Since its establishment in 2014, Design Trust has been offering grants to individual designers, curators, collectives as well as non-profit organisations, supporting over 254 research projects supported by Seed & Feature Grants and Fellowship schemes. To continue advocating for the positive role of design facing the ever-changing context of urgent topics, Design Trust is pleased to announce the 2026 theme “Technology as Community” for the upcoming grants cycle of April 20th and October 20th 2026 for applications for Design Trust Seed Grant and Feature Grant, exploring how the evolving technology landscape may inform new opportunities for design research, heritage activation and material innovation to engage a wider community. By reframing digital and physical tools as collaborative platform, the theme “Technology as Community” encourages projects that mobilise data-driven insights and immersive media tools to further advocate the positive role of design for the community. Design Trust Seed Grant and Feature Grant schemes support projects examining innovative, thought-provoking investigations in various design disciplines including but not limited to graphics, media, wearables, architecture to the built environment, as well as focused research on local and regional design archives. Share with us your ideas and proposals by April 20th 2026! We are also pleased to announce the Grant Recipients from the 2025 October grant cycle including research topics on urban culture, heritage craftsmanship, technology innovation, and architectural archive research.
Design Trust 2025 October Cycle Grant Recipients | Design Trust Seed & Feature Grants 2026 Theme Announced
15. 12. 2025
Design Trust offers grants to individual designers, curators, collectives and non-profit organisations for projects and activities that are relevant to various design disciplines. These grants support projects relevant to the context and content of Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. Cities within the Greater Bay Area include: the two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao, and the nine municipalities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province. We support innovative, thought-provoking investigations in various design disciplines from graphics, media, wearables, architecture to the built environment; and actively aim to accelerate creative design and research development of meaningful projects. These projects demonstrate originality, criticality and urgency of the research topic, and include but are not limited to: exhibitions, research projects and creative installations, that can benefit and further advocate the positive role of design in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.
DESIGN TRUST SEED GRANT fosters a culture of experimentation, testing and sharing. It is awarded to individuals seeking to kick-start a meaningful and intellectual project with social, educational, economical or environmental impact for communities. Seed Grants may support applicants who have a project in the pipeline that needs additional resources, as well as emerging designers, and young scholars. Design Trust highly encourages applicants from the region to international applicants to apply for this grant to support their research projects and prototypes focusing on Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area issues to be showcased at international venues, symposium or international biennales, and in return mutually benefit the public realm and knowledge exchange in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.
DESIGN TRUST FEATURE GRANT fosters cross-disciplinary projects focusing on the Greater Bay Area region. Projects awarded have a wide reaching audience and may be sited in an exhibition or biennale venue with international recognition and standing. This grant supports international exchanges between a Hong Kong-/ China- based collective with an international renowned cultural institution. It aims to excel, share and build new knowledge and unique positions on the value of design, critical research and provocative outcome. Applicants are also encouraged to submit critical and creative ongoing research proposals that advance design competency for the benefit of the public.
Grant Recipients from the 2025 October Cycle:
Eleven projects have been awarded funding from the recent October Cycle, and demonstrate an extensive range of innovations and creativity on addressing culture, social and sustainability issues, including:
“Stone Synergy: AI-Driven Community Housing” by Chen Shuning, leverages AI-driven automated design and fabrication technologies to reintroduce stone construction for mass housing, and enables communities to co-design sustainable housing. The process democratises design, fosters social inclusion and revitalises regional material ecosystems. This innovative approach allows for customisation based on individual needs, and offers a wide range of housing typologies and materials. Through an interactive interface, the platform illustrates how algorithmic and human intelligence can merge to create adaptive, customised, resilient habitats. It also proposes a scalable, equitable model for the future of urban development.
“The Skin Memory” by Chen Yuting, examines and reconstructs Hong Kong’s erased streetscapes through the use of AI and AR. These streetscapes, such as neon signs, metal mailboxes, the facade of tenement buildings with shops on the ground floor have become a collective form of visual identity and daily narrative of Hong Kong. Through AI reconstruction, layered cultural identities are decoded, vanished architectural surfaces and stories are being archived, transformed and retold in the form of AR experiences. These innovative experiences generate a digital atlas, AR urban walks, specialised publications, and curated exhibitions, bridging the gap between heritage and computation, sparking public dialogue on urban memory and collective stewardship amid redevelopment.
“Ageing at Home Village: Normalcy is the Key to Living with Dementia with Grace and Self-Esteem” by Sylvia Ng, examines how our built environment could help to alleviate and slow down symptoms of dementia in the elderly. With research suggesting that over 300,000 people over the age of 60 could be suffering from dementia in Hong Kong by 2039, addressing this issue is urgent, especially given the absence of a cure. Following the Hogeweyk model in the Netherlands, the project proposes setting up villages in urban or rural areas of Hong Kong that resemble a homelike environment. Through co-design workshops at THEi and Kyushu University, the team will investigate potential dementia village typologies in Hong Kong and Japan, utilising AR simulations for user analyses.
“Urban Ethnography: Re-Commoning Sheung Shui Tin Kwong Hui” by Yau Kit Sze, documents and reimagines the dawn markets of Sheung Shui, known as Tin Kwong Hui, through participatory observation, photography, architectural drawings and videos, so as to provide a comprehensive understanding of the market’s temporal rhythms, sensory experiences, and social interactions. Sheung Shui is regarded as a traditional dawn market rooted in Hong Kong’s hawker history. Through the integration of design, architecture, and social research, the project seeks to preserve the transient market culture, bridge the gap between urban ethnography and design, and redefine the function of informal marketplaces in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. Additionally, it aims to foster participatory models for community engagement and academic collaboration via workshops, guided tours, and exhibitions.
“In the realm of Spolia: The Scaffolding Laboratory” by Wai Chi Tung, aims to transform the construction residue of the metal scaffolding in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area into prototypical systems and spatial archetypes that shape a location-specific material reuse design methodology. As the construction industry is being confronted with a global climate crisis, this project focuses on redirecting metal scaffolding, a temporary construction element seemingly becoming idle due to declining demand into new cycles of value through advancement in climate-responsive architecture frameworks and building technologies.
“Spontaneous Urban Landscapes: Surviving Through the Cracks in Hong Kong” by Kate Lau, explores spontaneous vegetation in the fissures of Hong Kong’s hyper-dense urban fabric, with the ecological and aesthetic potential of unplanned growth showing the quality as a critical aspect of urban resilience, sustainable development, and ecological urbanism. Grounded in primary ecological field data and experiments, the project uses systematic documentation to link spatial configurations to key determinants of urban microhabitats. It bridges practice-based study, unfolding the latent aesthetic and ecological potential of spontaneous growth through the lens of design and landscape architecture, and unveils the value of spontaneous landscapes which is pivotal to climate resilience, urban nature, sustainable development and ecological urbanism in cities.
“Public Parasols: Stories of Shade in Subtropical Hong Kong” by Chang Su, continues previous Seed Grant project funded by Design Trust, and explores how ethnographic research on the building cultures of Hong Kong fishing villages can inspire enhanced design approaches for shared spaces, as well as the in-between areas in high-density, subtropical Asian communities. The project will be presented as a series of "floating exhibitions", featuring an easily deployable installation that can be transported to different locations, with the installation to exemplify an economy of means and demonstrate resource-efficient solutions while showcasing adaptable environments to engage diverse public audiences. The work will debut at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design's spring 2026 exhibition and will be further showcased in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and overseas.
“A Living Archive” by Scarlett Yang, explores the relationship between abalone shell ecology and craft in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. By engaging with artisans, fishermen, and marine researchers, the project studies how coastal environments and trade histories have shaped the cultural and structural evolution of this material. This long-term investigation aims to showcase abalone nacre (mother of pearl) as a living archive of ecological and cultural memory in the GBA, tracing how material knowledge has travelled and evolved across regions within the cultural and ecological lineage of the South China Sea’s maritime trade routes. By transforming abalone shells into new biomaterial prototypes, the project demonstrates how endangered coastal resources can inspire future design innovations by linking environmental observation with material experimentation.
“Infrastructure of the Ordinary: The Shanzhai Trolley” by Nicolás Penna, investigates how manual labour and low-tech tools sustain Shenzhen’s high-tech marketplace Huaqiangbei. Amid global networks of production and rapid digitalisation, the project focuses on the hand trolley as micro-scale logistics devices that link human labour and technological circulation. Through fieldwork, spatial documentation, and collaboration with local makers, the project maps out how manual infrastructures persist within one of the world’s most advanced technological ecologies, and explores “shanzhai” as a culture of repair, adaptation, and collective invention to co-create a speculative prototype that transforms everyday logistics into a medium for design, public dialogue, and providing further reflections on how everyday practices and informal systems continue to shape the intelligence and resilience of contemporary cities.
“Necessary Edges: Reviving Birdcage Craft” by Dylan Kwok, explores the local craftsmanship of bamboo birdcage and its tools and fabrication process. This design research highlights the work of Master Chan Lok Choi, as a means to preserve his techniques, while documenting a ground-breaking collaboration with Japanese bladesmiths, so as to co-create modern replacements that facilitate cultural continuity and inspire new generations of craftsmen to learn this craft, and reclaim their craft legacy. By blending traditional skills with contemporary innovation, the project seeks to revitalise the tools for birdcage crafting and foster appreciation for this unique aspect of cultural heritage.
“Beyond the Shell: Transforming Eggshell Waste into Future Materials for Everyday Living” by Bodin Man, investigates how eggshell waste from Hong Kong’s food ecosystem can be repurposed into innovative composites, refined into functional, poetic and aesthetically appealing everyday objects, such as tableware, furniture, and lighting, as well as surface applications that showcase their durability and practicality for daily living. Through collaborations with local food suppliers, artisans, and laboratories across the Greater Bay Area, the project aims to bridge craft, science, and production through innovations, transforming a humble local material into a new platform for sustainable innovations, further culture and explorations and demonstration how design can inspire new systems of making and meaning.