China may be racing ahead of most countries in commerce and technology, but when it comes to design innovation, there's still a sizeable lag. 'We're at ground level,' says William To, project director at the Hong Kong Design Centre. 'In some cities, design has entered the bloodstream; it's in the city structure, in the way people live and everything they touch. Not here yet, and not across the border either.'
This makes international design events held here all the more important. The centre's eighth Business of Design Week, which takes place next week, will welcome industry leaders to the city in an attempt to spark a debate on the quality of our creative culture.
Among those attending will be top architects Jean Nouvel, Zhu Pei and Ben Van Berkel; Pierre Alexis-Dumas of Hermes International, and multidisciplinary artist Matali Crasset. The ultimate aim, says To, is to help Hongkongers understand what people in Europe, Japan, the US and elsewhere take for granted: that good design is a lifestyle, not a commodity.
Marc Brulhart, of Hong Kong-based studio Marc & Chantal and a speaker at this year's event, grew up in Switzerland but has lived and worked in Asia for 17 years. He believes that the design 'instinct' is mostly absent here.
'In Europe, from the shape of a door handle to how you get on a bus, everything has started from design; you don't just call in a designer for your signature project,' he says.
British-trained and Hong Kong-based architect Andre Fu says: 'In a strong design culture, there's more understanding about the soul of a space, how it becomes workable and memorable. But here there's a strong commercial element, a sense of constantly looking for the next best thing.'