Ken Yeang is the kind of architect who takes a big-picture look at the world we live in. As a designer, he focuses on comprehensive understanding of design. As an architect, he is inspired by nature. His broad interests have helped him become one of the foremost ‘green’ architects, and according to The Guardian newspaper, one of the “50 people who could save the planet”. Dr Yeang will be speaking at Material Xperience 2014.

His office, T. R. Hamzah & Yeang, looks specifically at the connection between the natural and the human-built environment. The designers look into how these environments interact. Their built work can be seen as the physical interface between the two.

So what does this mean? As an example, look at the firm’s tower designs. Because of design complexity, material use, cost and longevity, high-rise buildings are generally the least ecologically responsible of building types. But in our increasingly urbanised world, skyscrapers are here to stay. So it is a prime task of architects to get into the business of conceiving ecological skyscrapers.

T. R. Hamzah & Yeang’s expertise is here, in the ecological approach to the design of large projects. The architects give consideration to a building’s energy and material use and its impact on a site’s ecology. Building on early work in passive low-energy design, they are continually developing what they call the bioclimatic skyscraper.

Ken Yeang is an architect, ecologist and planner, known for his ecology-based work on signature eco-achitecture and eco-masterplanning with a distinctive green aesthetic. A graduate of the AA school, he received his doctorate in ecological design and planning from Cambridge University. He is principal of Ken Yeang Design International and T. R. Hamzah & Yeang. The firm’s expertise is in deep green innovative green architecture and masterplans that go much further than conventional accreditation systems.

This holistic viewpoint compares well to the ideas of another MX2014 speaker, Koert van Mensvoort. This article is part of a series in which we are giving previews of the star lectures featuring at Material Xperience 2014.

You can see the entire speakers’ programme here. For your free ticket, register here.