Head of Sustainability
Singaporean–American
"Sustainability is not a constraint. It is the most demanding design challenge there is."
Biography
Marcus Chen joined Lumina in 2014 with a singular mission: to make the studio's commitment to environmental stewardship as uncompromising as its commitment to aesthetic excellence. In the decade since, he has reshaped how Lumina thinks about materials, energy, carbon, and time.
Raised in Singapore — a city-state defined by the tension between tropical nature and engineered urbanism — Marcus developed an early fascination with passive climate control. His undergraduate thesis at NUS proposed a vernacular high-rise typology inspired by kampong ventilation principles. At Harvard, he refined this thinking into a rigorous computational methodology that would later form the basis of Lumina's environmental design protocol.
Today, Marcus leads a team of 12 environmental engineers who are embedded across every Lumina project from Day 1 of concept design. His philosophy is simple but radical: sustainability is not a retrofit. It is the structure. His work has helped Lumina achieve carbon neutrality across its entire project portfolio — a milestone no other firm of its scale has reached.
Selected Works
Venice, Italy · 2020
Role: Lead Environmental Designer
Marcus's most technically complex commission. The Nadir Pavilion is constructed entirely from carbon-sequestering materials: cross-laminated timber from certified Norwegian forests, bio-based composite panels, and a structural adhesive developed from seaweed polymer. The building absorbs more carbon than it emits across its lifetime.
Berlin, Germany · 2019
Role: Sustainability Director
Marcus pioneered the use of structural basalt fiber reinforcement in place of conventional steel rebar — reducing the tower's embodied carbon by 43%. The building's helical form was determined not by aesthetic preference but by solar analysis: each floor plate is rotated 6° to maximize winter sun penetration while eliminating summer glare.
Innsbruck, Austria · 2023
Role: Environmental Lead
Working in close collaboration with Julian Thorne, Marcus developed a passive heating and cooling strategy that requires zero mechanical intervention for 9 months of the year. The house's thermal mass — derived from 2,400 tonnes of in-situ stone — absorbs daytime heat and radiates it through the night, maintaining 19°C year-round without active systems.
In Print
"Zero: The Architecture of Carbon Neutrality" — Hatje Cantz (2023)
"Basalt and the Future of Structural Reinforcement" — Structural Engineer Journal (2019)
"Passive Tropics: Lessons from the Kampong" — Harvard Design Magazine (2012)
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