Wolfgang Kessling is taking a sabbatical to teach at the NUS in Singapore for the academic year 2024/2025. He is joining the faculty at the DoA at NUS, teaching about tropical Climate Engineering.
His first lecture on September 17th is titled "Between Indoors and Outdoors - Climate Design for the Dry and Humid Zones": In modern generic architecture there is a strong disconnect between the building and the local climate and culture. With the advent of air conditioning and energy efficient technologies, architectural form and performance of a building became for the most part an independent discussion. Buildings became unspecific to a location and performance became delegated to technology. Are architects missing the opportunity to take (back) ownership of the design and performance of their buildings and projects? How can advanced understanding of outdoor comfort inform landscape design and integration of the projects into the urban context to reduce Urban Heat Island effect? How can projects become more people centric and move beyond form making?
Wolfgang Kessling holds a doctorate in physics and is a partner at Transsolar Energietechnik, Germany. He is an expert in climate-friendly building design and adaptive comfort concepts. The focus of his work is the development of innovative comfort concepts for, indoor, mid-door and outdoor spaces. He lectures regularly at universities and international conferences on sustainable design, thermal comfort and zero-energy projects.