Design Trust Charity Benefit 2025 Honourees | Honouring Ms. Elizabeth Diller, Ms. Kai-yin Lo and Celebrating Mr. Gary Chang

Design Trust is honoured to present Elizabeth Diller, Co-Founding Partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the Design Trust Legacy Award 2025. Her work has had a profound impact on global design, education, and cultural landscapes, including her contributions to the Design Trust Futures Studio Micro-parks initiative. Visionary jewellery designer, curator, and historian Kai-Yin Lo was honoured with the Design Trust Heritage Innovator Award 2025 for her leadership in cross-cultural heritage and design. Architectural designer Gary Chang, renowned for his innovative "Domestic Transformer," was presented with the Design Trust Arts Prize 2025 for his transformative approach to sustainable design.

Design Trust Legacy Award 2025 honouree Elizabeth Diller, Co-Founding Partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, sent her message through video: “Design Trust is a civic-minded cultural institution that has become an indispensable part of Hong Kong's cultural infrastructure, with tentacles around the globe. I am here not only to accept this honour and to celebrate what Design Trust has already accomplished, but to support its continued growth and evolution, to help it promote new voices and practices, to drive the discourse, and to continue to challenge the status quo.”

Elizabeth Diller is a founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). Her cross genre work has been distinguished with TIME’s "100 Most Influential People" list and the first MacArthur Foundation grant awarded in the field of architecture. DS+R established its identity through self-generated projects in public spaces that challenged the status quo of the architectural discipline before expanding the practice to include architectural work at all scales, with an emphasis on cultural, educational, and civic projects. Following the success of the ICA Boston and The Broad in Los Angeles, Diller spearheaded the conception and design of The Shed—a start-up multi-arts institution. She also led the renovation and expansion of MoMA in New York and V&A East Storehouse, currently under construction in London. In parallel with her architecture projects, Diller continues to develop independent works for the stage, curatorial and installation projects for museums and public spaces, as well as works for print and alternative media. Most recently, she completed Architecture, Not Architecture, a double-volume monograph on the studio’s cross-disciplinary work. Diller serves as a Professor of Architecture at Princeton University and a member of the UN Council on Urban Initiatives. Diller has been the international workshop mentor for Design Trust Futures Studio 2017 edition “Small is Meaningful” and 2018 edition “Play is for the people” and continues to inspire Design Trust’s community from Hong Kong to the region and internationally.

Celebrated as a designer of jewellery, accessories and ceramics, Kai-Yin Lo melds the cultural heritages of East and West and interprets them in original, contemporary and highly wearable and usable ways. As cultural historian, teacher and editor of five influential books, ranging from Chinese furniture and living patterns to Song Dynasty ceramics to Hong Kong design culture, she presents art, design and culture as an interrelated process. As curator and organizer of art and cultural events that include the landmark exhibition of artist Wu Guanzhong (1992), and the cross-media installation by contemporary artist Xu Bing (2012), both at the British Museum, to the influential “Living Heritage-Vernacular Environment in China” exhibition at the China Institute, New York (2001), Hong Kong’s official design exhibition at Shanghai Expo (2010), and many more.

Gary Chang has become one of the foremost creative forces within the architectural, interior and product design industry, by challenging traditional boundaries and rethinking the possibilities with and dynamism of spatial flexibility. Gary graduated from The University of Hong Kong in 1987 and founded his company EDGE in 1994. His projects span across large scale urban, residential, commercial, cultural and private fields with the focus on dynamic spatial flexibility and redefinition of traditional boundaries. He gained a reputation for his commitment to innovative exploration of modernism with tradition, nature with metropolitan and art with adaptability. Some of his award-winning multi-disciplinary designs include Domestic Transformer, Suitcase House at Commune by the Great Wall in Beijing, Kung Fu Tea Set for Alessi and ACTS Rednaxela Serviced Apartments. He also participated in Design Trust Futures Studio Micro-parks initiative as mentor to reimagine the public space for Hong Kong. Gary Chang’s continuing exploration on spatial transformation has provided valuable inspiration for the design communities across the region.