HIN L. TAN - AN ARCHITECTURAL PERSPECTIVE 1978 - 1994

Hin Tan left his native country Malaysia for England in 1978 to commence his architectural studies at the University of Manchester. Following his "year-out" apprenticeship at Arup Associates in 1981, he proceeded to his final degree at the University of Liverpool. This way where he first came into contact with the proposition of architure as a form of technological expression.

This prevalent 'hi-tech' theme in architecture in the UK in the early 80's was led in part by the offices of Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. Hin left college about then in 1984 and joined the offices of Richard Rogers where some of the firm's more architecturally significant buildings were being fermented and designed. Argueably, the flagship og the 'high tech' movement was the Pompidou Centre in Paris. This had then been built and the office was completing the Lloyds of London headquarters. For the young man as an architect, it was a moment of great inspiration - with ideas freely traded and initiatives rewarded.

Hin's involvement received a firmer grounding by the second half of the 80's when the British economy grew along with an increasing acceptability of this style with corporate clients. He joined the new London practice of NicholasGrimshaw and Partners as the sixth member of staff and stayed there until it grew to eighty-five. It was momentous period when architecture and its enjoyment were greatly enhanced by the buoyant economy. Entrusted by the firm with the responsibility, he contributed in part to the changing face of British architecture under the firm. There, within an environment of collaboration and experimentation, he put his many ideas into reality while at the same time developing a keen sense for construction detail.

He was invilved as the project architect for Grimshaw's in one of the more successful examples of inner-city intervention in a mix-use development in Camden Town (London). His acute ability to help conceive new forms within the practice and to intricately knit these into their surrounds were once again realized in his design contribution to the Heathrow Airport Pier 4A extension. The building required new passenger facilities, with two-piers-in-one over an existing system of roads and aircraft stands that had to be kept active as the airport continued its functions.

The completion of these marked for him a new maturity and level of design understanding. The parallel dialectic between his drawings and reality had been of great concern to him. He contends that there is the constant need to check on what appears right in two dimensional representation with that which is acceptable in the eventual built form. The common practice at that time of 'technologically' extruding the building section in buildings resulted in a seemingli spatial monotony in the design.

The "extrusion" approach became for him symptomatic of the denial of architectural calues. Disillusioned with the limitations imposed by this methodology, his concerns were re-directed towards spatial re-definition of form, in reviewing the proportions of space and aspects of structure that define such space. The walls and roofs elements became his preoccupations as investigative themws. These are for him a move away from a purely technological approach, and now to a freer form and poetic expression.