Human-centred design, from New York’s High Line to a Danish hospital, in focus
- Business of Design Week in Hong Kong devotes a day to discussion of culture-led design projects, such as city’s Tai Kwun arts centre heritage
- Speakers include furniture designer Ron Arad, Charles Renfro, who worked on New York’s High Line urban greenway, and textile designer Elaine Ng
Despite its name, Hong Kong’s Business of Design Week forum is as much about culture as it is business. This becomes particularly clear every time the last day of the event comes around, when the annual “Culture and the City” session takes place. The all-day programme of talks opens a window into some of the newest design-related developments in Hong Kong, and design-led cultural projects around the world.
“It gives us the pulse of the world of design, and we get a real sense of the transformation of Hong Kong,” says architect Marisa Yiu, co-founder of experimental design studio ESKYIU, who will moderate this year’s session with her partner, Eric Schuldenfrei.
This year’s speakers include acclaimed furniture designer Ron Arad, innovative textile designer Elaine Ng Yan-ling, and Charles Renfro, who led the design of New York’s High Line elevated greenway that transformed a defunct railway into a popular public space.
Many of the speakers have one thing in common: they know how to make design projects accessible and relevant to the communities they serve.
Lars Nittve, the former director of Hong Kong’s upcoming M+ museum of visual arts, will return to the city to discuss his newest art project at the New North Zealand Hospital in Denmark. “It radically rethinks the way hospitals traditionally are built up,” he says.
