People

Hong Kong-based Mentor

Gary Chang is one of the most influential figures within the architectural, interior and product design world today. With a passion for transformational designs that exemplify ultimate adaptability and sensibility, Chang’s work has focused on spatial flexibility and the interplay between art and practicality. The tiny apartment in Hong Kong in which he grew up sparked a lasting curiosity in maximizing compact space. Chang founded EDGE Design Institute Ltd. in 1994 and has since created such notable works as the Suitcase House in Beijing, his Kung-fu tea-set for ALESSI, and the transformation of his childhood and current 32 m² apartment.

Hong Kong-based Mentor

Stanley Wong (anothermountainman) is the recipient of more than 600 local, Asian and international awards for his art, design, photography and advertising works, including 2 One Show gold awards form U.S., D&AD yellow pencil from UK and Tokyo TDC award.

He came to international attention with his “red white blue” series, which he presented at the 51^st Venice Biennale in 2005 representing Hong Kong.

Many of his art works have been exhibited local and overseas galleries and museums for more than 100 shows included solo show in Tokyo ggg last year, and are now part of their permanent collection, including Hong Kong M+ and london V&A Museum. In May 2012, Wong was also awarded the Artist of the Year 2011 (Visual Arts) from Hong Kong Arts Development Awards and the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Awards 2012 from Hong Kong Museum of Art.

International Workshop Mentor

Elizabeth Diller is a founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), an interdisciplinary design studio that works at the intersection of architecture, the visual arts, and the performing arts. The studio’s international body of work includes the adaptive reuse of historic infrastructure to create the High Line, and the renovation of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Most recently, the studio completed the Vagelos Education Center at Columbia University in New York and The Broad museum in Los Angeles. The studio is currently completing The Shed and the renovation and expansion of the Museum of Modern Art, both in New York; the Tianjin Juilliard School in China; the Museum of Image & Sound in Rio de Janeiro; and Zaryadye Park in Moscow. Diller is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” award, the first awarded in the field of architecture. She is a Professor of Architecture at Princeton University.

Photo by Abe Morell, courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro

International Mentor

Mimi Hoang, AIA, is a principal of nARCHITECTS and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s GSAPP (Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation). Along with partner Eric Bunge, she co-founded nARCHITECTS with the goal of addressing contemporary issues in architecture through conceptually driven, socially engaging and technologically innovative work. 

nARCHITECTS has been honored with an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture, the AIANY’s Andrew J. Thomson Award for Pioneering in Housing, Several AIA Design Honor Awards, the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices and the Canadian Professional Rome Prize. Hoang received a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a B.Sc in Architecture from M.I.T. 

Photo: ©DanWonderly

International Mentor

Sam Jacob is principal of Sam Jacob Studio for architecture and design. Previously, Sam was a founding director of FAT Architecture where he was involved in many internationally acclaimed projects including the BBC Drama Production Village in Cardiff, the Heerlijkheid Hoogvliet park and cultural centre in Rotterdam and the curation of the British Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale.

He has exhibited at leading galleries and museums including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the MAK in Vienna and the Biennale. Jacob is a contributing editor for Icon magazine and columnist for both Art Review and Dezeen. He is a regular participant in talks and events for institutions such as MoMA, the Southbank Centre and the Soane Museum. Jacob is Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago, visiting Professor at Yale School of Architecture and Director of Night School at the Architectural Association

Lead Curator

Marisa Yiu is an architect and Founding Partner of ESKYIU, a multi- disciplinary architecture and research design studio actively integrating culture, community, art and technology based in Hong Kong. She was the Chief Curator of the 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture located at the West Kowloon waterfront; and also curated Studio-X Shenzhen at the Value Factory. Along with her partner Eric Schuldenfrei, they were awarded the ‘Architectural League Prize’ for their installations featured in the Venice Biennale and New York’s Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; received Architectural Record’s 2014 Design Vanguard recognition and Design for Asia Award for Ephemera, commissioned by Swire Art Basel and Movement culture: installation for Ido Portal. They edited, INSTANT CULTURE: Architecture and Urbanism as a Collective Process and co-authored “Unitary Urbanism” in the book, High-Rise – Idea and Reality.

Yiu’s work and writings have been published in A/D, Domus China, MIT’s thresholds, and Architectural Record among others. She has spoken at numerous global platforms including TEDxCUHK, BoDW, UNESCO forum and at Harvard’s AsiaGSD conference. She has taught at London’s Architectural Association, Parsons, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, School of Architecture at CUHK among others. Yiu is an AIA member, HKIA associate, served on the Board of Advisors for RTHK (seven years term), and Board member of the Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design for the past eight years, and is the Co-founder and Executive Director of its new initiative called DESIGN TRUST, that supports creative and research content related to Hong Kong and the Greater Pearl River Delta Region.

International Collaborator

Eva Franch is an architect, curator, educator and lecturer of experimental forms of art and architectural practice. In 2004, she founded her solo practice OOAA (Office of Architectural Affairs) and since 2010 is the Chief Curator and Executive Director of Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. Franch specializes in the making of alternative architecture histories and futures.

In 2014 Franch, with the project OfficeUS, was selected by the US State Department to represent the United States Pavilion at the XIV Venice Architecture Biennale. Franch has taught at Columbia University GSAPP, the IUAV University of Venice, SUNY Buffalo, and Rice University School of Architecture. 

International Collaborator

Carlos Mínguez Carrasco is a New York based architect and curator. He is Associate Curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture, and Chief Curator of the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016 with the After Belonging Agency. In 2014 he was Assistant Curator of OfficeUS, the US Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale. Mínguez has organized a wide range of exhibitions, events and competitions with a particular focus on how social, cultural, and political pressing issues influence contemporary architecture, including Interpretations (2010), BEING (2013), Letters to the Mayor (2014-17), and the platform World Wide Storefront (2014).

Workshop Collaborator

Ada Wong has led a varied career as solicitor, educator and social entrepreneur. She is a staunch advocate of social innovation, creative education and cultural development.

She is also Convenor & Director of The Good Lab, Chairperson of Make A Difference Institute, Director of Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture and supervisor of HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity.

Workshop Collaborator
Mimi Brown is the creator of Spring Workshop, a five-year non-profit arts initiative that experiments with the way artists, audiences and patrons relate to art. Brown is a board member of Asia Art Archive, the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Cate School and the Signet Society, and also extends Spring’s space and support to Para Site Art Space, M+/WKCDA, Design Trust, and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam. Brown holds an AB from Harvard University in music composition and comparative religion as well as an MBA from Stanford University.

Advisor

Elita Lam has over 20 years’ teaching experience in fashion and textile design, experience in planning and developing new academic programmes, and specialist short programmes for industry and commerce.  

Lam developed and leads the HKDI Centre of Innovative Material and Technology (CIMT), which allows for inter-disciplinary design activities and knowledge exchange through multi-material applications. Her recent project is to develop the HKDI Multidisciplinary Knowledge Centres, including the HKDI Retail Lab and HKDI Fashion Archive.

Advisor

Critic, writer and curator. Co-founder of the independent research studio and publishing house dpr-barcelona, which operates in the fields of architecture, political theory and the social milieu. Editor of Quaderns d’arquitectura i urbanisme from 2011-2016, and contributor to several magazines and books. Her writing appears in Open Source Architecture (Thames and Hudson, 2015), Together! The New Architecture of the Collective (Ruby Press, 2017), Volume, MAS Context, and Uncube, among others. Associate curator for “Adhocracy”, initially commissioned for the 2012 Istanbul Design Biennial and exhibited at the New Museum, NYC (May 2013) and Lime Wharf, London (summer 2013). Curator of the third Think Space programme with the theme “Money”‘; also curator (together with César Reyes and Pelin Tan) of the exhibition “Adhocracy ATHENS” at the Onassis Cultural Centre, 2015. Director of Foros 2017, the architecture lecture series of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture. Since 2016, dpr-barcelona is platform member of Future Architecture, the first pan-European platform of architecture museums, festivals and producers.

Advisor

Francis Ngai is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVhk). SVhk is a philanthropic organization that inspires a culture of social innovation in Hong Kong. They focus on inventing, incubating and investing in social start-ups that address urban challenges through sustainable and innovative business solutions. 

Prior to establishing SVhk, Ngai was the Head of Strategy in a listed technology conglomerate in Hong Kong. He graduated from the City University of Hong Kong and in 2013 he was conferred as an Honorary Fellow by the University. He was selected as one of the 100 Asia Pioneers by The Purpose Economy in 2014, a Young Global Leader of the WorldEconomic Forum in 2012 and one of Hong Kong’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons in 2011.

Advisor

Creative Director, James JJ Acuna, founded JJA / Bespoke Architecture (JJ/ABA) in Hong Kong and Manila in 2016. A graduate of Cornell and Columbia University Architecture programmes, for more than a decade Acuna has worked on a wide range of lifestyle and workplace projects in Hong Kong, China, and the Asian region at large. With the establishment of his Hong Kong and Manila based studio, Acuna’s aim is to help formulate bespoke design solutions for lifestyle and hospitality-oriented clients via his lens and insight as not only a skilled designer, but as a thought leader on current global trends in relation to design, service, and operation. Just this year, Acuna received the distinction of the “40 Under 40 Award” for his studio from Perspective Magazine.

Advisor

Dr Lesley Lau is an art museum curator and currently the Head of the Art Promotion Office (APO). Lau is the founding curator of APO and Oi!(Oil Street Art Space). She has also worked for the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong Heritage Museum and Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre(vA!) in the past. She has been the project manager for a number of public art projects at parks, historic buildings and government buildings, which included Seats.Togehter, Park Déco, ArtAlive@Park and Hi! Houses, etc. Lau obtained her PhD degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, specialising in Chinese export art, public and community art development of Hong Kong. Lau has been a research fellow in the British Museum and the Philips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum.

Advisor

Ricky Yu was the Hong Kong General Manager of a multinational direct selling company. He left his job in 2009, founded Light Be, and started renting apartments from philanthropic landlords to sublease the property to single mother families at an affordable rent. He named these apartments “Light Home”. He emphasizes the difference between housing empowerment and poverty alleviation: “Our job is to create a context so that the oppressively housed families can rebuild their direction and dignity of living.”

In 2014, Yu submitted an application to the Government for an idle staff quarter building of a textile factory in Sham Tseng. Yu kicked off a large scale renovation program after the Town Planning Board approved the change of land use. In 2016, this once shabby building had been revitalized as Light Housing.

From Light Home to Light Housing, Yu is trying to create a new model beyond both housing market and housing welfare. He named it “Social Realty”.

Advisor

Sara Wong is the co-founder of Para Site, Hong Kong’s leading independent contemporary arts space. She is a visual artist, designer and educator. Trained in both visual art and landscape architecture, her practice combines her artistic interest blurs the distinction between the two platforms.

Sara has exhibited her works both locally and internationally in museums and biennales including Venice Biennale, Gwangju Biennale and Shanghai Biennale. She was resident artist at PS1 Contemporary Art Center and the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York; Ecole Cantonale d’Art du Valais (ECAV) in Switzerland, and the Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dalssesen in Norway.

She has developed the Landscape Architecture programmes in the Hong Kong Design Institute and involves actively in educating future designers, landscape architects and architects.

Advisor

William Lane performs as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician in Australia, Asia, Europe and North America. He studied under Jan Sedivka, Bruno Giuranna and Garth Knox, as well as in Germany at the International Ensemble Modern Academy, and in Switzerland at the Lucerne Festival Academy under Pierre Boulez. He was a prizewinner of Valentino Bucchi Competition in Rome in 2005.

Lane was Principal Viola of Ensemble Resonanz and a member of the Hong Kong Philharmonic; and has appeared as guest violist of Ensemble Modern and the Lucerne Festival Strings. Based in Hong Kong since 2008, he is Founder, Artistic Director and Violist of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Asia’s most active professional chamber ensemble dedicated to new music. In 2013 he was awarded the Award for Young Artist (Music) from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

Photo: ©Wing Shya

Ffion Zhang graduated from The University of Hong Kong in 2015 with an MA in Landscape Architecture. Zhang is a landscape designer, and has been involved in landscape projects and research programmes in Hong Kong, France, India and Mainland China since 2011. Her research concerns alternative strategic design that advances sustainability on a social and economic level. Her research project on post-industrial restoration was exhibited in the 2013 Biennale of urbanism/architecture in Shenzhen/Hong Kong, and she was awarded a Silver Award in the 13th Asian Design Award (2016).

Samuel Wong is an MArch graduate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he won the Best Studio Project Award. He graduated with a BSSc in Architectural Studies and minored in Integrated Business Administration, with all of his projects selected for exhibitions. During his degree programme, he received two scholarships; The DLN Awards 2012 and L&O Travel Scholarship for Design Innovation 2011. In 2014, his proposal “Sometimes” won the Times Square Living Room Museum Design Competition which was later built in January 2015. With a degree in Civil and Structural Engineering, Wong continues to carry his engineering knowledge into his practice.

Stephen Ip graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 2008 with Distinction in Master of Architecture. While working in an architectural firm as an Associate Director, he also actively engages in competitions and community services to explore the synergistic interaction between architecture, community and environment. He has been the co-chairman of the Young Members Committee of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects in 2015-2017 and organized numerous activities for young architects to reach out to the community, promoting architecture as a tool of intervention in Hong Kong. Ip is a member of the ArchiVision group, which has an interest in city-planning related issues, and the Hong Kong Architecture Centre, where he helped to organise the ‘My Most Liked Architecture in HK’ event and led an architectural tour to Japan.

Wendy Ran Wu is an urbanist, designer and curator. She is currently the Head of UPRD (URBANUS Program Research Design) in URBANUS and Assistant Curator of 2017 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. Wu has an Advanced Master of Architecture from Berlage Institute, and is Assistant Tutor at Hong Kong University for MArch program. She has worked as an architect and urban designer in several offices in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Chengdu and Shenzhen and she has also worked as a researcher for Shenzhen Center for Design. From 2011 to 2015, she has been involved in UABB Shenzhen as Opening Week Coordinator and Curator of both affiliate and thematic exhibitions. In 2016, she was the project manager for the China pavilion in the inaugural London Design Biennale.

Zoey Chan is a recent graduate of Master of Architecture from the University of Hong Kong. In her research she explores the influence of building regulations and developers on Hong Kong’s domestic and public spaces, and examines how small changes in code and design can benefit living space. Her design works have been published and exhibited internationally. Chan is currently the Design Teaching Assistant at the University of Hong Kong and Architectural Assistant at P&T Architects and Engineers Ltd. Current works include the design and construction of institutional projects in Hong Kong. She is also active in the implementation of BIM in the industry.

DickWai Lai is an Art Director at advertising firm in Hong Kong, working  with brands such as Canon, CHANEL, Shiseido, city’super, Giordano, and Philips. He studied advertising design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and was awarded the Best of Show in the School of Design Annual Show 2015. Other accolades include the Art Director Club Portfolio Night (2015). He is a current Art Director Club member, and is working in the advertising industry with optimism and passion for his campaigns and clients.

Ricky Lai is a multi-media Designer, Artist, and Curator. He is a graduate of Central Saint Martins, London, and is currently Creative Director of Open Quote Concept Store. He is an awardee of DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award. His work ‘69°N 51°W’ was created in extreme environments in Greenland several years ago. Integrating the imagination of words, the visual stimulation of graphics, and the emotional affection of music, it is an exemplary work of crossing boundaries. With the mission to develop an appreciation for art in our society, Lai also founded Open Quote, a hub where artists can showcase their work to the public. With increased awareness, Lai believes that local creators will be able to focus on their art without having to worry about their livelihood.

Vivian Ng is a product design graduate from Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In her work she strives to use design opportunities to challenge assumptions about the conventions of an object. Ng sees design not only as a way to solve problems, but also as a key to open new modes of thinking and discussion. In her past projects she has designed for installations, furniture, lighting, houseware and fashion accessories. She is currently a product designer at THINKTHING Studio, and was a finalist in the 2014-2015 My Toy Design Competition. She was also awarded Merit in the 2014-2015 Hong Kong Smart Gift award.

Xavier Tsang is a designer and candle artisan. He holds a BA in Design Engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and has been awarded the Asia Design Excellence Award (2012), 40 UNDER 40 Award from Perspective Magazine (2013) and the Young Design Talent Special Mention Award (2013). In 2009 he co-founded his first design studio Atelier Poesia in Milan. After returning to Hong Kong, he began creating and exhibiting his works of wax and candles, under the label BeCandle. BeCandle has been sold internationally and featured in major design exhibitions including the Salone del Mobile in Italy and Maison et Objet in Paris. Inspired by Italian family-run atelier businesses, he set up an atelier shop in Sai Kung, Hong Kong in 2017.

Cesar Jung-Harada is a French-Japanese Inventor, Environmentalist and Entrepreneur and is currently Director of MakerBay, Hong Kong MakerSpace for Social & Environmental Impact. He is a TED Senior Fellow, Unreasonable at Sea Entrepreneur, Figure of progress (by GOOD and IBM) and an APEC Maker Awardee. He used to teach Masters of “Design and Environment” at Goldsmiths University. Jung-Harada is a graduate from the Royal College of Arts London, Design Interactions Department, and worked as MIT Boston USA Project Leader as well as construction manager of the *IHub in Nairobi Kenya. He led the Open-H2O (former Open-Sailing) to win the ARS Electronica Golden Nica [NEXT IDEA] (Austria) and the VIDA awards Fundacion Telefonica (Spain).

Jose Fu explores the use of VR in education and entertainment. He is an MA graduate from Shenzhen University in Environmental Art. His work focuses on the use of IT in public welfare. In 2013 he founded Wing-wheel Angel Network Technology Co, where he has been developing and operating the EasyGo barrier-free travel App for disabled and elderly access. In 2014 he was awarded the HK Cyberport Creative Micro Fund, and the HK Cyberport Incubation Programme.

Sylvia Chan is a PhD candidate at the University of Hong Kong, and her research interests include architectural representations, translations in architecture, and the concept of Chineseness. Her dissertation working title is “Construction of Chineseness in Architecture through Translation from the Late Nineteenth Century to 1959.” Sylvia is the author of Writing In(to) Architecture: China’s Architectural Design and Construction Since 1949 (East Slope Publishing, 2012) and Style: In Defence Of… Chinese Architecture (Machine Books, 2017). She has published in Singapore Architect and Indesign Australia, and she writes for Indesignlive.