What We Can Learn from Reimagining SMU’s Greenhouse

A conversation with Xun Long Kew and Jian Long from Archideas

It’s 3am. We’re standing in a public loading bay with furniture we can’t leave unsecured.
No movers. No room for delay.

So we did what any founder would do:

We hauled the furniture -  tables, chairs and all ourselves.

That night of moving in after renovation is a pretty good summary of how the Jay & Marilyn Ng Greenhouse redesign happened: not as a perfect, linear renovation, but as a series of constraints, improvisations, and decisions made under pressure — the same way startups ship.

TL;DR — Why you should read this (20 seconds)

If you’re building anything (a startup, a club, an event, even a school project), this story is for you:

• Constraints don’t kill creativity — they create it
  
   
• When “standard solutions” fail, you prototype fast
  
   
• The best spaces aren’t finished — they’re built to evolve with users
  
   

You’ve probably seen it (even if you didn’t realise it)

If you’ve walked past The Greenhouse in the past few months, you might have noticed a space that looks wildly different from the rest of campus.

A bold orange circle pulls your eye in from the corridor. Through the glass, you catch glimpses of student founders working in different ways.

Right across, the pantry island is buzzing with thoughtful discussions, while others are tucked into quieter corners, locked in and hammering away at their laptops.

You’ll find lounge chairs for informal chats, high tables and traditional desks, plus semi-private zones for focused work — demarcated by beautiful acrylic screens. Beyond its walls, acrylic display boxes of startup products line the walkway, letting passers-by encounter student inventions while preserving views of the road and campus below.

It doesn’t feel like a regular office you pass by.
It feels like somewhere you want to enter.

This newly renovated space is the result of a collaboration between SMU Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (IIE) and Archideas, the architectural firm behind the revamp of SMU IIE’s startup incubator at SMU Connexion Levels 3 and 4 — now officially known as the Jay & Marilyn Ng Greenhouse.

We sat down with Xun Long Kew and Jian Long from Archideas to uncover the story behind the build — and the creative decisions that shaped the Greenhouse space we enjoy today.

Next time you walk past, look for these 3 things

These details make the space feel different — and each has a story behind it:

1. The orange circle — why it’s bold, but the inside is calm
   
    
2. The acrylic screens — why they aren’t perfectly uniform
   
    
3. The product display boxes — why they “disappear” so the startups stand out

Constraints aren’t limitations — they create room for design

When Archideas was first brought in, the architects weren’t stepping into a blank slate.

They were stepping into the “marble slab” that Michelangelo saw before chiselling David out of stone.

The Greenhouse sits along one of SMU’s busiest bridges, framed by glass and passed by thousands of students each day. Yet despite its prime location, the space was underutilised.

Rows of tables filled the interior, reinforcing the feeling of a conventional office rather than a hub for experimentation and collaboration. It was tempting to assume that a more stylised, “fancier” design would automatically attract more people.

But as the team began studying the site, the deeper challenge became clear: many things couldn’t be changed.

The building’s steel structure meant walls, beams, and ceilings were off-limits. Sustainability requirements ruled out adding lights or altering energy usage. Even the glass surfaces and the corridor beyond were heavily restricted. And to minimise disruption to incubatees, the renovation had to be completed within a single month.

In other words: plenty of constraints, limited manpower, tight runway.

For many teams, that would narrow ambition. For Archideas, it became the starting point.

“Constraints are where ideas start to flow, and what makes each design unique. Were it a perfect blank slate, we’d go with the optimal solution every time. Everything would end up looking the same,” says Xun Long.

If you’ve ever built something from scratch, you’ll recognise this: constraints force originality.

The 3am loading bay (and the mindset behind it)

As the renovation neared completion, logistical issues meant several large pieces of furniture had to be delivered late at night.

But the loading area was open to the public and unsecured. Leaving furniture outside — even for a few hours until dawn — wasn’t an option.

With no movers available and no room for delay, the architects stepped in themselves.

Hauling heavy tables at 3am was physical, unglamorous work — far from the stereotype of architecture as purely conceptual or aesthetic. But it captured the spirit of the entire project: ownership.

It’s also a scene founders recognise instantly. When resources run thin and time runs out, you roll up your sleeves and do what needs to be done — not because it’s in the job description, but because the outcome depends on it.

The acrylic screens (and the hair you might spot)

Another story emerged around a seemingly small detail: the semi-private divider screens.

The design needed tall, lightweight panels that could create separation without enclosing the space: translucent, safe, and flexible.

Normally, you’d order this from overseas or fabricate it with a specialist.

But time was a luxury the team didn’t have. Overseas suppliers were ruled out. And glass — while visually ideal — posed safety risks at that height and scale. There weren’t any readily available options that fit.

So Jian Long did what many founders do when all else fails:

He built it himself.

He experimented with materials on the fly. Methodically tested varying levels of opacity and flexibility. Rejected what didn’t work and refined what did.

The final solution was unexpectedly simple: thick DuPont paper — similar to Japanese rice paper — sandwiched between two sheets of acrylic. Each panel was cut, sized, glued, and assembled by hand, then laid out to dry under the sun.

If you look closely, you can still tell. The screens aren’t perfectly uniform. They carry small imperfections — human traces of a solution made under pressure.

As Jian Long jokes, you might even spot a strand of hair sealed inside. (Come visit for yourself.)

But that’s precisely what makes them meaningful. Faced with constraints of time, safety, and supply, the architects didn’t scale back the idea. They prototyped rapidly and executed with what was immediately available.

When resources are limited and timelines unforgiving, progress often depends on thinking on your feet — and making unexpected combinations work.

A living, breathing space — designed to evolve

Today, the Jay & Marilyn Ng Greenhouse stands in its refreshed condition thanks to the efforts of Archideas.

But the most important decision wasn’t purely aesthetic.

It was philosophical: iteration.

Archideas doesn’t see the Greenhouse as a finished product.

“Each batch of founders will personalise it differently. It’s meant to change,” says Xun Long.

Rather than designing fixed solutions, Archideas designed capabilities. Furniture was chosen and arranged not for a single use case, but for many. Nothing is locked in.

The pantry island, for instance, isn’t just a place to make coffee. It can be disassembled, repositioned, and repurposed for events, demos, and spontaneous collaboration. Occupants are encouraged to rearrange, reconfigure, and make the space their own.

That may be the project’s greatest success — not how it looks on day one, but how easily it adapts to what people actually need.

Why the orange circle is loud, but everything else is quiet

Walk past the Greenhouse and the orange circle pulls you in.

Step inside, and the rest of the design calms down: timber finishes, soft greens, neutral tones.

Even the external product display cabinets follow the same logic.

Because the space has a point of view:

It shouldn’t compete with the founders. It should amplify them.

“The colours you notice shouldn’t come from us. They should come from the startups,” Xun Long explains.

Steal this: 5 lessons for any student builder

You don’t have to be an architect to take something from this.

1. Constraints create originality
   
    
2. When suppliers fail, prototype
   
    
3. Ship first, perfect later
   
    
4. Design for change, not for display
   
    

Ownership beats job descriptions