The fantastic 4 Sad Architects set to summon the ‘Spirit of the Studio’

Grounded in friendship and powered by passion, the 4 Sad Architects collective gears up once again to showcase their latest iteration of imagination which not only unveils a deeper side of the artist within them but champions the essence, history and potential of the artist’s sacred studio too

Text Monisha Sivanesan
Images courtesy of Pentago House

Not too long ago, a tight-knit circle of companions—who all just so happen to be renowned architects in Malaysia and across Asia—casually gathered at The Kasturi Resort and coincidentally discovered each other’s hidden flair for another creative pursuit: fine art. What started out as a collective, and pretty wholesome, way for Hijjas Kasturi, Greg Dall, Nic Proud and Chong Chee Ching to reconnect with their childhood passion quickly snowballed into a noble, bold pursuit to achieve their longstanding dream of becoming actual artists. Since 2019, they have led an annual showcase of various art forms, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, videos and mixed media pieces under the quirkily named 4 Sad Architects group, first initiated by Dall.

Yes, apparently ‘Sad’ has been said to reflect the melancholy feeling of dealing with the systemic pressure to pursue a conventional, expectedly stable career instead of an unpredictable one, like say, that of an artist. Fortunately, no regrets were had and everything has fallen into the right place at the right time. Matter of fact, by not relying on selling art to make a living, they can earnestly say they’ve pursued art purely for the enjoyment of it. For some, it may seem surprising or puzzling to witness these multicultural gentlemen trading blueprints and compasses for canvases and brushes, but for those who truly understand how the creative mind works, it makes perfect sense.

Other than the actual act of drawing/sketching itself, art and architecture value some of the same fundamental principles of design such as shape, proportion and scale. However, unlike the latter, the former is obviously not shackled to the responsibility of fulfilling reality’s requirements. Instead, it grants artists the unlimited freedom to stretch the imagination and then bring it to life on their own terms. While it’s also true that the architects’ ongoing collaboration with artists while working on various design projects has helped fuel this latest chapter in their lives, it must be asked: Why should a creative limit themselves to just one field? Why not explore as much as possible should the heart, mind and hands yearn to do so?

For some, like Chong, a reciprocal relationship transpires between both worlds, meaning that their architectural training has helped them bring structure and balance to their paintings while their artistic side brings emotion, spontaneity and a sense of storytelling into their design work. For others, like Dall, it’s a one-sided one, as in their architecture has not shaped their art, but their art has shaped their architecture. “This reversal challenges traditional assumptions, suggesting that the instinctive, emotional side of creativity can feed into the structured, rule-bound world of architecture design,” he elaborates. No matter the dynamic, one thing is clear: there is an influential correlation worth examining further.

Meet the 4 Sad Architects

Hijjas Kasturi
Founder of HIJJAS Architects + Planners

Hijjas Kasturi’s artistic practice extends into bold, gestural paintings that mirror his architectural intuition. In these canvases, sweeping brushstrokes and layered chromatic fields evoke both structural frameworks and organic forms, suggesting facades caught between collapse and renewal. Breathing new life through coloured felt-tipped pens and acrylic paints, his works are charged with emotive power, stirred by material memory and alive with the dynamic energy of transformation.

From Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning in the West to Hendra Gunawan, Kazuo Shiraga and Ibrahim Hussein in the East, he has been inspired by many legends. Returning the favour and thereby continuing the cycle, the compound of his home, Rimbun Dahan, serves as a centre for developing traditional and contemporary art forms. The art patron believes that art and architecture are food for thought, enjoyment and stimulation—all forming a significant part of our culture and civilisation.

Nic Proud
Founder & Director of RDM Design

Nic Proud is an interior architect whose artistic practice unfolds through layered prints, mixed-media studies and watercolours that read as fractured landscapes. His prints deploy textured grids and open voids, while washes of cobalt, ochre and umber bleed into his paintings, evoking topographical shifts and constructed terrains. In much of his work, sculptural forms hover above abstracted grounds, each a negotiation of the push and pull between built-space logic and painterly instinct.

While central themes like identity, connection and legacy still underpin his practice, his thoughts presently dwell on the ‘red lines’ in our society that are dictated and abused in our developing version of democracy, leading him to pour his opinions about authority, surveillance, overreach, urban decay and transformation onto the canvas. Ultimately, his work is about release; it’s about unabashedly breaking out of controlled and organised thinking and ‘creating’ away from constraints.

Greg Dall
Managing Director & Co-founder of the Pentago Group of Companies

Greg Dall is first and foremost an observer: his vibrant works straddle caricature and incisive commentary. Bold, saturated palettes and exaggerated features recall his architectural training in proportion and form, while playful distortions and humorous visual puns reveal his knack for storytelling. From his paintings alone, one can certainly see his deep admiration for Jean-Michel Basquiat’s raw energy, unfiltered style and disregard for convention piercing through.

Among his paintings, the Bondi Beach Series stands out as a personal favourite. Irreverent and full of character, it depicts lifesavers—often stoic and vigilant—observing the colourful chaos of beachgoers with a mixture of bemusement and detachment. “It’s me laughing at how lifesavers see the people on the beach. There’s a real joy in turning that perspective around,” he says. Whether riffing on cultural archetypes or lampooning nature’s quirks, Dall’s paintings invite viewers to laugh, reflect and discover fresh details on every glance.

Chong Chee Ching
Design Director of PSB Arkitek

Chong Chee Ching transforms found timbers like old doors, reclaimed panels and weathered planks into richly textured canvases for his intricate works, all of which contain underlying and tiered complexities that express different emotions and experiences depending on the viewer’s distance and perspective. According to the architect-artist, creatives like Yusuke Murata and Hayao Miyazaki have made him become more intentional with the details in his own work and influenced the way he thinks about context and setting, respectively.

Drawing on folk motifs and animal illustrations, Chong layers lacelike line work and delicate washes to evoke each creature’s character and spirit. His practice blurs painting, drawing and carving, interplaying the patterns of wood grain to conjure vivid, larger-than-life fauna. For him, working with recycled materials and transforming them into paintings is one way of seeing familiar subjects from a fresh perspective—it’s about giving both the material and the idea a second life.

Curated by Ong Kar Jin and Wong Jian Lin, the Four Sad Architects’ upcoming show titled ‘Spirit of the Studio’ is scheduled to unfold from 6th September to 28th September 2025 at Level 4 of The Project Room at UR-MU@The Toffee, Kuala Lumpur. Realising the atelier as the cornerstone of creation where architects and artists alike sketch, tinker and forge ideas into form, expect subtle recreations of each of the four architect-artist’s studios at the pared-down and somewhat raw gallery space. The idea stemmed from the multifaceted role of a studio throughout the fabric of time. More than just a place for working, it has functioned as workshop spaces for public viewing (like the Atelier Brancusi in Paris) and built scenographies (like Peter Blake’s The Artist’s Studio exhibition in London), marking a realisation of the studio as an essential expression of an artist’s intents and processes.

That being said, drawing upon the long intertwined history between architects and artists, this studio-as-exhibition highlights the intentions, inspirations and contexts of each architect-artist. It does so while emphasising the underlying processes which unify them: the act of painting or mark-making as a means of observing, understanding and re-interpreting what lies around us. Acknowledging that every artwork holds a message but how that message is received can vary from person to person, the foursome hopes that theirs will communicate something meaningful to each viewer, evoking deep emotions and thoughtful reflections within them.

After the artwork exhibition, several engaging, in-depth talks will be held by these architect-artists and by fellow notable peers in the design and education scene. From discussing artistic processes to tracing the evolution of the profession, every session will echo the studio’s innate interdisciplinarity: a place where horticulture meets structural design, where urban planning dialogues with material science. By framing each event as an open act of studio practice—a golden opportunity to share methods, test hypotheses and co-create knowledge—the Spirit of the Studio aims to position itself as a safe space for thinking, making and possibility.

Just like all the previous exhibitions, this one also carries forth and underscores one consistent message that the 4 Sad Architects would like to reiterate once more: the power of collaboration and the strength found in community are par none when it comes to creating, exhibiting and preserving the arts. Dall even argues that “Art is not a solitary pursuit; it’s something built through friendship, mentorship and shared experience,” while Chong supports this statement by revealing that their regular discussions, where they share their painting progress and exchange honest feedback, are what he values most from his collaboration with the collective as it has helped each of them advance not just technically, but conceptually as well.

By this point of the story, it’s pretty clear that the 4 Sad Architects is far more than just an art collaboration between professionals. At the end of the day, the group functions as a constant source of spiritual guidance, deep mutual friendship and constant inspiration—to each other, and hopefully others. It’s a space where egos are left at the door and the focus is firmly on exploration, growth and learning. On another uplifting note, those tinkering with the idea of expressing themselves in a new creative outlet but are presently holding back should start small, stay curious and let themselves experiment, at least according to Chong, who adds that “The uncertainty is real, but so is the reward of discovering a part of yourself that might otherwise stay hidden.”

Need we say more? Mark your calendars now and get ready to be inspired.

The ‘Spirit of the Studio’ show runs from 6th September to 28th September 2025.
Location: Level 4, The Project Room, UR-MU@The Toffee, Kuala Lumpur

For more information, head over to www.pentagohouse.com