This book, on the works of SCDA, is a compilation of projects, predominantly residential works, that captures "an emerging 'Pacific Rim' consensus about using globally perfected building technologies and aesthetics developed through contemporary Western architecture in an idiom, compositional array and material realisationthat derives from the local geographical and climatological realities".* The neo-modern works address concerns in building within the tropical region integrating courts, waterbodies and landscape within. The works of SCDA aim to respond to design problems with spatial and metaphoric solutions not usually recognisable within the tradition of Asian architecture. Liberated from stylistic notions and visual representation, the abstracted language of the architecture is built on archetypal elements of line, edge and planes. while it ensures 'new' formal possibilities to re-interpret and transform the demands of programmes, this design continues to cater for rudimentary concerns of shelter from the weather and comfort of occupancy. An important aspect of the architecture of SCDA is the use of the perforated surface - the tectonic screen, usually of timber - as a transient element mediating between the differentiated layers of fully interior, semi-interior/exterior, and truly exterior spaces. The spatial transparency and creation of 'in-between' spaces engendered by the screen is critical to architecture in the tropics. Along with landscaping, controlled vistas, and openness of spaces, the physical product of the architecture recognises and reinforces the environmental characteristics unique to the equatorial region. Aaron Betsky - Foreword - The Suspended Architecture of Soo Chan