While he is no architect, Ee Soon Wei is no stranger to the practice of adaptive reuse. In 2012, the 36-year-old spearheaded the transformation of The Royal Press, his family’s printing press business in Melaka, in a bid to preserve the family legacy and revive the dying art of the letterpress.

Standing at the corner of Leith Street in George Town, Penang is the iconic indigo blue-walled Cheong Fatt Tze Blue Mansion.

Imagine living in a neighbourhood that generates its own electricity, where public areas have 24-hour camera surveillance and residents are encouraged to get around by electric car-sharing services provided by the township.

WHAT do hospitals of the future look like? Drawing from his experience of designing the award-winning Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) in Yishun, Singapore, Jerry Ong, senior vice-president of architecture of the healthcare division at Singapore-based CPG Consultants, envisions hospitals as “centres of wellness for everyone” instead of “repair shops to treat sick patients”.

Technology, low birth rates and an aging population are among the trends that will disrupt or affect the property development industry in the future, according to Varangkana Artkarasatapon, vice-president of business development and new business (high-rise) of Sansiri Public Company Ltd (Thailand) — one of Thailand’s most prominent luxury property developers.

TA Global Bhd, as its name suggests, has a global presence as a property developer with projects in various countries including Malaysia, Australia and Canada.

When thinking about architectural design and ecosystems of the future, Japanese architect Paul Tange and his colleagues at Tange Associates constantly challenge themselves with this question —“How do we create a comfortable environment for people?”

As many as four interactive polls were conducted during the Future Forward event to find out what the participants’ views were on several topics.

Technology may change the way we work and communicate, but human beings still want that personal touch that only another fellow human being can give. Hence, the ideal city of the future would be an intelligent one that makes life easy yet allows people to step out of their homes to have real connection with other people, said the experts that shared their views at the Future Forward Forum on Sept 29, 2016. 

Signs of globalisation are everywhere — from the cars we drive to the shared experience of hunting for virtual monsters on Pokemon Go.