SCUP Excellence in Planning for New Campus,
Honor Award

Singapore University of Technology and Design for the Campus Master Plan with Sasaki Associates, Inc.

Image provided by AIP Studioworks

Images provided by AIP Studioworks

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The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) master plan provided a challenge to design a new university to advance and implement a cutting-edge academic vision of interdisciplinary, collaborative, and project-based learning.

The academic mission was developed in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is based on new paradigms for integrating technology and design education in architecture and sustainable design, engineering product development, engineering systems design, and information systems technology and design.

Other goals were to support the academic and student development mission; establish a distinct university identity; leverage the unique urban setting by creating synergies with key elements of the site context; foster a sense of community; create a walkable campus and make sustainability a priority.

“The SUTD campus master plan creates a timeless identity that will become the heritage of the university . . . the campus will provide a unique experience and environment, one that nurtures, motivates, and inspires faculty, students and staff to improve the world. It sets a high standard for future university development in the region and beyond,” says President Thomas L. Magnanti.

The design connects and integrates uses through a primary pedestrian spine, an east-west corridor that reflects the university’s interdisciplinary and collaborative mission, addresses major program elements, and links to key community uses.

The Design Centre is at the heart of the campus and the spine. It is the symbolic and functional hub of the university and is an international center for interdisciplinary learning and research. Spaces for the four academic fields are integrated around the Design Centre. Each field has clusters of buildings including academic, student life, meeting, collaboration, and exhibition space.

The plan establishes design, architectural, landscape, and sustainability guidelines and creates a flexible framework to maintain high design and sustainability ambitions.

All buildings face south to optimize solar orientation, minimize heating and cooling needs, and feature green roofs to modulate energy use and provide additional green space. These architectural measures and landscape strategies promote sustainable stormwater management. Transportation measures promote transit use, reduce parking demand and fulfill SUTD’s goals of communicating sustainable development practices to the campus community.

The jury said, “ . . . interesting that the project team thought of design as the integrator of all the disciplines . . . the spinal circulation was completely interwoven with the water and planting grid . . . sophisticated and subtle and beautifully done . . .”

Project Team: Singapore University of Technology and Design with Sasaki Associates, Inc.; also MKPL; Sitetectonix Pte Ltd; Max Fordham LLP; J Roger Preston Pte Ltd; KPK Quantity Surveyors Pte Ltd; Kerstin Hoeger; KTP Consultants Pte Ltd; Duffill Watts Pte Ltd.