and Tested

WAF and INSIDE multi-awardee Hypothesis’ researchintensive approach produces complete design solutions that are anything but formulaic

time-read
2 mins  |
Special Issue 2
Crew's Control
BluPrint

Crew's Control

Young Thai studio Creative Crews finds a worldwide audience for three very different projects: a rural homestay, a classroom for the blind, and their own office, all indicative of the practice’s adaptive design solutions

time-read
5 mins  |
Special Issue 2