Director (Design Development) and Chief Architect 

Housing Development Board 

Ar. Wan is the Chief Architect and Director (Design Development) in HDB. He has extensive experience in the public service as a building professional.  He served as a qualified Architect, urban designer and planner in URA for 16 years, before taking up the position of Director (Professional Practice) in HDB with the mission to set up HDB’s in-house multi-disciplinary design studios which resides within the Building & Research Institute (BRI).  Today, it is known as the Centre of Design Excellence (CoDE) with the aim to integrate spatial design-thinking and technical research initiatives to prototype new housing innovations. In 2022, Ar. Wan took up the appointment as Director (Landscape & Design) to strengthen HDB’s design policies before taking up his current role as Director (Design Development) to oversee the design and delivery of HDB developments.  He was also appointed as Chief Architect in 2023 to chart the roadmap for HDB architects’ professional development and to promote design excellence in social housing designs.     

Ar. Wan strongly believes that good design must be guided by social-technical principles, i.e. having a good sense of the evolving social needs and leverage on technologies to overcome constraints. Towards this end, public housing must be responsive to harnessing knowledge and adopting effective design solutions to promote healthy and active living for the young, while also planning and designing for an ageing population.  He actively promotes holistic and multi-disciplinary design thinking, and co-creation with IHLs and agencies to tap on their expertise and domain knowledge to achieve this.