Over the past years, we have worked in different configurations of cross-disciplinary teams, with expertises connecting to architectural research, education and practical experiments. Architecture has been at the core of our competences and the focal point of our work.

Principle 1: Architecture is a design discipline.
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We approach the following areas through the lens of architectural design:

• Design as a driver for academic research
  
• Design in education, as methodology, as a discourse and as preparation for professional practice
  
• Design as creative practice and place for experimentation

Principle 2: Architecture connects design and technology.

Architectural design’s main purpose is to create spatial constructs and to transition from idea to realisation. Our work operates on the intersection between design and technology, and it operates on a range of scales between materials/components and their impact on built structures in high-density urban environments.

Principle 3: Design is a creative process, and design is open-ended.
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Creative processes tackle problems with varying degrees of complexity, from well-defined, to ill-defined and wicked problems. Design does not have a clearly determined end goal, and the design process is transformative and hence not predetermined.
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Principle 4: Design deals with uncertainties.

Design anticipates future conditions, and while its strives for the transformation of objects and conditions it also reflective on the past: both in historical dimensions as well as in the dimensions of the design process itself.

Principle 5: Design processes are iterative.

They revisit particular problems in a positive feedback loop. The design process can be interpreted as a chronological process (it is directed), but it allows nodes to be revisited and adjusted (it contains loops).

Michael Budig is an enthusiastic architect, educator and researcher, who is keen on operating along the cultural intersections between design and technology. He investigates in renewable and reconfigurable architecture, driven by computational design and construction, and the desire to provide innovative solutions for a decarbonisation in the built environment.

He is Assistant Professor in Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), director of the REAL Lab for Research in Renewable and Reconfigurable Architecture. His research focuses on renewable materials and reconfigurable architecture driven by computational design and digital fabrication. He provides innovations for the decarbonisation, digitalisation and changing demographics in the built environment.

He teaches Design to first year students (Design Thinking and Innovation), Design Studios for undergraduate and graduate students, and building technology in the undergraduate curriculum (Architecture Science and Technology), and he coordinated the PhD programme at ASD between 2019 and 2021.

He is appointed Young Urban Leader with the World Cities Summit and serves as a member to various committees such as the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) in Singapore and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).