Lai Chee Kien researches on histories of art, architecture, settlements, urbanism and landscapes in Southeast Asia. He is an architectural and urban historian, and a registered architect in Singapore. He graduated from the National University of Singapore with an M Arch. by research [1996], and a PhD in History of Architecture & Urban Design from the University of California, Berkeley [2005]. His publications include Building Merdeka: Independence Architecture in Kuala Lumpur (2007), Building Memories: People, Architecture, Independence (2016) [Book of the Year, Singapore], The Merdeka Interviews: Architects, Engineers and Artists of Malaysia’s Independence (2018, co-authored), and Singapore Chronicles: Architecture (2019). He is Vice-President of the Society of Architectural and Urban Historians of Asia (SAUH-Asia), and an Advisory Council Member of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE).