We are pleased to share the launch of Design Trust Futures Festival 2025 website and Public Programme Calendar. From March 29th to June 18th 2025 at Murray House, Stanley Plaza, a series of public programmes will be presented including community heritage tours in collaboration with Open House Hong Kong (Design Trust Impact Grant recipient), panel talks and workshops featuring Ingrid Pui Yee Chu (Design Trust Feature Grant recipient), Hong Kong Ghost Signs (Design Trust Seed Grant recipient), Toshiya Hayashi & Hokuto Ando of We+, and many more.
Launch of Design Trust Futures Festival 2025 Website and Public Programme Calendar
3. 4. 2025
DESIGN TRUST FUTURES FESTIVAL 2025: “The Art of Transformation” is a new micro festival where Design Trust researchers, scholars, global partners to innovative designers, participate in and share 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. Curated by Marisa Yiu (Co-Founder, Lead Curator/ Executive Director) with Zheng Zhou (Head of Programmes/ Associate Curator), this new initiative is conceptualized to shape, test ideas and speculate on the future of spaces, urbanism and the role of creativity, as we respond to global conversations around sustainability, placemaking, role of tourism to culture and heritage of Hong Kong within the Greater Bay Area, and international context, in positive and impactful ways.
As the first public programme of Design Trust Futures Festival 2025, Design Trialogues 2025 Roundtable: “Breaching Sanctum: Afterwords” took place on Friday April 4th at Design Trust Collaborative Space, 1F Murray House, Stanley Plaza. Moderated by Design Trust Feature Grant recipient Ingrid Pui Yee Chu, the roundtable featured artists, curators, landscape architects and designers including Leelee Chan, Tap Chan, Heesun Seo, Ashley Lee Wong, Sara Wong, and Ying Zhou, with Marisa Yiu (Co-Founder, Lead Curator/ Executive Director of Design Trust) 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, including existing and newly commissioned art and design works alongside related research and reference materials. The project, publication, and corresponding programmes all delve into 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 features a preview of the publication with an essay by curator Ingrid Pui Yee Chu and a newly commissioned text by guest writer Jennifer Higgie, alongside other contributions as well as exhibition and archival documentation.
Public programme calendar of Design Trust Futures Festival 2025 from March 29th to June 18th has been released. Please scroll down for more details on the event date, time and registration.
Saturday, April 19th
Panel Sharing Workshop: Urban Transformation through Hong Kong Ghost Signs
Speakers:
Billy Potts (Writer & Designer, Design Trust Grant Recipient)
Diana Pang (Designer & Researcher)
Respondents:
John Carroll (Professor at Department of History, HKU & Author of “A Concise History of Hong Kong”)
Pan Lu (Associate Professor at Department of Chinese History and Culture, HK PolyU & Author of “Aestheticizing Public Space: Street Visual Politics in East Asian Cities”)
Moderator:
Marisa Yiu (Co-Founder, Lead Curator/ Executive Director, Design Trust)
Saturday April 19th 2025
2:00 – 4:00pm
Design Trust Collaborative Space, 1F Murray House, Stanley Plaza
Registration here
Saturday, March 29th
Design Trust Futures Festival 2025 opens to the public
Friday, April 4th
Design Trialogues 2025 featuring Book Launch and Sharing Talk of Design Trust Feature Grant publication Breaching Sanctum led by Ingrid Pui Yee Chu
Friday, April 4th 2025, 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Design Trust Collaborative Space
Registration here.
Saturday, April 19th
Panel Sharing Workshop: Urban Transformation through Hong Kong Ghost Signs
Speakers:
Billy Potts (Writer & Designer, Design Trust Grant Recipient)
Diana Pang (Designer & Researcher)
Respondents:
John Carroll (Professor at Department of History, HKU & Author of “A Concise History of Hong Kong”)
Pan Lu (Associate Professor at Department of Chinese History and Culture, HK PolyU & Author of “Aestheticizing Public Space: Street Visual Politics in East Asian Cities”)
Moderator:
Marisa Yiu (Co-Founder, Lead Curator/ Executive Director, Design Trust)
Saturday April 19th 2025
2:00 – 4:00pm
Design Trust Collaborative Space, 1F Murray House, Stanley Plaza
Registration here
Saturday, April 26th
Design Trust Community Tours, Open House Hong Kong Special Edition
Stanley Neighbourhood Tour led by Sampson Wong
3:00 – 5:30pm (The tour will be conducted in Cantonese)
Registration here
Sunday, April 27th
Design Trust Community Tours, Open House Hong Kong Special Edition
Stanley Neighbourhood Tour led by Sampson Wong
3:00 – 5:30pm (The tour will be conducted in English)
Registration here
Saturday, May 10th
Design Trust Community Tours, Open House Hong Kong Special Edition
St.Stephen’s College Tour led by Kevin Mak, Charles Lai and Connie Maoshao
10:30 – 12:30nn (The tour will be conducted in Cantonese)
Registration here
Stanley Neighbourhood Tour led by Sampson Wong
3:00 – 5:30pm (The tour will be conducted in English)
Registration here
Stanley Neighbourhood Tour led by Sampson Wong
3:00 – 5:30pm (The tour will be conducted in English)
Registration here
Sunday, May 11th
Design Trust Community Tours, Open House Hong Kong Special Edition
Stanley Neighbourhood Tour led by Zheng Zhou
3:00 – 5:30pm (The tour will be conducted in Mandarin)
Registration here
Saturdays, May 10th and 17th
Workshops led by Design Trust Feature Grant recipient Island Studies Network
Saturday, May 17th
Design Trust Community Tours, Open House Hong Kong Special Edition
Ma Hang Housing Estate Tour led by Rico Samuel Diedering
3:00 – 5:00pm (The tour will be conducted in English)
Registration here
Friday, May 23rd
Workshop led by Design Trust Feature Grant recipient Niko Leung
Saturday, May 24th
Sharing workshop led by Toshiya Hayashi & Hokuto Ando of We+
June 2025
Unveiling Design Trust Futures Studio Installation led by Elaine Yan Ling Ng with Julie & Jesse
Design Trust Futures Festival 2025 Designers and Artists Sharing & Workshop
Saturday, June 7th
Design Trust Community Tours, Open House Hong Kong Special Edition
St.Stephen’s College Tour led by Kevin Mak and Connie Maoshao
10:30 – 12:30nn (The tour will be conducted in English)
Registration here
Stanley Neighbourhood Tour led by Sampson Wong
3:00 – 5:30pm (The tour will be conducted in Cantonese)
Registration here
Saturday June 14th
Design Trust Community Tours, Open House Hong Kong Special Edition
Ma Hang Housing Estate Tour led by Rico Samuel Diedering
3:00 – 5:00pm (The tour will be conducted in English)
Registration here
Wednesday June 18th
Design Trust Futures Festival 2025 Finissage
*Please check in at 1/F Design Trust Collaborative Space 15min before the tour starts.