Interior Architect | Architect | Urban Designer

Born in Singapore and educated in the United States of America, Khai holds a Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design from Harrington Institute and a Masters of Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.

He continued with a career in America for over twenty-five years, fielding prolific projects in interior architecture, architecture and urban planning, until 2015 when he returned to Singapore to expand his global portfolio. With 30 years of experience, Khai is known for his nuanced approach. He credits both his multi-cultural realms and interdisciplinary education as pillars to his refined aesthetics, distilled to deliver purity and empathy.

“I've always been very succinct with my moves. Part of it is the training from the Midwest in the believe in form following functions (where the form of the outside is informed by the function inside) so we can create something truly efficient, cost effective and yet meaningful.”

His diverse portfolio includes product showrooms and corporate headquarters, and extends to sizable urban master plans up to 500 hectares (1200 acres) in size. Demonstrating his acuity in holistic environments, his projects also include research labs, special needs and healthcare facilities featuring dementia-friendly environments.

As a multi-award recipient throughout his journey, including those from the American Institute of Architects, his collaborative spirit has led many of his teams to industrial wins. He has also made multiple appearances as a speaker at events, such as the international healthcare conference "Hospital Build Asia, Exhibition and Congress 2010", guest critic at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and most recently, as speaker in the American Institute of Architects International Region webinar series in 2020 on the topics of “Evolution of Singapore Healthcare Architecture and the Future of Healthcare Design”.

He is also a frequent guest lecturer, critic, and thesis advisor for both the masters and undergraduate degree program at Harrington College of Design, Chicago, where he served as an adjunct faculty member.

2023 sees Khai continuing his hallmark marriage of elegance and function through global projects. He has recently completed Residence 430 - a residential design that changes the conversation about utilitarian public housing in Singapore.

On his design process

“One thing unique about my interior design school in Chicago, was the curriculum - it was very Bauhaus. The investigation into materials, art and design instilled in me an intimate appreciation of the varied scale of design and craftsmanship. Each scale of design, from interiors to architecture to urban planning and land development, have their own nuances that can be addressed to improve the quality of human experiences and economic success. This education gave me breadth, in understanding how the marriage of aesthetics and construction can create a poetic whole.”

On how he considers a project’s success

“Successfully translating an abstact idea into physical form. In this case, translating the abstract desire ​of a client and their culture into physical reality and witnessing the joy that the users experience in using the spaces. When the form and content gets more distilled and purified through the design process, one needs “to speak very little, as the work will speak volumes for you.”

On his pursuits

“I feel the older a designer gets, the better the designer is, if he is a “thinking designer”. You constantly think about the environment, how people live,​ how they move and their relationship to the environment. This constant thinking and re-thinking makes one a sensitive designer, to create enhanced living experiences for people and places.​”