augmented forms

Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival's mainstay event, DATUM:KL, fielded a star-studded international roster showcasing a breadth of contemporary designs and ideas across the globe.

- Text by Nizar Musa

The highlight of the KLAF 2025 (Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival) calendar, the DATUM:KL plenary session presented internationally renowned speakers before a capacity audience at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Organised by the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM), the two-day event celebrated a diaspora of architects whose designs spanned a wide spectrum of archetypal work, from institutional to commercial, private dwellings to recreational spaces, and more.

The KLAF2025 theme inspired a curated collection of works for the audience. “To celebrate the incredible diversity of our built environment, we embraced “Augmentic” as our powerful theme,” says festival director and architect Qhawarizmi Norhisham. “It encapsulates the profound idea that architecture is a magnificent form of augmentation of nature, a harmonious blend of human ingenuity and the natural world. And I'm thrilled that the theme has sparked incredible responses from our speakers.”

Malaysia's Chris Wong of C'Arch Architecture + Design opened Day 1 with two projects that captured the Augmentic theme, their contextualism echoed by the communal-oriented works of Mohamadreza Ghodousi of ZAV Architects (Iran) and Milinda Pathiraja of Robust Architecture Workshop (Sri Lanka). Established firms Gensler and Populous examined their projects at scale - Nihon Sekkei as the outlier with its historic walkway presentation. Meanwhile Hong Kong-based Onebite Studio and Koichi Takada Architects of Australia investigated design in the urban domain.

Showcasing innovations in tech, Carlo Ratti of Carlo Ratti Associati also expanded on this year's Biennale Architettura 2025 in his role as curator. His reflections on the theme Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., the role of adaptive architecture, and the collaborative works of 750 participants, brought a thoughtful close to Day 2 and the conference.