The Architecture

© Jeff Goldberg. Esto

The Architecture

As Yale-NUS was a completely new institution, the campus was designed and built from scratch, which meant that its buildings and architecture could be tailored from the ground up to suit the College’s needs.

Combining educational, residential and social spaces, the campus supported the College’s educational mission while also providing a comfortable and inspiring home for its students.

It was designed by American architectural firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, in collaboration with Singaporean firm Forum Architects.

Inspirations

The architects looked to some ancient educational institutions for inspiration, such as India’s Nalanda University, the Temple of Literature in Hanoi, the Greek Academy and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

They were also inspired by elements from Yale University’s campus, and sought to combine these with the more contemporary high-rise architecture of Singapore.

Another element was how to capture some of the distinctiveness of the architecture in Yale, New Haven, in Singapore, while embracing the tropical Asian aspects of architecture.

NUS President Tan Chorh Chuan describes how the College’s architecture combined elements from Yale University’s campus with Singaporean features.

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The Oculus, located at the main entrance to the campus, combined Eastern and Western influences, while subverting both.

In Chinese symbolism, circles refer to Heaven, while squares refer to the Earth, as seen in the early Chinese text “The way of Heaven is round; the Way of Earth is square”.

The Oculus was inspired by this idea, but reversed the traditional positions by having a square roof (representing the Earth) above a circular reflecting pool (representing Heaven), so locating the Earth in the sky and Heaven on the ground.

And in Western architecture, an oculus is a circular opening in the centre of a dome, allowing light, rain and air into a building. The campus’s Oculus replaced this traditional circular opening with a square one.

This merging and subverting of East and West served as a fitting symbolic entrance to the Yale-NUS campus.

Architecture that reflected the distinctive East and West aspirations of the College.

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan recalls how the architectural pillars took influences from both East and West.

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Some inspirations were specific to Singapore, such as the patterns found in the Tan Chin Tuan Lecture Theatre which were derived from local food centres.

Another echo of local culture was seen in the covered walkways that connected the campus buildings.

Although reminiscent of Classical colonnades, they were actually inspired by the narrow corridors called ‘five-foot ways’ found outside Singapore’s traditional shophouses.

The Campus Village

One of the architects’ first decisions was to increase the number of residential towers from three—one for each Residential College—to five, with the idea that the smaller towers would give a more intimate, village-like feeling.

The challenging nature of the campus terrain also contributed to this ‘village’ character by enforcing a less regimented design.

Oral History Interview

Professor Pericles Lewis discusses how the architecture and terrain contributed to the village-like feel of the campus.

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A Community Feeling

One of the primary objectives of the campus design was to facilitate the creation of a positive community feeling.

How do you create facilities that encourage informal interaction and out-of-classroom learning?

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan on how the campus helped shape the community.

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We call it ‘nested communities’.

Professor Pericles Lewis describes a series of student communities increasing in size from individual suites up to the whole of Yale and NUS.

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As part of these ‘nested communities’, sky gardens were placed in the Residential College towers. Equipped with picnic tables and benches, these outdoor garden spaces provided a space for small groups of neighbours to gather together.

Professor Tan Tai Yong

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This sense of community was enhanced by limiting the number of entrances to the campus. However, the gates could be kept open during the day to allow NUS students and the public to enter freely, and closed at night to transform the campus back into a private residential area.

Professor Pericles Lewis

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Each Residential College had its own distinctive design features to enhance their individuality.

Ariel Cheung

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Each Residential College also used a different type of wood in their decoration.

Awards and Public Forum

The success of the campus was demonstrated by the many design and building awards it received.

The Green Mark Platinum Award was received in 2013, before the campus was even complete, recognising the ecologically friendly design of the campus buildings.

Notable features included sensors to automatically turn down lights and air-conditioning, the maximising of natural light and the green roofs and sky gardens.

The award was recertified for a second time in 2021.

We are delighted that our campus has been awarded the International Architecture Award which recognises excellence in the design, construction, planning and sustainability of our campus.

Professor Pericles Lewis on the College winning the prestigious International Architecture Award in 2016.

The College also won Southeast Asia’s highest award for energy efficiency and conservation in buildings and green buildings (in the ‘Energy Efficient Building – Tropical Building’ category). It was awarded by the ASEAN Centre for Energy at the ASEAN Energy Awards in 2019.

A public forum was held at the College on 13 October 2015, featuring presentations from the architects and discussions on the unique qualities of the campus.