Highlights from Public Programmes, Tours and Workshops of Design Trust Futures Festival 2025

From March 29^th to June 18^th 2025, 16 public programmes and community tours have been hosting at Design Trust Futures Festival: “The Art of Transformation” at Murray House, Stanley Plaza, further delving into the extraordinary costal area Stanley to engage with the local cultural heritage and collective memory, while speculating on the futures of material innovation, contemporary culture research and urban transformation, to inspire and gather for community collaboration.

In collaboration with Design Trust Impact Grant recipient Open House Hong Kong, nine special small-scale community tours of Design Trust Futures Festival brought the participants through the historic Murray House to Stanley neighbourhoods, St.Stephen’s College and Ma Hang Estate and explored the area’s rich historical and natural context:

“Stanley Neighborhood Tour” led by Open House Hong Kong member and M+/Design Trust Research Fellow Sampson Wong, unveiled aesthetics, architecture, and overlooked spaces while uncovering the hidden beauty of Stanley‘s surrounding environment.

“St. Stephen’s College Tour” led by Open House’s organising members: Kevin Mak, grantee Charles Lai and alumni & artist Maoshan Connie who has created special illustrated map brought the participants to explore the unknown stories of brutalism architecture on campus.

“Ma Hang Estate Tour” led by grantee Rico Samuel Diedering highlighted the architecture and landscape design of Ma Hang Estate as an important case study of urban renewal in Hong Kong.

Design Trust Futures Festival 2025: “The Art of Transformation” collaborated with over 60 designers, artists, architects and curators at Murray House, Stanley Plaza. Over the three-month period, six curated public workshops explored contemporary culture, urban transformation, material ecologies, ocean connectivity that links the 263 islands of Hong Kong through sharing talks, workshop and tours.

Book Launch and Sharing Talk of Design Trust Feature Grant publication Breaching Sanctum led by Ingrid Pui Yee Chu took place on Friday, April 4th 2025, featuring Leelee Chan, Tap Chan, Heesun Seo, Ashley Lee Wong, Sara Wong, and Ying Zhou, with Marisa Yiu  as respondent. Supported by Design Trust Feature Grant, “Breaching Sanctum” is a publication corresponding with an exhibition, which took place in 2022, in F Hall Studio at Tai Kwun centre for arts, culture, and heritage in Hong Kong. The project, publication, and corresponding programmes examined the work of a generation of Chinese women artists, designers, and architects born in the 1980s, and the influence of that era, alongside current developments, innovations, and pressures connected to urbanism, sustainability, and the built environment, on their work. The talk event also featured a preview of the publication with an essay by Ingrid Pui Yee Chu and a newly commissioned text by Jennifer Higgie, alongside other contributions as well as exhibition and archival documentation.

Panel sharing workshop “Urban Transformation through Hong Kong Ghost Signs” on Saturday April 19th 2025, featured sharing from Design Trust Seed Grant recipient Billy Potts on their project Hong Kong Ghost Signs. Supported by Design Trust Seed Grant from 2022, Hong Kong Ghost Signs celebrates Hong Kong’s urban design legacy by documenting the faded remnants of defunct signage from across the city. Through this unique urban archaeology lens, HK Ghost Signs, led by Billy Potts and Ben Marans studies these relics, paying homage to this ever-changing city where calligraphers and sign installers have left their unique mark. Billy shared the Ghost Signage research anchoring his presentation with artifacts that can be found in Stanley today to places, objects, or events revealing Hong Kong‘s broader story of transformation. Moderated by Marisa Yiu, the Panel Sharing Workshop also brought together Diana Pang (Designer & Researcher) to share her research on toponyms of Hong Kong, with special respondents Prof. John Carroll (Department of History, HKU & Author of “A Concise History of Hong Kong”) and Associate Prof. Pan Lu (Department of Chinese History and Culture, HK PolyU & Author of “Aestheticizing Public Space: Street Visual Politics in East Asian Cities”).

Workshops “Island x Kaito” on May 10^th, and “Beyond Festival: Dragon Boat Picture Book Storytelling and Creative Design Workshop” on May 17^th led by Design Trust Feature Grant recipient Dr. Leung Po-shan of Island Studies Network HK explored the rich island culture in Hong Kong. The team shared new perspectives on Hong Kong, research into the Kaito ferry network, and the network of islands and islanders that are inter-connected with this system. Collaborating with illustration artist Wendy Wan, the workshop explored the historical stories of the Dragon Boat festival, and culture in Hong Kong, where a family-friendly children workshop was brought together to create their own dragon boat and racing scenes across Hong Kong map.

The hiking and fabrication workshop “Your Mountain: Scholar’s rock making in ceramics” led by Design Trust Feature Grant recipient Niko Leung on Friday May 23^rd 2025, was a unique blend of craft and nature. Participants sculpted their own stones from local Hong Kong clay with rocks found at the special hike to Rhino Rock in Stanley. This experiential learning approach not only fostered creativity but also deepened participants’ connection to the local environment of Stanley.

The sharing and fabrication workshop of “Less, Light, Local” Design Trust Futures Festival Special Edition, led by Hokuto Ando of We+ on Saturday May 24th 2025, explored the sustainable design potential of discarded non-edible ITA NORI (seaweed sheets). Participants created three-dimensional objects using Seaweed Discs, engaging with the history of ITA NORI while speculating the future of materials upcycling. The workshop is inspired by the concept of “Less, Light, Local”, which reimagines waste materials through the lens of traditional craftsmanship and modern sustainability. By working hands-on with seaweed as a material, participants gained insight into how cultural heritage and innovative thinking can converge to give new life to materials otherwise destined for disposal. The fabrication workshop was followed by a sharing workshop from Hokuto Ando of We+, and a discussion moderated by Marisa Yiu with respondent Yannick Lenormand, East-Asia Foresight Leader at Arup University, and Jacqueline Chak, Founding Partner of EDITECTURE and participating designer of Design Trust Futures Festival 2025.

Design Trust Futures Festival 2025 Finissage event: “Design Trust Sketchalogues” on June 18th invited Henry Steiner & Margaret Steiner, Gary Chang, Raymond Fung, Elaine Yan Ling Ng, Julie Progin & Jesse Mc Lin, Connie Maoshan, Chi Chun Tang to share their creative process through sketching in various forms and medium, with sketches from Stephen Wong Chun Hei and Eddie Lui, in conversation with Lead Curator Marisa Yiu, and special respondents, Design Trust Heritage Innovator 2024 Honouree world, renowned Hong Kong architect Rocco Yim, and Design Trust Futures Studio 2019 mentor and UNESCO Chair on Architectural Heritage Conservation and Management in Asia, Professor Puay Peng Ho. From freehand sketch documentation, material prototyping test, to digital scanning and mapping, the thinking and creative process through sketching transcends generations, materials and technology, and continues to inspire and probe future possibilities.

Design Trust Futures Festival 2025 hosted tours and workshops in collaboration with professional and institutional organisations, including special guided tours led by Marisa Yiu for the Columbia University Alumni Association of Hong Kong on June 7^th and the Mamas’ Home under the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions on June 14^th. Design Trust Futures Festival hosted a guided tour and sharing panel talk “Exceptional Transformations of Built Heritage and Collective Memory” in collaboration with AIA Hong Kong, HKICON and HKIUD on June 14^th. Moderated by Marisa Yiu, the panel featured sharing from participating artist and architect William Lim (Managing Director of CL3) and heritage research advisor Wendy Ng (Director of Revival Heritage Consultants), with Eric Ho (President of AIA Hong Kong), Corrin Chan (Director of AOS Architecture) and Roger Wu (President of HK Institute of Architectural Conservationists) as respondents. Special wearable art piece of William Lim in collaboration with Katerin Theys was also presented with sharing from the designer artists.