Top architect to outline his vision of 'Natural Skyscrapers' at Cityscape 2003

A multi-award winning architect, Yeang is credited with inventing the bioclimatic skyscraper, where vertical gardens wind up and through high-rise buildings and the use of natural light and fresh air integrates nature into the steel and concrete towers that are the hallmark of the region's cities.

Yeang, who will outline his views on the need for an ecological approach to the design and planning of large buildings at the Cityscape the commercial architecture, property development and investment event, to be held in Dubai in October, questions every premise on which high rise buildings are founded.

In 1984 he burst on to the international architecture scene with the Roof-Roof House, a curious-sounding structure, built as an environmental experiment in the hot and humid climate of Kuala Lumpur. It features a gigantic, curved porous pergola, that as acts a sunshade on top of a covering to keep out the rain.

Since then his practice, T. R. Hamzah and Yeang has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Landmark buildings he has designed include the Menara Mesiniaga and the IBM Tower in Kuala Lumpur, the Singapore National Library and the Tokyo Nara Tower.

Yeang says his architectural philosophy is based on the belief that skyscrapers are high consumers of energy and materials and are insensitive to ecological and environmental issues.

"A conventional building is really a commercial proposition," says Yeang. "You have to get as much money as possible out of a piece of land and that is why tall buildings exist.

"It is a capitalist object and if you accept that it is inevitable and that you have to build it, then the question arises of how it can be better designed.

"In a way that means seeing it as a building in its own right rather than as an adaptation of a ground level building and building it up 20 or 30 stories. Instead, we should look at tall buildings as multi-storey, three-dimensional urban design and all the considerations for urban design should apply to tall buildings."

Yeang believes tall buildings should be 'cities in the sky' with good pedestrian linkages, public zones, a wide variety of uses and stunning vistas, as well as using vegetation as a crucial component of the facade and interior, acting both to remove heat and to purify the air.

"What I try to do is design buildings in a better and a more effective way than just slapping concrete trays upon each other on a piece of land. I try to create a life in the sky that is better for the people who use the buildings," he said.

Yeang will be joined at the Cityscape Property Investment and Management Conference by a host of world renowned speakers, including Dr Suha Ozkan, Secretary General, Aga Khan Foundation, Switzerland; George Ferguson, President Elect, Royal Institute of British Architects, UK; Bernado Fort-Bescia, Principal, Arquitectronica, Hong Kong; Dr Sami M Angawi, Director General, AMAR Centre for Architecture, Saudi Arabia and Bernard Khoury, of Bernard Khoury Architects, Lebanon.

Organised by the International Institute for Research (IIR), the conference will be attended by international and regional property investment and development experts and urban planners from the US, Europe, Middle East and Far East as well as leading regional and international architects.

Key issues to be examined will include trends in regional and global property management; the impact of freehold on regional property investment; strategic planning of cities, including sustainable urban environments; transitional and emerging investment markets; integrating facility and property management and innovations in property development financing.

The conference will be held alongside Cityscape 2003, the Middle East's only dedicated exhibition for the international commercial architecture, property design and development sectors.

Both events, officially supported by the Dubai Development and Investment Authority, will take place at the Grand Hyatt Dubai's conference centre, from October 18-20.

Platinum sponsors of Cityscape 2003 are Aqar Developments, Amoudia Real Estate Development, Nakheel and Jumeirah Beach Resort. The event's other sponsors are Al-Oula Development Company, Rikaz, Assa Abloy and Tabreed.