Design Trust Futures Festival 2025
“The Art of Transformation” Finissage Event on June 18th “DESIGN TRUST SKETCHALOGUES”
Marking the Finale of the Micro-Festival that has Welcomed over 15,000 Visitors at
Murray House, Stanley Plaza since its launch to the public on March 29th 2025
(Hong Kong, 11th June 2025) Design Trust, an initiative of the Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design announces Design Trust Futures Festival 2025 “The Art of Transformation” will conclude with a Finissage event “DESIGN TRUST SKETCHALOGUES” on June 18th 2025 to mark the finale of this micro-festival at Murray House, Stanley Plaza. Curated by Marisa Yiu (Co-Founder, Lead Curator/ Executive Director) with Zheng Zhou (Head of Programmes/ Associate Curator), the festival has welcomed over 15,000 visitors from March to June 2025 with 16 public programmes and community tours, exploring sustainability, culture, and heritage in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area with an international context supported by Lead Venue Sponsor Link Asset Management Limited (Link) and a distinguished roster of partners and supporters.
Marisa Yiu (Co-Founder, Lead Curator/ Executive Director) says: “The Art of Transformation” micro-festival has been a humbling experience with positive feedback from the community, who have joined us to explore spatial constructions and interactions of design and architecture to re-imagine, transform perspectives of city heritage and the culture of nature. We have furthered delved into this extraordinary costal area Stanley called “Chek Chue” in Cantonese, on the peninsula of Hong Kong Island in the Southern District with beaches, to engage with the historic piers, to the popular annual dragon boat festival, heritage monuments and the seaside culture of Hong Kong. This natural context, continues to form and inspire us on the importance of heritage research, activating underutilized public space assets, to inspire and gather for community collaboration. With this inaugural DESIGN TRUST FUTURES FESTIVAL 2025: “THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION” we have collaborated with over 60 designers, artists, architects and curators, over a three-month period at Murray House, Stanley Plaza where the 19th Century Victorian-era building, fronted by Blake Pier and Ma Hang Park, shares on new perspectives on material ecologies, ocean connectivity that links the 263 islands of Hong Kong, as a space for dialogue to speculate on the future of spaces, urbanism and creative discovery.
Reflecting on the past three months, Yiu continues: Design Trust Futures Festival 2025 “The Art of Transformation” has attracted visitors not only from Hong Kong but also cities in Greater Bay Area, Asia and internationally including Art Basel 2025 patrons and enthusiasts. Design Trust researchers, scholars, global partners to innovative designers, participated in and shared further their ongoing work, where small scale site specific commissioned works around themes of “Exceptional Transformations” of the historic site Murray House at Stanley Plaza, a 3-storey Victorian style building with architectural significance and its extraordinary heritage and natural context enlivens conversations on the public realm. As a micro-event festival examining urbanism, heritage, culture and architectural sustainability, at Design Trust Futures Festival 2025: “The Art of Transformation” at Murray House, Stanley Plaza we have touched many curious members from all walks of life, that have passed through the doors to interact with the iconic shocking pink “Timeless Towers of Murray” a “Transformational Interventions” feature installation in the public verandah of Murray House created by Editecture: Jacqueline Chak (Design Trust Futures Studio 2022 designer mentee) & Genevieve Chew using 36 KG of recycled plastic waste, to Toshiya Hayashi & Hokuto Ando of We+’ creative and transforming probing Seaweed Installation “Less, Light, Local”. Other Highlights unveiled April onwards includes “Design Trust Curatorial Survey Show: Hong Kong Islands & Material Ecologies” that presented a thematic selection of research and speculative projects on sustainability research, oceanic pursuits, community research, locality and heritage, island communities and the potential how these works and research inform an ideas-to-action think tank while shaping critical and cultural urbanism to tourism, as a space of innovation and engagement for Hong Kong’s future, including works of Island Lights (Design Trust Seed Grant recipient) a laboratory like installation with an updated Islands Catalogue in the “Sea Garden: Design Trust Ideas Lounge” with site specific expansion to Round Island and Lo Chau; and the very popular Wang Xin’s “Hamster Wheel” facing the Blake Pier, in the former old restaurant remnant with playfulness, through intriguing displacement.
In celebration of the finale of the festival, a Finissage event “DESIGN TRUST SKETCHALOGUES” will take place on June 18th 2025 at Design Trust Collaborative Space from 4pm to 6pm. As sketching has always been a critical process from design to artistic creation, visualizing thoughts through freehand sketches and other medium, the layering of thoughts, ideas, spatial depictions, debates or scenarios, in sketch books are timeless skills by many designers and creative thinkers. These sketches may become diagrams, spaces, prototypes and are experimental yet archival in nature, during creative exploration. This “DESIGN TRUST SKETCHALOGUES” sharing event invites participants to share their unique sketchbooks, or sketching process as an active creative journey, connecting the hand and mind to reality.
DESIGN TRUST SKETCHALOGUES
Date: Wednesday 18th June 2025
Time: 4:00pm-6:00pm
Venue: Design Trust Collaborative Space 1F, Murray House, Stanley Plaza
Rundown:
3:40 – 4:00pm Registration
4:00 – 4:10pm Welcome remarks and introduction by Marisa Yiu.
4:10 – 5:30pm Sketch sharing from architects, designers and artists.
5:30 – 6:00pm Sketch discussion and closing remarks.
Sharing participants:
Henry Steiner and Margaret Steiner, who will also share on process related to the 1986 Hong Kong Fishing Vessels Stamps he designed showing the fishing culture of Hong Kong.
Raymond Fung, Hong Kong- based world renowned ink artist and former government architect (author of “The Untold Stories of Hong Kong Architecture” supported by Design Trust Grant);
Gary Chang, honouree recipient of this year’s 2025 Design Trust Arts Prize and leading designer of the world famous “Domestic Transformer”;
Connie Maoshan, artist and illustrator of the cultural map representing the rich heritage of Stanley;
Julie Progin and Jesse Mc Lin, Design Trust former mentees, and established ceramist whose works have been exhibited at, Design Society, the Triennale Di Milano and Chicago Design Museum;
Elaine Yan Ling Ng of the Fabrick Lab, Design Trust former grant recipient and mentee, with renowned textile project of UN/FOLD: A Stitch in Time supported by Design Trust Feature Grant;
Chi Chun Tang, former grant recipient currently showcasing his team’s work Island Lights at Design Trust Futures Festival.
With sketch book and diagrams, unveiled by artist Eddie Lui of “Lion Rock Forever”, and Stephen Wong Chun Hei’s sketches for his special painting shown at Design Trust Charity Exhibition;
With Special Respondent Rocco Yim (Design Trust Heritage Innovator Award 2024 Honouree) and Puay Peng Ho
Moderated by Marisa Yiu (Co-Founder, Lead Curator/ Executive Director, Design Trust)
Registration via here before June 16th, Monday.
Built upon the ongoing research and community engagement through Design Trust Futures Festival at Murray House, Stanley Plaza, Design Trust will continue its efforts to DESIGN TRUST FUTURES STUDIO Greater Bay Area programme: “Nature is Nurture is Nature” crafting a visionary explorative Creative Atlas, Design Trust Impact Grant initiative Open House Hong Kong 2025 to be launched this November, to a new fellowship programme in partnership with the renowned V&A East and recently unveiled V&A Storehouse in London, whilst supporting ongoing granting projects and design research projects.