Public Lecture
Dreams & Memories of Places by Kun Lim
From a Kedah village to the world, Kun Lim shares how people, places and lived experiences have shaped his vision of architecture.
Speaker: Kun Lim
Moderator: Ar. Idr. Bee Eu Tan
Event Information
Event: Dreams & Memories of Places
Date: 19 August 2026
Time: 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Speaker: Kun Lim
Moderator: Ar. Idr. Bee Eu Tan
Event concluded. This event was held on 19 August 2026. Thank you to everyone who joined us for the talk.
About the Talk
This talk traces Kun Lim’s journey from his childhood in a humble farming village in Kedah, Malaysia—living in a house built by his late father, an immigrant from China—to his professional and academic experiences in Europe and the United States. Through studies at the University of Houston and international travels for projects, forums, and conferences, Lim explores how memories, encounters, and observations across diverse landscapes have shaped his approach to architecture, urban design, and planning.
He believes that architecture is rooted not only in buildings, but in people, places, lived experiences, and dreams.
Event Summary
On 19 August, Penang Institute had the honour of hosting architect Kun Lim for a talk titled “Dreams & Memories of Places,” where he shared his professional journey and how it has been deeply shaped by his parents.
Growing up as the son of poor farmers in a Kedah village, Kun Lim learned about building and design from his parents. His mother came to Malaysia as an immigrant from China when she was 22. Although his parents had no formal education, they built and expanded their own two-storey house step by step. They designed it to respond to the hot tropical climate, allowing fresh air and sunlight into the home while separating the family living space from the area where they kept animals. Their house became the heart of the neighbourhood, with a river behind it connecting the village to other communities and local children regularly coming over to play. Without realising it, Kun Lim’s parents had taught him the foundations of tropical architecture and the importance of creating spaces that bring people together.
Later, with financial support borrowed by his family, Kun Lim travelled to Dublin, Ireland. He was inspired by the way the city was built, particularly its public squares and their ability to bring people together. He went on to study architecture, spending a year in Louisiana before moving to Texas for his second year. At university, he learned how to organise spaces and was influenced by two professors—an architecture historian and an architectural photographer. He carried these early lessons into his professional work on projects across Asia, the United States, Africa, Sri Lanka and other parts of the world. When working on the master plan for Putrajaya, he drew on the “garden city” concept, prioritising green spaces while keeping the buildings simple.
At the end of his talk, Kun Lim shared a touching story about visiting Anxi, Fujian, his mother’s hometown, earlier this year. The visit allowed him to connect his parents’ childhood memories with the landscape they came from, and to better understand how their experience of building their own home together had shaped his own understanding of place. Ultimately, his parents taught him a precious lesson: architecture is for people.
“Architecture is rooted not only in buildings, but in people, places, lived experiences, and dreams.”
Biography of Speaker
Kun Lim
Kun Lim is the Design Principal of Kun Lim Studio LLC in Seattle and Kun Lim Architect in Kuala Lumpur. A University of Houston graduate, he leads an international practice with a diverse portfolio, including mixed-use developments, athletic facilities, places of worship, healthcare, multifamily housing, and township planning.
His master plan for Putrajaya, Malaysia’s new administrative capital, won a design competition in 1994 during his tenure at BEP Architect. He later served as Lead Planner and Designer for two and a half years with Kumpulan Perunding Kota Bistari, overseeing the master planning of Putrajaya.
Kun’s work has been featured in architectural publications and mainstream media. He frequently speaks at conferences worldwide, including DATUM: KL International Architecture Conference (July 6, 2024, Kuala Lumpur) and the American Institute of Architects Conference on Architecture & Design (June 4, 2025, Boston).
Moderator
Ar. Idr. Bee Eu Tan
Ar. Idr. Bee Eu Tan, the founder of BETA (BEu Tan Architect), is an award-winning architect recognised for her work in restoring heritage buildings in her native Penang and beyond. Her maiden project in Alor Setar, the Kedah Digital Library, won gold at the PAM (Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia) Awards 2022’s Adaptive Reuse Category, giving her a total of seven design awards and a third gold at the PAM Awards in the last four years.
Tan’s remarkable trajectory had its humble start in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur where she built a diverse portfolio to include local and international projects involving concept design, masterplanning and project management. Upon returning to Penang, she established her own boutique practice focusing on honest architecture and back to basics design. Her first project, restoring the Penang Institute’s colonial Annex Bungalow, kick-started a career in architectural conservation.
This was followed by The Penang Digital Library, formerly the Penang Free School’s headmaster’s quarters which Tan transformed into the first standalone, built-for-purpose library without books. The project was awarded the Alteration and Addition Category gold medal at the PAM 2019, making Tan’s company, BETA, the youngest practice to win a top prize. BETA would take home another PAM gold medal two years later, this time in the Adaptive Reuse Category, for the redesign of Harmony Centre – Penang’s first interfaith communal building.
More heritage buildings would benefit from Tan’s sensitive treatment, including the elegant George Town World Heritage Incorporated (GTWHI) office building, and the art deco-style Penang Hill Gallery @Edgecliff. Tan continues to share her vision for preserving built heritage as the organiser of Pechakucha Penang, a global networking event that originated in Tokyo where architects, designers and artists share ideas.