How Hong Kong-born architect duo are bringing cutting-edge construction to the masses

The name gives it away. Architecture Commons – or architecture for the common people – is the raison d’etre for Harvard School of Design graduates Rick Lam Yin-cheuk and Eric Ho Lick-fai. The Hong Kong-born architects founded their practice in 2013 with a view, says Lam, “to actively do social good in balance with our larger architecture ambition”.

While social projects are not the studio’s only focus (its portfolio includes educational and residential work) there’s a pattern to projects that include a prototype organic cotton farm in Shanxi province; a solution to protect Sri Lankan houses from tsunami; and the development of an orphanage in Thailand. As architects keen to partner social enterprises – sometimes on a pro bono basis – they’re probably in the minority within the profession, but the partners are set on exploring uncharted disciplinary territories via research and experimentation.

“We didn’t want to use our names [for the business name], or to design just for the elite, as we see ourselves more as a platform to bring design to a larger mass,” says Lam. “We don’t really think that a higher cost leads to better design – cost is just another constraint that needs to be understood and used to our advantage.”

The latest completed project for Architecture Commons is the Federation of Youth Groups/Hong Kong Jockey Club Social Innovation Centre in Wong Chuk Hang, a co-working space for incubating creative social businesses that opened in January. There are about 10 start-ups in the 8,000 sq ft space on the 11th floor of a former warehouse, but there’s room for a total of 90 people: 40 on hot desks in the co-working space, and 50 in the pint-sized individual offices.

Its design was based on the premise that social services “need a new face”.