Hong Kong Faces

Designer Wong Hoi-to is proud of his most recent masterpiece - a Christmas tree that floats and swings and is made up of 800 wires that hold together nearly 20,000 ornaments in the shape of a tree in the oval atrium at the IFC Mall.

In the oval atrium of the IFC Mall, designer Wong Hoi-to looks at his latest 'masterpiece', a 12-metre dangling wire Christmas tree, with a smile of contentment. After all, it is the fruit of a year's tremendous effort, and it is different.

The Christmas tree - it floats and swings in mid-air - is made up 800 wires that hold together nearly 20,000 ornaments and form the shape of a tree.

'I wanted to attempt something unconventional, and add personal twists to the decor,' Wong says.

He and his design team were inspired by the shopping mall itself. 'The mall always holds art exhibitions. And you can often find pieces of art hanging in the mall. It creates a great artistic atmosphere. So we decided to see if we could blend festive decorations into art.'

The entire project, from concept, design, research and development to installation, took a year to complete. It was the first time the team spent so long on a project. There were several technical problems it had to overcome before the concept could become reality, said Wong. The length and thickness of each wire had to be calculated precisely. The team made a model which was two-thirds the size of the actual artwork to test the strength of the wires.