Duo evoke spirit of craftsmanship

Fusing inspiration from Chinese traditions, with a fresh take on contemporary design, has been a winning formula for Jeff Shi and Jiang Qionger, who will share their experiences at Business of Design Week.

The two designers will be featured in the heritage and design forum at the annual flagship event of the Hong Kong Design Centre.

Shi is acclaimed for his use of eco-friendly bamboo to produce cutting-edge household designs and his achievements were recognised when he won a coveted Red Dot Design Award last year.

Jiang has pioneered Shang Xia, the Chinese luxury brand she established after collaborating with Hermes, which blends the essence and spirit of traditional culture and craftsmanship with contemporary elegance to produce homeware, apparel and jewellery.

Innovation and a commitment to quality are among the attributes they share. Take Shi's work in creating LED-bamboo lighting systems. 'These are energy-saving and need no lighting accessories,' he says. 'Moreover, living space is enlarged and your sense towards the interior is refreshed when this 'LED-bamboo' is applied.'

It took him two years of research to find the ideal bamboo tubes for these lamps. 'I intended to utilise natural bamboo culms for the lamp, and employ traditional ways to make them crack-proof,' he says. In the end, that was not practical, so he decided to use slices of laminated bamboo sheets rolled up into tubings for high density, controllable thickness and stability. The crack-proof material can be standardised for mass production.

His use of bamboo helps to preserve traditional craftsmanship skills in Taiwan that were in danger of dying out.