Principal

Born and raised in Singapore, Yong Ter's passion for architecture was discovered during his university years at the School of Architecture, National University of Singapore. Upon graduation, he sought apprenticeship with Mr. Tang Guan Bee for several years, before starting his practice, CHANG Architects, at the turn of the millennium.

In his early years of practice, he was selected as one of the 20 architects by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore to showcase works of young and emerging talents in the field. This recognition was documented in the publication "20 Under 45: A Selection of Works by Under-45 Singapore-registered architects."

Since then, the practice has been recognised with the following awards:
The President's Design Awards, Gold Medals for the Architects Regional Council of Asia (ARCASIA) Architecture Awards, Architecture Asia Awards for Emerging Architects, the Design for Asia GRAND AWARD, the Chicago Athenaeum/Europe International Architecture Awards, the GREEN GOOD DESIGN Awards, the German Design Council's ICONIC AWARDS, the World Architecture Festival Category Winner, and the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

Yong Ter believes that architectural design is a work from the mind and the heart. While rationality and logic could fulfill functional briefs and achieve pragmatic efficiencies, an intuitive, poetic approach could resonate with the soul, and transcend limitations of rationalities. Therefore, part of the design process also includes unlearning and forgetting, and self-discoveries of the basics/origin.