Yume Architects

Founded in 2020 by architects Asami Takahashi and Jason Lim, Yume Architects approaches design with an ecological sensibility, treating architecture much like a living organism that grows to fit its environment. Just as a tree responds to sunlight, soil and the slope of the land it is rooted to, the practice believes buildings are inevitably shaped by their surroundings, not only the natural and geological, but the social, political, economic, historical and cultural forces that define a site. Every project begins with a deliberate act of unlearning: the pair approach each commission with childlike curiosity, resisting preconceptions so that the early stages of design retain a sense of wonder and possibility, before being carefully distilled to their essence.

Takahashi's path to architecture wound through several disciplines before arriving at its destination. Trained as a violinist from the age of four, she credits music as the foundation of her sensibility, discipline and aesthetic instinct. She went on to read economics, drawn to its parallels with architecture in grappling with the complexity of human behaviour, before working as a software engineer in Tokyo, where she discovered beauty in elegant, concise logic. It was only after these detours that she pursued architecture at Cornell University, later refining her craft at Toyo Ito & Associates in Tokyo, then at Steven Holl Architects and WeissManfredi Architects in New York.

Lim's route was similarly winding. A childhood love of drawing led him naturally into architecture school, also at Cornell, where he found the discipline reignited long dormant interests in mathematics, physics and literature. After graduating, he worked in New York on sustainable design before it was fashionable, then pursued a graduate engineering degree at the Stevens Institute of Technology, where computation became a fascination. Doctoral studies in robotic fabrication at ETH Zurich followed, the culmination of a career defined by curiosity and constant reinvention.

Founding Yume Architects, the pair share, was in many ways a return to the single minded pursuit of architecture they once shared as students, and a chance to speak in their own voice. That voice draws on the rich intersections of music, computation and economics all feed back into the practice's architectural thinking, while its founders' exposure to Japanese, American and Swiss design cultures lends the work a distinctive, hybrid sensibility. "We take pride in creating architecture that is never repetitive," say the pair, "and we want every project to have its own distinct identity."

Among the practice's proudest achievements is the Vivekananda Cultural Centre, an ongoing public commission scheduled for completion in 2028. Yume Architects won the project through a 2025 design competition organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects, with a winning entry titled Under This Shelter, You Will Find Rest, after a quote by Sri Ramakrishna describing a community gathered beneath a banyan tree, an image of inclusivity that continues to guide the design. The firm has also twice represented the country at the Venice Biennale, designing the Singapore Pavilion in 2018 and again in 2025, among the world's most prestigious international architecture exhibitions. and most recently, the studio won the Best Transformation category at Tatler Homes Design Awards 2026 with the Linked Terraces project.