Ken Yeang is an international operating architect, known for his green high rise buildings. Thanks to his cousin Gerry he development his practise for what it is now. The conversations they had made him realise that just designing high rise buildings is not enough to get around in de the world. You need organisational, managerial, financial and marketing skills to make the world known that your design is unique, and therefore has a unique selling point. Yeang found his unique selling point: build green high rise buildings.

Yeang was invited by AIR foundation and the Rotterdam Academy for Architecture and Urban Design to give a lecture as part of their program ‘Re-inventing Rotterdam’. The lecture was held last Friday in zaal Staal at the Beurstraverse. The lecture was sponsored by Estrade, ING real estate, Bouwfonds MAB, Bouwfonds, Rotterdam Climate Initiative and the Fund for Stimulating Architecture. Yeang was amiable and entertaining. His lecture was energetic and easy to follow. He presented 135 slides with professional ease. The public was enthusiastic, interested and warmed by his performance. Never the less, at the end of the lecture Yeang was just another architect presenting his designs, his buildings, his darlings.

The ‘green’ in his high rise buildings is inventive and interesting but one can not help thinking that the green aspect in his designs is more than a label. An unique selling point for a high rise building in a world ready for taking the changing climate and the value of nature for human existence serious. His design inventions shed a new light on ways to build high rise buildings, and give developers, investors and city counsel a way to sell ‘high rise’ to the public. Very interesting for a city such as Rotterdam, that presents itself as ‘high rise city’ that loves icons. But can Rotterdam re-invent itself through the inventions of Yeang or just re-invent its marketing strategy for selling high rise buildings to its citizens?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Yeang
http://www.trhamzahyeang.com/index.html

http://www.avbr.hro.nl/

http://www.airfoundation.nl/