My liveable Hong Kong, by 2014 Young Architect Award winner
The 36-year-old co-founder of design house LAAB talks to Peta Tomlinson about combining art and architecture to create a better built environment in Hong Kong
"My partner, Ricci Wong, is my primary school mate and we happened to meet again during a trip to Italy in 2008. He'd been working as a contractor and fabricator since graduation, and we shared an interest in fabrication for small-scale exhibitions. After helping to set up the Hong Kong Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2010, and collaborating on a few projects, we thought that, by pooling our specialities, we might have the chance to make a difference in the architecture industry. We co-founded LAAB [Laboratory for Art and Architecture] in the summer of 2013 with Otto Ng."
"I spent most of my early career designing and project managing local institutional projects, such as community halls and schools, and doing the master planning of commercial developments. At LAAB, it's more small-scale projects and interiors. I quite like this shift, as it allows me to focus on fabrication techniques and detailed design development - a crossover between art and architecture."
"The Merry Bike Round for the Clockenflap music and arts festival at the West Kowloon promenade in 2013. It's a ride built around traditional bicycles - the kind of playground equipment that has disappeared in Hong Kong's urban environment, interpreted in an artistic language. We did three versions - for Clockenflap, Christmas at PMQ and Chinese New Year at PMQ - and each time the public have laughed and enjoyed it.
"The Neon Installation at Duty Free Galleria in Tsim Sha Tsui [which is still running] is a similar concept, interpreting the traditional way to express the [neon] city of Hong Kong through the new technology of LED.
"The Kaleidome, an outdoor public art installation organised by Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation for the Jockey Club Community Arts Biennale 2015, is another of our playful installations that evokes childhood memories. It is composed of 262 polyhedral cells of polished, stainless-steel mirror, each a small window that frames the environment and multiplies the vista, like a kaleidoscope."
"We're developing a human hamster wheel integrated with digital and multimedia technology, to promote the concept of green living. People can enjoy a new running experience when they jump into the wheel. The movement will be transformed into digital messages showing on the revolving LED screen on the wheel. Our client is a property developer, and the project will be installed at Hysan Place, Causeway Bay, in October."
"The award was not only a personal milestone, but concluded the first phase of my professional life. To me, it is also the responsibility [of the winner] to strive for a better quality of architectural culture in Hong Kong, by advocating more creativity, and a more playful but humanistic approach - ideas specifically designed for our public, the end user, rather than the developers."
"To combine art and architecture as one concept; to make our built environment better and more liveable."
