JUROR 2012

Ng Sek San is trained as a engineer ( civil) at the University of Canterbury , Christchurch, New Zealand. He did his post graduate in landscape architecture at Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.

After spending 12 years studying and working in New Zeal, Sek San returned to Asia to practise with Belt Collins International for 4 years in Singapore, servicing their hospitality projects in Asia. In 1994, Sek San returned to Kuala Lumpur to set up his own landscape consultancy – Sek San Design.

In the last 18 years of private practice, Sek San has attempted to weave symbiotically between the hard and imposing world of architecture and the soft evolving organic world of plants and landscape.

Sek San projects a self-effacing vision, a profound respect for nature, the environment and a belief in committing to making works that reflect an egalitarian lifestyle, simple, uncluttered, affordable and not overtly finished.

He eschews the principle of treading the land lightly as possible, being irreverent to manmade rules and conventions, and advocates extreme restraint in design.

In the last 8 years, Sek San experimented with the idea of returning the profession to a craft based tradition instead of following the trend of companies growing into big global businesses. All his projects are now concentrated in Kuala Lumpur and he does not take on overseas or outstation commissions. Sek San prefers local works as he can better understand the subtle idiosyncrasies of context, weather, culture, light quality, cost, workmanship, etc. It allow his practice to get into a lot more depth and also to collaborate with local clients, who knows and trust his practice better, and allows him to take bigger risk on their projects.

Sek San Design projects could be viewed at www.seksan.com.