Design Trust Decade Gala 2024 Honourees | Honouring Prof. Yungho Chang & Ms. Lijia Lu and Celebrating Dr. Rocco Yim’s Prolific Contributions to Hong Kong and the Region

Design Trust is honoured to present Prof. Yung Ho Chang & Ms. Lijia Lu as honourees of the Design Trust Legacy Award 2024, as part of the organisation’s mission to advocate for the positive value of the processes of design. This is in recognition to their prolific contributions to contemporary architecture design practice and education. Their collaborative spirit as life and career partners inspires the design community to explore, support and stimulate design research, scholarship, cross-cultural collaboration and public programming in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area for the next decade of Design Trust. Design Trust Legacy Award 2024 was presented to Prof. Yung Ho Chang & Ms. Lijia Lu by Design Trust Legacy Award 2021 Honouree Dr. Henry Steiner with his wife Mrs. Margaret Steiner. The trophy is designed by AE Folio.

“We are very much honored to accept the Design Trust Award and would like to express our sincere appreciation for the Design Trust’s putting their trust in our design. What has kept our practice Atelier Feichang Jianzhu going for the past thirty years is in fact a faith in design and in architecture in particular, a faith that constantly reminds us that we must hang on to optimism in a trying time in the history of mankind as the one we are experiencing today. We believe that design can make the world better. Meanwhile, however, an independent design practice like ours remains fragile and is desperately in need of support and encouragement. Luckily for us, encouragement comes in the form of the prestigious Design Trust Award. Thank you so verymuch.” by Prof. Yung Ho Chang & Ms. Lijia Lu (January 2024)

Prof. Yung Ho Chang was educated both in China and in the US. Since 1992, he has been practicing in China and established Atelier FCJZ with Lijia Lu in 1993. He has won a number of prizes, such as the 2000 UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts, and the Academy Award in Architecture from American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2006. Between 2005 and 2010, he headed the Architecture Department at MIT. He was also a Pritzker Prize Jury member from 2011 to 2017.

Ms. Lijia Lu studied architecture at Harbin Institute of Architecture and Engineering (Harbin Technical University today) in China and Rice University in the US. From 1984-89, she was an editor of the Architect magazine in China. She has been a founding partner of FCJZ since 1993.

On the occasion of Design Trust Decade Gala 2024 at Hong Kong Palace Museum, Design Trust is honoured to celebrate Dr. Rocco Yim with the Design Trust Heritage Innovator Award for his prolific contribution to architecture and design of Hong Kong especially as the lead architect for Hong Kong Palace Museum bringing traditional Chinese culture to the contemporary urban landscape of Hong Kong. The award was presented by Mr. Kamsen Lau and Ms. Marisa Yiu with the trophy crafted by AE Folio.

Dr. Rocco Yim was born and educated in Hong Kong, and is currently Principal of Rocco Design Architects Associates Ltd. Since winning a First Prize Award for the L’Opéra de la Bastille international competition in 1983, his works have consistently been awarded both in Hong Kong and overseas.  Accolades include ARCASIA Gold Medals, Kenneth F. Brown Award, Chicago Athenaeum Architectural Awards, WAF category winner, ULI Global Award, German Design Council Iconic Awards and the Plan Award.

Rocco is a regular invited speaker in local and international symposia, including keynote speakers at WAF 2014 and UIA World Congress 2021. He also held a solo exhibition at the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin in 2013. Rocco’s work has been published in four monographs, from The City in Architecture in 2002 to Reconnecting Cultures in 2013. "Learning from Hong Kong?" will be published in late 2024.

Five pairs of creatives, Azusa Murakami & Alexander Groves, Leung Chi Wo & Sara Wong, Michael Young & Xavier Tsang, Julie Progin & Jesse Mc Lin, Bob Pang & Kevin Mak were announced as the co-recipients of the Design Trust Dynamic Duos Arts Prize 2024 celebrating past ten years of Design Trust. The prizes were presented by Prof. Yung Ho Chang, Ms. Lijia Lu, Dr. Rocco Yim and Ms. Marisa Yiu in front of the special edition of “New Spring” installation from Azusa Murakami & Alexander Groves of Studio Swine.

Azusa Murakami (JP) and Alexander Groves (UK) are the artists behind experimental design practice Studio Swine. Studio Swine’s films have been awarded at Cannes and other film festivals around the world. Their work has been featured in both the Venice Art and Architecture Biennales and in the permanent collections of MOMA New York, Pompidou Centre in Paris, Vitra Design Museum Germany and M+ Hong Kong. They established A.A.Murakami  in 2020, whose immersive installations fused science and art to create their ongoing ‘Ephemeral Tech’ series; a type of work which combines their own technology with ethereal materials or states of matter which play with all the senses to create unnatural phenomena. They participated in Design Trust Futures Studio 2019 as mentors for the “Heritage is Innovation” curatorial programme.

Leung Chi Wo and Sara Wong have collaborated since 1992. Leung and Wong co-founded the art centre Para Site in Hong Kong in 1996 and graduated with master’s degrees from the Department of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the School of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong in 1997. From 1999 to 2000, they participated in a residency in New York, where they premiered City Cookie, their most widely exhibited project. Alongside exhibiting their work in international renowned exhibition and academic roles in universities in Hong Kong, Sara participated in Design Trust Futures Studio 2017 and 2018 as advisor, and received Design Trust Seed Grant for “Hong Kong's Self-Build Communities”.

Michael Young and Xavier Tsang participated in Design Trust Futures Studio 2019 as mentor and mentee partners. Xavier also participated in DTFS 2017 and 2018 in micro-park Portland Street Rest Garden team. Michael Young is the founder, and creative director of Michael Young Studio, which provides exclusive, quality design services across an eclectic range of markets – from interiors to technology. Xavier Tsang founded artisanal candle and fragrance brand BeCandle in 2012 specializing in developing and producing high-quality fragrance products using natural based materials. Since 2019, the former mentor-mentee duo continued on new projects and collaborations together.

Swiss designer Julie Progin and American artist Jesse Mc Lin founded the creative studio Julie & Jesse in Hong Kong and Jingdezhen in 2012. The studio focuses on experimental ceramic investigations that stretches across the fields of design, craft and art. Julie and Jesse participated in Design Trust Futures Studio 2019 and 2022 editions as mentees. The duo manifests research into materials and bridges conceptual and emotional narratives with meticulous making technique. Julie & Jesse’s works have been exhibited at M+, Design Society, the Triennale Di Milano and Chicago Design Museum.

Bob Pang leads Hong Kong Brutalism Research Group and worked with photographer Kevin Mak on the research publication and exhibition project “BRUTAL! – Unknown Brutalism Architecture in Hong Kong” which received Design Trust Seed Grant in 2020 and Feature Grant in 2022. Brutalism Hong Kong Research Group’s research and photography project maps out the history and aesthetic of Brutalist architecture in Hong Kong and the untold history behind. They published ‘Unknown Brutalism Architecture in Hong Kong’ in 2023. Bob also joined Design Trust Futures Studio 2022 as mentee, and their work has been recognised by Dezeen in Dezeen Awards 2022 Public Vote Winner for Architecture Photograph of the Year.