Robert Powell

British-born Professor Robert Powell has had quite a multi-faceted career, having worked as an architect, city planner, critic and academician. But he is more widely known for his work as an author of books that celebrate the unique character of tropical Asian architecture.

Powell’s long-term Asian stint came after 12 years of working at Ainsworth Sparks Associates, an architecture and urban planning firm in Newcastle, England. In 1984, the architect arrived in Singapore to begin his new job as a lecturer at the National University of Singapore. Being in Singapore brought him back to his first Asian trip five years earlier, deep in the jungles of Sulawesi where he helped build a nature reserve, and where he fell in love with the tropical vibe.

In between lectures, Powell authored several books, including Innovative Architecture of Singapore, The Tropical Asian House, Contemporary Houses in the Philippines, and The New Malaysian House. Together with fellow architect Ken Yeang, he co-authored Rethinking the Skyscraper: The Complete Works of Ken Yeang, and even edited four books for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

Powell would later return to London to work at the now defunct architectural firm Llewelyn Davies Yeang. But in 2016, Powell found himself back in his beloved Asia, as first professor of architecture at Taylor’s University Malaysia. He held this position until recently when he took a step back to fully focus on writing books that document Asia’s architectural legacy.