Guest speakers: Dato Dr. Ken Yeang (Architect and Ecologist), Dr. Ronald Hall (European Commission), Audrey Tan (Think City) & the participation of Lisa Foo and Aida Redza.
Moderator: Dato Dr Ooi Kee Beng, Executive Director, Penang Institute
Second chapter of the series of conferences on urban biodiversity, this Monday Talk will look into the concept of the sustainable city, with a focus on the tropics and the specificities induced by a tropical climate.
Three experts will join in conversation and share their expertise: Dato’ Dr. Ken Yeang, pioneer of green architecture in Malaysia, together with Audrey Tan, from the Climate and Environmental Resilience group at Think City, and Dr. Ronald Hall, Senior Expert at the Regional Direction of Urban and Regional Policies at the European Commission. This talk will be moderated by Dato’ Dr. Ooi Kee Beng, Executive Director of the Penang Institute.
Performer Aida Redza and designer Lisa Foo will then present a video of their project Moved by Padi, originally showcased in 2016 during the George Town Festival, which recreated a rice field in the center of George Town.
This Monday Talk is brought to you by the Alliance Française de Malaisie and the Embassy of France in Malaysia, in partnership with the Penang Institute, and is organized in the context of the Francophonie celebrations which gather the French speaking Embassies and diplomatic missions.
Venue:
Penang Institute – 10, Jalan Brown, George Town, 10350 George Town, Pulau Pinang
Date and time:
Monday 14 March 2022 – 06:30 pm
Free admission upon RSVP – to participate in the event at the Penang Institute, please click on the link below to register before Saturday 12 March.
Short bio
Audrey Tan
Audrey Tan is a Senior Associate with the Climate and Environmental Resilience flagship at Think City, a social purpose organisation with the mission of making cities more people-friendly, resilient and liveable. As part of a team developing Malaysia’s first urban climate adaptation programme, she manages stakeholder engagements and communications.
Trained as an architect, Audrey has previously practiced in some of Malaysia’s most renowned firms and counts art, design, policy research and urban planning among her main interests.
Links:
Dato’ Dr. Ken Yeang
Dato’ Dr. Ken Yeang is an architect and ecologist, known for his signature hyper-green architecture, a field he pioneered since 1971. His work is differentiated based on the science of ecology, being the originating context for humanity’s activities on the planet and has a distinct visually signature verdant green aesthetic, that balances the organic (biotic) with the inorganic (abiotic) in built systems as ’constructed ecosystems’. Through his projects, he advanced ideas, principles, and systems in ecological and bioclimatic architecture.
He early training was at the AA School (Architectural Association, London) and received his doctorate on the topic of ecological design and planning from Cambridge University, where he Is an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College. Currently, he is the Distinguished Plym Professor at Illinois University.
The British newspaper, Guardian names him “one of the 50 people who could save the Planet”.
Aida Mohd Redza
Aida Redza is one of Malaysia’s leading contemporary dancers and choreographers, noted for creating multimedia performances. Based in Penang, she is the founder of WindRiver Productions, the artistic principal of Studio Pentas and a member of Ombak-Ombak ARTStudio.
Aida continues to evolve as a socially engaged artist committed to creating performances that are inclusive and collaborative, situated between art and the everyday, to raise awareness and advocate for the causes she believes in.
Lisa Foo Yu Hsia
Trained in architecture, Lisa Foo Yu Hsia now practices design independently. She has participated in various collaborative art and performance art projects in creating site-specific installations ranging from sites like rivers, a botanical garden to an urban paddy field.
Life, Lisa believes, is about experiences and memories, and the impermanent nature of her installation art is a reflection of this belief. Things created for a specific albeit impermanent purpose need not necessarily become useless once the end of their intended purpose is reached. Lisa is constantly finding new materials to re-purpose into objects of beauty, through her installation art. Like someone who embarks on a new venture after retirement, the post-intent life of materials can continue, only with a different purpose and in different forms.
Dato’ Dr. Kee Beng, Executive Director, Penang Institute (moderator)
Dato’ Dr. Ooi Kee Beng is Executive Director of Penang Institute, and member of various Penang State Government bodies such as the Penang 2030 Advisory Committee.
He is also Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, where he was Deputy Director (2011-2017); Senior Fellow, Jeffrey Cheah Institute for Southeast Asia, Sunway University; Adjunct Professor and member of the Industry Advisory Committee (School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Taylor’s University; and Honorary Fellow, Center for Policy Research and International Studies (CenPRIS, USM).
He is an award-winning author, and gained his PhD in Sinology from Stockholm University, where he lectured in Chinese History, Chinese Philosophy and Introduction to China. He is founder-editor of Penang Monthly, ISSUES Policy Briefs, and ISEAS Perspective; and long- time editor for Trends in Southeast Asia. He writes commentaries for regional newspapers and is a long-time columnist for The Edge Malaysia.
His latest book is As Empires Fell: The Life and Times of H.S. Lee, the First Finance Minister of Malaya. His other books include Month by Month. A Collection of Editorials. The Eurasian Core and Its Edges: Dialogues with Wang Gungwu on the History of the World; The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time; Yusof Ishak: A Man of Many Firsts; In Lieu of Ideology: An Intellectual Biography of Goh Keng Swee; Lim Kit Siang: Defying the Odds and Catharsis: A Second Chance for Democracy in Malaysia.
PROGRAMME
| 6:30pm | Guests welcoming @Penang Institute |
| 6:30pm – 7:30pm | Refreshments |
| 7:30pm – 9pm | Talk + Q&A |
| 9pm – 9:45pm | Video presentation by Lisa Foo and Aida Redza |
