Design Trust is pleased to share a selection of highlighted grant projects and news from grantees, including “Housing Re-public” kick-off exhibition by Rico Samuel Diedering and Pedram Ghelichi, “Hong Kong Ghost Signs: Summoning Characters From Our City's Past” by Ben Marans and Billy Potts, and the symposium “Post Carbon” by Yixuan Cai. We are also excited to share Design Trust Seed Grant recipients Paul Tse and Evelyn Ting have recently been awarded "Design Vanguard 2024" by Architectural Record, in recognition of their architectural innovation and experimentation in Hong Kong and the region.
Design Trust Grant Spotlight
24. 6. 2024
Design Trust Seed Grant “Housing Re-public” kick-off exhibition by Rico Samuel Diedering and Pedram Ghelichi
Design Trust Seed Grant Housing Re-public led by Rico Samuel Diedering and Pedram Ghelichi has kicked-off the traveling exhibition at the first location at School of Architecture, the Chinese University of Hong Kong from June 8th to 18th. In contrast to the general assumption that low-cost housing is solely designed by government departments, this research identifies a unique and yet overlooked twenty-year period between the 1970s and 1990s, in which Hong Kong’s government embraced private architects' involvement to sustain the public housing program. This research highlights the emergence of a unique tower typology in which conventions of repetition and raw efficiency are replaced by diversity, flexibility and spatiality. Unpublished archival drawings, photographs, research diagrams as well as models of the six housing estates examined were presented to shed light on the lineage and evolution of the public housing design in the particular time period. Stay tuned for their upcoming traveling exhibitions at the housing estates.
Design Trust Seed Grant “Hong Kong Ghost Signs: Summoning Characters From Our City's Past” by Ben Marans and Billy Potts
Design Trust Seed Grant research project “Hong Kong Ghost Signs: Summoning Characters From Our City's Past” led by Ben Marans and Billy Potts has been capturing the phenomenon of Ghost Signs in Hong Kong’s unique signage landscape, which refer to fading signages from times past, leaving a rare, tangible, trace of the communities and businesses that have changed or disappeared amidst Hong Kong’s rapid development. These artefacts carry valuable information about Chinese calligraphic scripts, local sign painting craft, and collective memories of what came before. Over 300 case studies have been documented and mapped to construct a live archive of the city’s past histories and dynamic changes. The team has also conducted interviews with experts from different relevant industries including Dr. Judith Mackay, Dr. Kan Tai-Keung, Westley Wong, Aquino Da Silva, Benny Tang and many more from Hong Kong to Macau in order to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon. With the upcoming online archive, the project will continue to tell the story of this fading and fascinating part of Hong Kong’s culture while also celebrating our communities as they change and prosper.
Design Trust Seed Grant “Breathing X: Atmosphere Architecture” by Yixuan Cai : the Symposium “Post Carbon: Carbon as Energy, Life and Currency” on June 29th -30th at Design Society Shenzhen
Design Trust Seed Grant research project “Breathing X: Atmosphere Architecture” led by Yixuan Cai has launched a series of public programmes titled “Post Carbon: Carbon as Energy, Life and Currency” with the first symposium “Blue Carbon and Urban Metabolism” on June 29th -30th at Design Society Shenzhen joined by Marie Griesmar, Knowbotiq, Sarah Mui, Shen Shaomin and Social Practice Lab. The curatorial research uses life cycle design as its approach, dissecting the tangible expressions of carbon from various industries, including architecture, food, cities and products, and fashion. Through a series of thematic public programs, the research integrates with local issues in China. The project aims to record the changes occurring in China's energy transition through visits, interviews, and research. More details on the upcoming workshops in Beijing and Hangzhou will be shared shortly.
Design Trust Seed Grant recipients Paul Tse and Evelyn Ting have recently been awarded Design Vanguard 2024 by Architectural Record
We are pleased to share that Design Trust Seed Grant recipients Paul Tse and Evelyn Ting’s New Office Works has recently been awarded Design Vanguard 2024 by Architectural Record, in recognition of their architectural innovation and experimentation in Hong Kong and the region. Formatted as a series of video essays, Paul and Evelyn’s Design Trust Seed Grant research project “Middle Man Hong Kong: Architecture in Between Needs and Desires” investigates Hong Kong as a middleman of the uneasy duality in this city, and the tools used to deal with the two extremes, from buildings (Entertainment Building) and objects (Escalator) to scenarios (Porosity vs. Solidity). The 12-episodes series cover keywords of Middle Man, Character, Escalators, Palm Tree, Three Banks, Parks & Toilets, Reflection, Spam, Stations, Port, Shortcuts and Island, revealing multiple layers of Hong Kong’s unique urban culture and built environment. As the winner of Hong Kong Architects & Designers Competition 2017 from 320 submissions, the duo designed the Growing-up Pavilion at West Kowloon Cultural District offering sweeping views of the sunset over Victoria Harbour.
In its 25 edition, Architectural Record has awarded 249 Design Vanguard winners to date including MADA s.p.a.m. (2003), nARCHITECTS (2004), Urbanus (2005), Studio Pei-Zhu (2007), Sou Fujimoto (2007), Tatiana Bilbao (2007), DnA Design & Architecture (2009), Rossana Hu of Neri&Hu (2009), ESKYIU (2014), Barozzi/Veiga (2014), O-OFFICE Architects (2015) and many more. Congratulations again to Paul Tse and Evelyn Ting!