Adaptive
Design Lab

At SUTD Adaptive Design Lab we develop computational processes and design solutions for the adaptation of the urban built environment toward the interconnected goals of resilience, sustainability, and regeneration. We translate complex environmental, social, and economic data into actionable design insight — for practitioners, policymakers, and communities navigating an accelerating climate transition.

Our research spans generative urban modelling, AI for city planning, urban microclimate and wind-flow simulation, and the development of frameworks for regenerative urbanism. We are co-investigators in Singapore's Built Environment AI Centre of Excellence (BE AI CoE) and active contributors to the Centre for Liveable Cities Regenerative Cities Research Alliance, in close partnership with URA, BCA, HDB, NParks, and A*STAR IHPC.

We create tools and knowledge that are open and reproducible. Our expertise in developing and interpreting simulation models enables informed decision-making at the scale of the block, the neighbourhood, and the city — opening scenario-space for urban futures and proactively advancing net zero-carbon, thermally resilient, and ecologically productive outcomes.

An adaptive city must navigate tradeoffs between environmental, social, and economic performance while rapidly advancing toward carbon neutrality. We apply advanced analytics, design search, and automation to produce clear, reproducible insights legible to non-specialists — grounded in rigorous methodological foundations and building exclusively on open, replicable processes.

The Lab is led by F. Peter Ortner, Cheng Tsang Man Early Career Chair and Assistant Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design at SUTD, where he also serves as MArch Programme Coordinator.