Christopher DeWolf

Christopher Dewolf writes about urbanism, architecture and design – along with beer and other delicious beverages

Saint-Viateur Street in Montreal during the Festa di San Marziale, a summer Italian feast that draws big crowds. Photo: Chris Dewolf

Travel & Leisure

These must-visit pop-up spaces transform Montreal in summer

8 Aug 2018 - 6:02am

Known today as a relaxing getaway, compact Peng Chau was a pirates’ haven and, until the 1930s, polyglot fishing community, when factories making matches and hand-painted ceramics drew thousands of newcomers to island

Travel & Leisure

How Peng Chau went from fishermen’s haunt to factory island

5 Jul 2018 - 7:06pm

John Drummond, resident manager of the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong and whisky ambassador, in his natural habitat. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Travel & Food

Hong Kong whisky scene hots up with spate of new releases

23 Jun 2018 - 2:00pm

The Fiat 500 bag by 1.618.

Design & Interiors

Why some designs fail – Italian professor may have the answer

14 Jun 2018 - 5:05pm

Jason Carlow’s proposed Prefab Pencil Tower is on show at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. It exploits a loophole in Hong Kong’s building code that allows for prefabricated facade elements, like bay windows, to be exempt from a building’s gross floor area.

Interiors & Living

Hong Kong’s Venice Biennale 2018 entry reimagines apartment living

12 Jun 2018 - 11:34am

The London Theatre in Yau Ma Tei, once the hub for lovers of cinema in Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP

Travel & Leisure

Cinemas of Hong Kong film’s golden era, and why some stank of pee

4 Jun 2018 - 7:23pm

Designer and former art director Louie Shum on conceiving The Playhouse, a 6,000 sq ft industrial style loft home in Tin Wan, and 200 sq ft flats in a condominium tower in Central

Design & Interiors

Micro flat or mansion – which is more difficult to design?

31 May 2018 - 9:50am

Residents at co-living space Weave on Boundary in Prince Edward, Hong Kong will share common areas to relax in.

Interiors & Living

Here’s one alternative to buying Hong Kong’s unaffordable flats

4 Jun 2018 - 3:21pm 1

The Manakamana restaurant on Temple Street is an institution amid the thriving Nepalese community in Yau Ma Tei. Photo: SCMP

Travel & Leisure

Thriving Nepalese culture of Yau Ma Tei down to Gurkha soldiers

26 May 2018 - 8:00pm 1

Yau Ma Tei is one of Hong Kong's oldest and most diverse neighbourhoods. In the second instalment of our miniseries exploring facets of its history, we recall the colourful past of Gwo Laan, the city’s wholesale fruit market

Travel & Leisure

While neighbourhood sleeps it comes alive: Yau Ma Tei fruit market

21 May 2018 - 8:07pm

The harbourfront during the Hong Kong e-Prix. Photo: Handout

Business

Can Hong Kong’s harbourfront be more than prime real estate?

13 May 2018 - 10:16pm 7

An artist’s impression of Hassell’s Silk Road Corridor, a proposed greenway running through Shenzhen’s Qianhai CBD. Photo: Hassell

Lifestyle

A High Line for China: greenway to transform Shenzhen's new CBD

9 May 2018 - 5:19pm 4

The Six Streets area in 1983, with the now former Yau Ma Tei police station to the left and the then Yau Ma Tei typhoon shelter in the background. Photo: SCMP

Travel & Leisure

From plastic flowers to residential towers, a Hong Kong story

7 May 2018 - 3:06pm

Pricerite has been serving the Hong Kong people for more than three decades. It has more than 30 stores around the city. Photo: Antony Dickson

Lifestyle

Made in Hong Kong: Pricerite, city’s defiantly local answer to Ikea

16 Jul 2018 - 10:47am 7

A neighbourhood seething with energy by day and night, Yau Ma Tei has resisted gentrification and remains after dark the haunt of hawkers, street performers and prostitutes, as it has been for decades

Travel & Leisure

There’s nowhere in Hong Kong quite like Yau Ma Tei. This is its story

17 Apr 2018 - 6:23pm 1

German architect Ole Scheeren reveals the thinking behind the Guardian Art Centre in Beijing and Duo in Singapore, and why he is not bothered by strong criticism of an upcoming project in Vancouver

Interiors & Living

CCTV HQ ‘starchitect’ on building sensitively in Beijing, Singapore

16 Apr 2018 - 4:37pm

The menu at Alvy's bar in Kennedy Town puts on a spin on classic cocktails, with a focus on American whisky and the bittersweet Italian liqueurs known as amari.

Good Eating

Hong Kong bartenders revive simpler, carefree era of cocktails

10 Apr 2018 - 1:59pm

Gardenhouse, by MAD architects, is a new residential complex in the Los Angeles suburb of Beverly Hills.

Design & Interiors

How a Chinese architect infuses natural world in urban designs

12 Apr 2018 - 2:28pm

A water taxi, known locally as a walla-walla, in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour in the 1970s. Photo: SCMP

Travel & Leisure

The story of walla-wallas: Hong Kong’s 24-hour water taxis

18 Mar 2018 - 5:17pm 3

Year-long collaboration sees Singapore designers work with traditional Japanese craftsmen to help them innovate and reach out to new markets; the fruits of their partnership are seen in a display of beautiful, practical objects

Interiors & Living

Objects of beauty: Japanese craftsmanship meets Singapore design

11 Mar 2018 - 7:54pm

An artist's impression of the Zhongxian E-Sports Stadium in Chongqing, China.

Lifestyle

Inside the world’s first purpose-built e-sports stadium, in Chongqing

20 Feb 2018 - 9:58am 2

Analgesic balm in a hexagonal jar, launched in Rangoon by the Aw brothers in 1924, was a staple of Chinese families’ medicine cabinets for a generation. Today, Tiger Balm products have fans around the world, including Lady Gaga

Health & Wellness

The Tiger Balm story: ointment Chinese rubbed on for every ailment

21 Mar 2018 - 12:25pm 8

The Taikoo Sugar Refinery in Quarry Bay in 1903, which grew to become the largest sugar refinery in the world. Photo: SCMP

Travel & Leisure

The story behind Quarry Bay, Hong Kong’s original company town

13 Apr 2018 - 1:10pm

Each of the 120 flats at L’Arbre Blanc in southern France have a deep cantilevered balcony.

Lifestyle

How architects are changing high-rise life with amazing balconies

1 Feb 2018 - 7:14pm 5

Repulse Bay beach in 1982. Photo: SCMP

Travel & Leisure

Hong Kong district stories: Repulse Bay and Deep Water Bay

13 Apr 2018 - 1:06pm

The Chocolate Oaxaca cocktail brings Mexican cheer to Hong Kong, this Christmas, with hot chocolate, star anise, vanilla, and Danzantes Mezcalat at Skye in the Park Lane Hotel in Causeway Bay. Photo: Edmond So

Travel & Food

Christmas cocktails add warmth, happiness, and festive colour

22 Dec 2017 - 4:04pm

Lantern desk designers Sammy Yee Kin-hang (left) and Francis Wong Chi-wing (right) at PMQ in Central. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Interiors & Living

Standing desks: Hong Kong designers compete to make best prototype

14 Dec 2017 - 6:32pm

Hong Lok Street in Mong Kok, better known as Bird Street, was the most famous bird market in Hong Kong. Photo: David Wong

Travel & Leisure

How urban renewal killed off historic Hong Kong business districts

5 Feb 2018 - 4:38pm 3

Maxime Dautresme, who heads design studio A Work of Substance, has previously lived in Shanghai, Seoul, Rio de Janeiro, Paris and Miami. He fuses whimsy and local culture with branding to create dynamic restaurants such as Hotshot and Bibo

Design & Interiors

Why one designer gave up nomadic lifestyle to settle in Hong Kong

7 Dec 2017 - 1:18pm

Madagascar chairs by Italian designer Giulio Vinacchia, one of the speakers at BODW 2017.

Interiors & Living

Hong Kong Business of Design week focuses on Italian products

3 Dec 2017 - 6:46pm

A new generation is enjoying gin’s distinctive qualities as more bars get creative with their juniper-based mixes

Travel & Food

Is gin the new black? Meet the mixologists adding botanicals to the fragrant harbour

20 Nov 2017 - 5:46pm

The Choi Hung Estate. Photo: Felix Wong

Travel & Leisure

Stories behind Hong Kong districts: Ngau Chi Wan and Choi Hung

13 Apr 2018 - 1:03pm

Despite the use of more modern packaging methods, each box of Po Chai Pills looks the same as it has for decades. Photo: Po Chai Pills

Lifestyle

Homegrown Hong Kong: Po Chai Pills, city’s go-to cure for everything

21 Mar 2018 - 12:24pm 2

Korean cocktails at Ssal Bori Ssal in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: Edmond So

Travel & Food

Hong Kong's soju and makgeolli bars add finesse to Korean comforts

28 Sep 2017 - 4:17pm

Shanghai industrialists transformed a rural district with textile factories that spawned shanty towns for their workers; new town status, MTR’s arrival and industry’s decline were cues for rapid residential and commercial development

Travel & Leisure

Stories of Hong Kong districts: Tsuen Wan, cradle of industry

13 Apr 2018 - 1:04pm

Beertopia 2016 in Hong Kong. Photo: courtesy of Beertopia

Food & Drink

Hong Kong’s growing love of craft beer reflected at Beertopia

19 Sep 2017 - 9:49am 2

An interior designer snapped up his ideal home and set about creating a space where outdoor living was key

Design & Interiors

Modern and rustic blend in dream Hong Kong weekend retreat

13 Sep 2017 - 3:12pm 4

Edition offers wines comprising chrysanthemum, red dates, goji berries and plum candy. Photo: Edward Wong

Good Eating

‘Farmer’s alcohol’: Young Koreans return to old ways by embracing sweet, slightly fizzy taste of makgeolli

5 Sep 2017 - 7:33am

Lee’s Tapered House in Shunde city. The house was built on a triangular piece of land. Photo: SCMP handout

Hong Kong & China

Single-family houses are career launchpad for prominent architects

22 Aug 2017 - 8:02pm

Mixologist Sanam Pakhrin prepares a Watermelon Daiquiri at Iron Fairies. Photo: SCMP / Sam Tsang

Travel & Food

Hong Kong mixologists serve up Insta-worthy cocktails in style

30 Oct 2017 - 4:54pm

Clever design has helped transform a 660 sq ft apartment in Tseung Kwan O into a spacious, cosy haven for two busy medical professionals

Design & Interiors

How small Hong Kong flat was transformed for young doctor couple

23 Aug 2017 - 11:50am

William Lim’s design for a 194 sq ft nano flat features two bedrooms, a fully equipped bathroom and kitchen and a balcony.

Interiors & Living

Two bedrooms, full kitchen, bathroom in 194 sq ft: a nano flat record?

22 Aug 2017 - 4:46pm 24

Five bedrooms and a study is a lot to ask for in cramped Hong Kong, but a father-of-four found just the solution – turning three flats in Tseung Kwan O into a duplex penthouse

Design & Interiors

How a large Hong Kong family found the perfect home fit

10 Aug 2017 - 12:03pm 2

Hong Kong, like Los Angeles, is plagued by terrible air quality, huge inequalities and a lack of quality public spaces. Photo: Shutterstock

Books

Care about Hong Kong’s future? You should read Global Cities

7 Aug 2017 - 8:00am

Hong Kong airport’s Aviation Discovery Centre includes an outdoor sky deck where you can watch the action on the runway with binoculars. Photo: Edward Wong

Travel & Leisure

Got a layover in Hong Kong? Here’s our guide to mini-adventures

10 Apr 2018 - 12:49pm

Man Sing Street, Ferry Point. The names of the estate’s streets and blocks all begin with Man. Photo: Christopher DeWolf

Travel & Leisure

Why Yau Ma Tei estate was a turning point for Hong Kong housing

13 Apr 2018 - 1:02pm

Watermelon Daiquiri with Fairy Dust Burnt Marshmallow cocktail at Iron Fairies. Photo: Sam Tsang

Good Eating

Refreshing summer cocktails that come with a kick

22 Jun 2017 - 4:35pm