Recently concluded urban-economic research on Pyongyang’s urban transformation in the past five years.
Productive Pyongyang Research, 2019

An everyday space.
Singapore Airlines Entrance Roof, 2019

Under construction.
Water Plant Office, 2019

OFFICE PROFILE

Focusing on workspace environment, infrastructure, adpative reuse and urban regeneration, the firm responds to today’s challenging urban conditions through built works and research project. Central to the design ethos of the firm, is the strong interest in reducing architecture to its primal form as a framework for everyday life to flourish. In particular, the firm is noted for its strong interest in the relationship between architecture and the city. Registered in the United Kingdom and Singapore, the firm works across cultures and maintains an international portfolio of projects at various scales.

Three-part entrance roof connected
by a diagonal line.
Singapore Airlines Entrance Roof, 2019

Apartments as a rising stepped landscape with increasing densities.

Yangon Mixed-use Housing, 2018

Enclosing an urban collective courtyard.

Yangon Mixed-use Housing, 2018

Taking reference from Yangon’s street life, varying apartment tower types have been strategically placed create a dynamic relationship with the internal courtyard and the rest of the city and nature afar.

Yangon Mixed-use Housing, 2018

Entering the Path.
Gwanghwamun History Path, 2019

FOUNDER

Spatial Anatomy is founded by Calvin Chua, a registered architect in the UK. In parallel to running the practice, Calvin serves an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, leading research on the territorial peripheries and hinterlands.

Calvin’s works have been featured in various news media, including Monocle, Reuters and CNN. In addition, Calvin is also noted for his non-profit engagement with the DPRK through Choson Exchange. He is recognised as one of the leading voices on urban development issues on the Korean peninsula.

Prior to founding Spatial Anatomy, Calvin worked for various architecture and urban planning firms in Europe and Asia. Under Balmond Studio, Calvin was part of the team that delivered a large mixed-use development project in Sri Lanka; while under Fundacion Metropoli, Calvin was responsible for developing territorial plans for governments and multi-lateral banks in Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia.

A proposal to reorganise the heart of Seoul through a linear path
Gwanghwamun History Path, 2019

CURRENT & PAST COLLABORATORS

Darren Ho, Chiew Jia Hui, Chung Zhi Xue, Pomtai Awyeung, Gareth Mah, Chloe Liang, Janani Sundaram, Shao Xuan Tan, Lisa Koswara, Pavithra Muthu, Porndee Chua, Junwei Mok, Gabi Quek, Sam Tang, Denise Lee, Inez Ow, Wei Lin Tan, Jiehao Lau, Zhining Lou

A new linear cultural street flanking Gyeongbokgung.
Gwanghwamun History Path, 2019

A linear journey that frames the square setting up a sequence of functional spaces, access points and views.
Gwanghwamun History Path, 2019

Featured on CUBES Magazine.
Corridor Apartment, 2016

SELECTED CLIENTS

British Council
Certis Cisco
Choson Exchange
Modalku (Funding Societies)
Public Utilities Board
Qatar Museums
Saturday Kids
Seoul Metropolitan Government
Singapore Airlines
Wilmotte Foundation
YCDC

Sharing balconies with neighbours.

Yangon Mixed-use Housing, 2018

Fragmenting a cube.
Masak-Masak Food Kiosk, 2018

SELECTED LECTURES

‘Strata Malls: Asian City of Tomorrow’
NTU CCA, Singapore
Jul 2019

‘Resilience and Infrastructure’

Future City Summit, Hong Kong
Aug 2018

‘Everyday Monuments’

Seoul, South Korea
Feb 2018

‘Emerging North Korea’

Architectural Association, London, UK
Feb 2017

‘Greater Male Development’
ADB Workshop,

Corridor as a flexible active learning space.
Saturday Kids School, 2018

Opening up partition walls to encourage openness in school.
Saturday Kids School, 2018

Follies on abandoned agricultural plots and wetlands for short-term stay and art residencies.
Hainan Village Masterplan, 2017

SELECTED MEDIA FEATURE

CNN
New York Times
The Guardian
Al Jazeera
Fuji TV
El Mundo
Deutsche Welle
Straits Times
Lianhe Zaobao
Monocle
Dezeen

Village regeneration project in Hainan. Recording the landscape qualities on site.
Hainan Village Masterplan, 2017

Housing typology studies.

Pyongyang Model Apartment, Seoul Biennale, 2017

Exhibition during Seoul Biennale.

Pyongyang Model Apartment, Seoul Biennale, 2017

Compressing a typical Pyongyang apartment within 36sqm.

Pyongyang Model Apartment, Seoul Biennale, 2017

An everyday pier.
Yeoui-naru Ferry Terminal, 2017

An everyday pier.
Yeoui-naru Ferry Terminal, 2017

Weaving between land and water, a series of interior lagoons
and plazas is established, giving rise to a unique social space
between the river and the park.
Yeoui-naru Ferry Terminal, 2017

Multi-layered ecological planes and mobility spines. By intensifying the required programmatic densities and infrastructure within the elevated spines, the ground plane is liberated.
Jurong Lake District Masterplan, 2017

New programs have been sensitively stitched together in a linear way to bridge the existing eastern urban center to the new western urban expansion.
Bandirma Park, 2017

An inhabitable linear connection.
Bandirma Park, 2017

A series of alternating rooms, made up of planned programmatic timber-framed spaces, and flexible informal yard spaces, give rise to a programmatic diversity within the campus.
New Aarhus Campus, 2016

A series of semi-transparent canopies providing shelter and framing the landscape.
Bandirma Park, 2017

Responding to the existing urban form on site - 9m wide perimeter urban blocks - the linearity of the blocks were divided into a series of smaller rooms, distributed along the four linear urban strips. Variations in the spaces are created through an alternation of solids (planned programmatic spaces) and voids (flexible yard spaces), resulting in an urban texture that encourages human interaction.
New Aarhus Campus, 2016

What was once an uneventful space in the house becomes an 'interior street', a new circulation and communal social space for family interaction.
Corridor Apartment, 2016

Acting as a new extension to the living room, a continuous wall of shelves and alcoves lines along an extended corridor.
Corridor Apartment, 2016

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Creating spaces, objects and strategies for cities across geographies and cultures.