Completed in 2017, the Lee Kong Chian (LKC) School of Medicine at Novena was conceptualised and achieved through a joint school programme between Imperial College London (ICL) and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The collaboration allows a unique curriculum forged from the best of two worlds – ICL’s world-renowned expertise in medicine and NTU’s core strengths in engineering, science and business. Combined with its pedagogy, the school prides itself as a front-runner of innovative translational medicine for Singapore healthcare.

Lee Kong Chian (LKC) School of Medicine at Novena provides an ideal creative learning environment for students and researchers to engage productively and constructively. The identity of the institution, its academic goal and its core pedagogy strongly influenced its design through a blend of visual branding and functional design that conveys the institution’s core purpose.

Aesthetically, the design draws inspiration from a medical lab. The campus throughout is outfitted in a neutral palette and clean surfaces. The minimalistic appeal is given a contemporary edge through the incorporation of urbane materials. This is most evident in the school’s main lobby. Cosmopolitan, schooled and formal, the simple grey tile wall at the main lobby immediately sets the tone of the academia. It also provides the perfect contrast to the wood surfaces that frame the lift lobby, playing up the warmth and inviting allure of the wood. This same pattern of contrast in palette and materiality is consistent in all school interiors.

Sophistication is not limited to aesthetics. To enable an enriched learning experience, the key teaching spaces are equipped with state-of-the-art digital and information technology to further engage the students. This provides them with access to a wide variety of applications to facilitate their education. The chairs in lecture hall, for example, takes this into consideration and wires up each chair to a power point; effectively offering each student accessibility and convenience to digital tools and platforms they require for their learning.