What is cybertecture? 'I see the world as a system - albeit a complex one - where forces at play interact with one another, sometimes in balance, sometimes in conflict,' says Law. 'Increasingly, traditional forces are influenced by new electronic and cyber forces. I gain inspiration when I look into this system, try to understand it like a piece of nature then synthesise it and apply it to the function, business and events of my projects. This is what I have come to term as cybertecture.'
What is Law known for? The world's first artificial intelligence media laboratory (for the Hong Kong government) and what he claims is the world's first 'bricks & clicks' shopping mall - Dickson Cyber Express in the Kowloon MTR station.
Then there are his movie theatres - Central's Palace IFC cinema and Kwun Tong's Palace APM Cinema (below) - and his 'morphable' house in Copenhagen, in partnership with IBM in Denmark. The house can change shape and function, its dynamic trolley system of rooms and spaces controlled by a voice-recognition interface that acts as a virtual butler. Law is also responsible for designing the mainland's largest interactive cybertecture centre for China Telecom, in Shantou.
What is he working on now? All the Hong Kong Jockey Club betting centres as well the UA Times Square, Union Square Cinema (Kowloon Station) and the Shaw Theatre at Shaw Studios in Tseung Kwan O.
What's his story? Born in 1970, his father served on the Olympic committee for Hong Kong and his mother was a primary school teacher. Law says at first they 'did the usual parent thing', encouraging him to be a doctor or a lawyer. But aged seven, Law saw the cult Gary Cooper film about a perfectionist architect, The Fountainhead. 'And I knew,' he says, 'that would be my destiny.'
