https://www.scmp.com/rss/13858/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Faced with a dark and traditionally outfitted flat in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels area, local design studio Liquid Interiors was tasked with modernising the space to suit different tastes and uses. The newly bought 1,180 sq ft (110 sq m) flat would need to work as a modern and comfortable first home for a bachelor, and also as an elegant venue from which his parents could entertain. The clients were nevertheless united in wanting to display new and treasured artworks and furniture. This proved to be... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3176437/modern-home-interior-design-sees-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3176437/modern-home-interior-design-sees-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 May 2022 04:45:19 +0000 It’s not every day that an architect designs a building with hordes of quaking K-pop fans in mind – and for Ben van Berkel and the architecture studio he co-founded, that day still hasn’t entirely come. “The building is very secure,” he says. “No public access is allowed in general.” In fact, the most any unofficial visitor might see at the new YG Entertainment headquarters in the South Korean capital, Seoul, is a flash of gorgeously styled hair as Big Bang or perhaps Blackpink flit between... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-pop/article/3175839/how-dutch-architects-blackpink-record-labels-seoul-hq-balanced-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-pop/article/3175839/how-dutch-architects-blackpink-record-labels-seoul-hq-balanced-its?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 29 Apr 2022 09:15:11 +0000 When architect Ronald Tam saw a house that was up for sale about 10 years ago in Macau's green Coloane island, he immediately recognised its potential. But it wasn't the building that excited him. The seafront plot on which it stood, he knew, could accommodate a far more striking - and spacious - home. "It's a rule in Macau that when you build under the ground level, you can go as deep as you like," he says, "which really worked to our advantage." With a Hong Kong-based client on board as the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1826514/five-storey-holiday-home-macau-thats-built-entertain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1826514/five-storey-holiday-home-macau-thats-built-entertain?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Jun 2015 14:15:30 +0000 LEARNING TO BE STILL There is a mellowness to train travel. The pace of trains can be slow and there are all sorts of things you can do - have conversations with people, make friendships with strangers, contemplate; you can see the landscape in a way that you can't from any other form of transport. Sir John Betjeman, the former British poet laureate, said trains are made for meditation, and that's how I rather see them. I've taken trains all around the world to make voyages of discovery. On... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1823397/why-train-travel-sexy-again-according-writer-michael?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1823397/why-train-travel-sexy-again-according-writer-michael?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Jun 2015 14:45:30 +0000 Is it true that you and your wife are self-taught in the design field? "I have a business education. For the design part, my wife and I are self-made. I had been working around design and design development in different companies almost all my life. But I only found my passion for it when I met a [mentor] through one of these jobs who was extremely passionate about design, and who taught me a lot." What is the Hay design philosophy? "What I appreciate about the products of the 1950s and 60s is... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1815732/qa-what-60s-design-taught-danish-furniture-brand-hays-rolf?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1815732/qa-what-60s-design-taught-danish-furniture-brand-hays-rolf?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Jun 2015 15:18:12 +0000 Leaving the urban clatter and chaos of Wan Chai for the home of architects Winnie Ling and Scott Findley is to enter a serene refuge. "We love this part of town, we just like the vibrancy of it, plus the materials shops downstairs make a great resource library," says Ling. "But I wanted [our flat] to be almost spa-like; a place I can come home to after work and feel like I can relax and be pampered." Together they turned a cramped, three-bedroom 670 sq ft walk-up apartment into a contemporary,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1811325/architect-couple-create-spa-retreat-amid-hong-kong-hubbub?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1811325/architect-couple-create-spa-retreat-amid-hong-kong-hubbub?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 May 2015 14:39:17 +0000 Olivia Putman is the first to acknowledge that she was given a great start in life. "Not everyone has the chance to know that the creativity inside them can be expressed," says the French designer, daughter of renowned designer Andrée Putman and art critic Jacques Putman. "I think that I had the incredible luck of growing up in my family because we were very close to many artists, I had the chance to listen to them exchange ideas, being totally free to say whatever I felt like. "Yes, on one... https://www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/1809441/french-designer-olivia-putman-celebrates-her-late-mothers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/1809441/french-designer-olivia-putman-celebrates-her-late-mothers?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 May 2015 17:15:15 +0000 For a man who sparks volcanic public debate wherever he goes, Peter Singer comes across as remarkably mild mannered. "I do cause some controversy, but there are also misunderstandings," acknowledges the renowned moral philosopher, softly, as we plumb a few of the inaccuracies that have tainted the public reaction to his work. Although dubbed by The New Yorker magazine as "the most influential philosopher alive", Singer, known also as a bioethicist and activist, has been maligned during his... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1787493/philosopher-peter-singer-why-all-men-are-not-created-equal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1787493/philosopher-peter-singer-why-all-men-are-not-created-equal?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 May 2015 14:13:02 +0000 YOUNG AND RECKLESS I wouldn't call Hugh (Hubert van Es) fearless but when he started in the business he was young and, when you're young, you don't think of mortality. He first came to Hong Kong in 1967 and got right into the spill-over riots from China: the Cultural Revolution riots. He would have been 25, and he went to Vietnam the next year. It was early 68 when I met him, at the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) in Hong Kong, over lunch, during his R&R. My family was totally against it.... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1774211/annie-van-es-widow-offall-saigon-photographer-talks-about?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1774211/annie-van-es-widow-offall-saigon-photographer-talks-about?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Apr 2015 11:00:15 +0000 Jeremy Lai Chun-kei's eyes gleam through his jet lag as Google campus bicycles sail by in familiar green-red-yellow colours and a Bay Area breeze chills the air. "In America, particularly Silicon Valley, there's a willingness to invest in dreams," says the young entrepreneur. "But in Hong Kong, you see that 'make it happen' attitude much more rarely, particularly when it comes to start-ups." That's something he and those with him intend to change, with a little help from a certain search... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1638790/breath-fresh-flair-young-entrepreneurs-win-trip-silicon?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1638790/breath-fresh-flair-young-entrepreneurs-win-trip-silicon?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Nov 2014 12:45:30 +0000 A GOOD MUSLIM I was born in Yogyakarta, in Indonesia, and brought up in a strong Javanese culture. My dad is a Muslim but was raised in a Catholic family, and my mum comes from Muslims but her father was a puppet master, so knew a lot of Hindu stories. I was sent to Islamic boarding school when I was 12 to become a "good Muslim". This changed my life forever because a number of the students went on to be notorious Islamic militants who brought atrocities to the region. The founder of the school... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1578415/my-life-noor-huda-ismail?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1578415/my-life-noor-huda-ismail?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Aug 2014 15:17:39 +0000 DOCTOR DOCTOR I grew up in a remote village in Karnataka state, south India. There was no doctor and hardly any roads. If you needed a doctor, someone would have to walk for 12 miles (20km) and bring one by foot, three hours each way. My mum used to be very sick, miscarriages and all; I used to see her bleed profusely. But you'd send someone out in the monsoon, leeches biting, and still the doctor would come. I remember being about six or seven years old and talking to him about healing. I... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1530662/my-life-dr-talavane-krishna?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1530662/my-life-dr-talavane-krishna?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:00:30 +0000 Ho Pui-han makes her way along the fringes of a country path, through a patch of trampled undergrowth and then points to a deep gash at the base of a tree. "You can see where they've cut the wood as a test," says the conservationist. "They'll be back in a month to check and, if it's the right tree, they'll just chop it down and carry it across the border." Close to extinction in the mainland and internationally protected as a species, Hong Kong's dwindling stands of Aquilaria sinensis, commonly... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1441807/making-scents-saviours-incense-tree?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1441807/making-scents-saviours-incense-tree?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Mar 2014 15:30:30 +0000 Later this year, Hong Kong will come under the microscope of a UN committee reviewing the city's compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw). While Hong Kong is ahead of many other societies in protecting the human rights of women, big gaps remain, and The Women's Foundation has submitted a "shadow report" to inform the committee's analysis. The gaps we have identified are wide- ranging and affect women and girls across age bands and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1442971/hong-kong-still-failing-its-women?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1442971/hong-kong-still-failing-its-women?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Mar 2014 20:45:45 +0000 CALL ME DAD They call me the father of Chinese multilingual radio transmission. I was the one who came up with a system on how to transmit Chinese language properly through radio waves, although everyone had said it couldn't be done. Back in the 1960s, when everything was numeric, we had to write (computer) programmes in 0s and 1s … But many languages like Chinese couldn't be transmitted through a computer - they could only use special codes that had to be converted slowly using a dictionary. I... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1426576/my-life-paul-kan-man-lok?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1426576/my-life-paul-kan-man-lok?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Feb 2014 14:59:33 +0000 While many in and outside Myanmar question the quality of the democratic space being opened by the government after decades of military rule, a surge of new ideas is being allowed in the public sphere. And among the beneficiaries, finally, are women. Myanmar's most famous icon may be female, but through five decades of a very masculine military stranglehold on the country, women have been invisible at the levels where decisions are made. Its activists have been, at best, ignored; at worst,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1378279/make-views-women-count-more-open-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1378279/make-views-women-count-more-open-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Dec 2013 10:15:45 +0000 The night is clear and black, the stars are close and the voice of Johan Rockstrom echoes around the open-air cinema of a luxury Thai resort as he describes the world's impending demise. Reclining in the shadows with pre-dinner cocktails, a motley crew of problem-solvers listens. And as the leading sustainability scientist gets to a key part of his speech - on rainfall patterns - it feels as if the Earth has decided to make a point. Without warning, the heavens open. "I was just about to get to... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1373608/its-slow-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1373608/its-slow-time?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Dec 2013 14:45:00 +0000 ''I like it. But let's make sure that there are no head-ripping-off opportunities. And can we get bubbles coming out of it?" Jay Forster is standing in a patch of West Kowloon scrubland, squinting at an artist's sketched proposal for an installation. It involves a carousel of sorts, powered by bicycles. And he is only partly joking about health and safety concerns - as Hong Kong's biggest annual music and arts festival, which Forster co-founded, looms larger, so do the responsibilities incumbent... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1361017/making-clockenflap-tick?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1361017/making-clockenflap-tick?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Nov 2013 15:15:00 +0000 Text Jo Baker / Styling Charlot K / Pictures May Tse   Finding the right apartment was a relief on many levels for recording artist and dance instructor Katie Targett-Adams. But most importantly, it solidified what had been a whirlwind romance for her and her partner, Tim. “In a sense, we were still getting to know each other,” says Targett-Adams, who arrived in Hong Kong from Scotland six years ago, then met her now-husband, a lawyer from New Zealand. They began hunting for a flat shortly... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1349737/leaps-bounds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1349737/leaps-bounds?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Nov 2013 14:27:39 +0000 Aged 75, Frederick Forsyth allowed himself a small concession in researching his latest book. In Somalia, he hired a bodyguard. "I've only done it once before," says the veteran novelist, reclining at a desk in his Hong Kong hotel suite. "We didn't stay inside what's called The Camp - a kind of sandglass-walled and barbed-wire enclave used by most foreigners - but in a hotel in the city. Which was … interesting. My wife said I was a stupid old fool, but I felt like if I was going to describe it,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1343631/thrills-kills-frederick-forsyth-turns-modern-day-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1343631/thrills-kills-frederick-forsyth-turns-modern-day-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Nov 2013 14:00:00 +0000 Abu Bakker Qassim - allegedly tortured in China, then wrongly incarcerated in Guantanamo - is finding a semblance of peace in the Balkan nation of Albania. It has been a long and difficult journey for the former Xinjiang separatist, one that he admits took him to Afghanistan, where he learned to fight alongside fellow Uygurs. "[If I could go] back in time, I would tell myself not to get involved in politics," said Qassim. "Not unless I knew what I was doing." Now a resident of the Albanian... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1319410/uygur-battles-escape-painful-past-while-building-new-life-albania?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1319410/uygur-battles-escape-painful-past-while-building-new-life-albania?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Hard bodies abound. At the annual One Asia Mixed Martial Arts Summit, big names, tight muscles and a whole lot of spin are building an air of promise; one laced with testosterone. The most highly billed appearances, however, are those of a pair who are not part of the fight club here at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands resort. As the first day of talks wind down, a convention room fills and falls quiet for two unassuming figures in the autumn of their years. Neither compete, but they are happy to... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1243380/kune-do-spirit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1243380/kune-do-spirit?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000 I T'S IN THE GENES When I was about 10, my father ran a shop selling fruit and I worked as his assistant. He used leftover wooden boxes to create furniture for people's homes. Although my father had never had any formal training - he came to Hong Kong from Guangzhou in the 1940s - he was creatively inclined. I think I inherited those genes from him. I'm proud to talk about my lack of formal (university) training, because it will be encouraging for the new generation. Of course, you can... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1026300/my-life-alan-chan-yau-kin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1026300/my-life-alan-chan-yau-kin?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Sep 2012 16:00:00 +0000 TELLING STOREYS My work addresses not just the surfaces of things, but how architecture, urban space and buildings can tell a story, and how they can bring hope to often gloomy pasts. As a child of Holocaust survivors, who grew up under communist dictatorship in Poland, I didn't have to research these issues in the library - they're part of my own visceral past. I understand what it means to be free, what liberty and open space mean. Perhaps the fact that these themes have been so much a part... https://www.scmp.com/article/986690/daniel-libeskind?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/986690/daniel-libeskind?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 In a trendy industrial space bordering a West London canal, an eclectic series of objects sit on podiums, amid coffee drinkers and creative types at work. Among them are a ceramic chihuahua in a neckerchief, labelled by its creator, Zhou Lu, as a home accessory; a delicate, extraterrestrial-looking table poised as if for lift-off; a panel of architectural designs for a Buddhist temple in the heart of London; and a stool in mint-green metal titled, fantastically, the Silent Farter. These are... https://www.scmp.com/article/984919/bridging-east-west-design-divide-london?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984919/bridging-east-west-design-divide-london?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 FLAIR RAISING I think different people are suited to different instruments, the same way people can be awful at swimming but fantastic at cricket. I'd been playing the piano for about two years at school before my teacher said I was so poor I should give up. Although this was a bit hard to take at the age of seven, she saved me a lot of heartache. I turned to the Celtic harp instead, which suited me well; it's where I'm most comfortable. There seems to be a purity and clarity about the... https://www.scmp.com/article/978065/katie-targett-adams?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978065/katie-targett-adams?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Since Architecture for Humanity made its mark in 1999 with a competition to design transitional housing for returning refugees in Kosovo, it has used designers' competitive streaks to its advantage. Its competitions have produced the ultimate mobile health clinic for Aids victims in sub-Saharan Africa, a factory to connect indigenous chocolate producers in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the global marketplace, and many more projects. Each competition has garnered fame and funding, showing in... https://www.scmp.com/article/965778/winning-ways?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/965778/winning-ways?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Twelve years ago a designer caught in a disaster zone might have been at a loss as to how to pitch in. But when the quakes hit Japan last month, it took very little time for the architects to rally. There were ready-made chapters in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto with access to a global network of nearly 5,000 volunteer design professionals, a template for crisis response and an online bank of designs, all relevant to post-crisis reconstruction and free to download. And joining all these dots was the... https://www.scmp.com/article/965779/hit-ground-running?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/965779/hit-ground-running?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Try to conjure the British landscape and you will probably settle on a building from its distant past, perhaps a Georgian manor house on a sheep-strewn dale or the sooty brick and mortar of Sherlock Holmes' London. British architecture remains a wellspring of nostalgia for those who both live in and visit it. And for writer and popular philosopher Alain de Botton, this is an endless source of frustration. 'Liking modern architecture is a kind of sect here,' the Swiss-born de Botton complains... https://www.scmp.com/article/739859/manor-works?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/739859/manor-works?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000 RETURNING WITH A SAGA I was in the United States Navy in 1946 and we operated out of Hong Kong, Shanghai and Qingdao. I fell in love with Hong Kong then and vowed to come back and stay. I was in the deck crew of the USS Norris, which meant I had to sweep the deck and serve the crew their dinner. In 1954, I returned on a cargo ship called the Eastern Saga - which is the name of my book. We took five days to make the journey from Osaka, Japan. In those days, big ships weren't permitted to... https://www.scmp.com/article/736485/marvin-farkas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/736485/marvin-farkas?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0000 IN FROM THE COLD As a teenager, I was not very sociable but I got really interested in horticulture and natural history. I have always been able to draw and I thought landscape architecture would combine both interests. I studied in Leeds [in England] in 1975 and then worked for Brian Clouston and Partners, which in those days was a titan of the landscaping world. I got the opportunity to come out to Hong Kong on a three-month contract in 1982 and never left. I was sick to death of London.... https://www.scmp.com/article/729758/gavin-coates?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/729758/gavin-coates?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Nov 2010 16:00:00 +0000 Frank Yu spent much of his career as an architect in the United States, but moved to Hong Kong five years ago to co-run his studio, Gravity Partnership. His work takes him across China, from the smallest villages to the largest cities, designing major cultural, commercial and housing projects. With a largely Western education behind him, Yu has found working in China to be quite a steep learning curve. What's his story? There were no Sunday morning cartoons for Yu when he was growing up in... https://www.scmp.com/article/721625/frank-yu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/721625/frank-yu?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:00:00 +0000 GUYS AND DOLLS I started out with a speech impediment and flat feet - I had to practise my Rs and take dance lessons. I ended up dancing with the Kirov Ballet at Covent Garden [in London, before I] hurt myself and became an actress by default. I started with a James Bond movie at the age of 20 and I clearly didn't know what I was doing. I went into theatre and shocked the newspapers, who kept saying I'd failed miserably because I was now being paid GBP12 a week playing Nora in [Henrik] Ibsen's... https://www.scmp.com/article/720533/jane-seymour?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/720533/jane-seymour?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:00:00 +0000 It isn't often a designer has to rein in his vision for Hong Kong's high-end club scene. Yet as Tom Dixon surveys his latest landscape, he has a few lingering regrets. Tazmania Ballroom in SoHo, the latest nightclub from the creators of dragon-i, already boasts geometric wall buttresses, clustered globular chandeliers and brass pool tables, with imitation book shelves in white plaster that give it an ironic scholarly tone. But he was also envisaging 'water dripping down granite, and moss on... https://www.scmp.com/article/718026/excess-all-areas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/718026/excess-all-areas?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:00:00 +0000 Who? Johan Persson has managed one of the largest design firms in his native Sweden and has worked on products for Sony Ericsson and Miele, among others. After moving to Hong Kong six years ago, he was appointed managing director of a joint venture between three top Swedish industrial design companies. What brought him to Asia? The Hong Kong government. At the turn of the millennium, the city was moving towards adding value to mainland-made products. However, 'the government... https://www.scmp.com/article/717549/johan-persson?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/717549/johan-persson?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:00:00 +0000 HOME IMPROVEMENTS Melbourne now is great, culturally. It has grown from being an awful part of the world to quite a beautiful part of the world. I left [Australia] in the early 1980s to travel, when I was 20. I'd had this 10- year plan to travel, to see as much as I could, come back to Melbourne and investigate Middle Eastern food. I was in Europe for quite a while and Hong Kong for many years as well. Melbourne's now as good as Sydney, which has more high-end restaurants that focus on... https://www.scmp.com/article/713105/greg-malouf?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/713105/greg-malouf?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 May 2010 16:00:00 +0000 RED DREAMS It was originally some kind of Viking urge - a search for the exotic along with wanting to get as far away from Sweden as possible. China was developing rapidly and was the cradle of north Asian civilisation so I thought, why not go to the horse's mouth? I had the very immature idea of becoming an entrepreneur here, though I didn't know what I was going to do. But that was after I had been [here] a number of times. In Sweden, we had had to do mandatory military service and my job had... https://www.scmp.com/article/712407/johan-bjorksten?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/712407/johan-bjorksten?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Apr 2010 16:00:00 +0000 Wallware emperor Maya Romanoff may be best known for surfaces swathed in Swarovski crystals and tortoiseshell, but he has marked his brand's new milestone with a nod to simpler times, when he was largely known as the man who could tie-dye a wall. Celebrating four decades, the brand's Anniversary Collection, available at Altfield Interiors in Hong Kong, brings back the psychedelic patterns of its 1970s debut, but camouflaged and made contemporary with colours by New York-based designer Amy Lau.... https://www.scmp.com/article/710323/walls-fame?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/710323/walls-fame?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:00:00 +0000 Who is he? Hong Kong-raised Eric Chan founded ECCO Design (www.eccoid.com) in New York 10 years ago. His has become a leading voice in brand identity and development - the studio has designed products for Virgin Atlantic, LG and Lenovo, among others - and he has been called one of the 10 most influential designers in the United States by Contract magazine. What's his story? After studying industrial design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chan attended Cranbrook Academy of... https://www.scmp.com/article/705627/eric-chan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/705627/eric-chan?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:00:00 +0000 STRIKING A TONE The first time I was taught any Chinese was on a field trip to the Tomb of Patriarchs [in Hebron]. It was down to a friend I spent a year abroad in Jerusalem with; he was Chinese-American. I was dragging him around Israel [where Midler's parents are from]. He went through the rote recitation of the four tones and I figured my musical background would give me a head start. Unlike some people, I started studying Chinese history and language before I came to Asia. This was in... https://www.scmp.com/article/703848/paul-midler?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/703848/paul-midler?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:00:00 +0000 Ziggy Chau was five when her parents decided they would all join her grandparents in New York. Like many families at the time, they had been uncertain about life after the handover. 'Back then, America was the promised land,' she recalls. 'Everyone was afraid of 1997 and it was a chance for a family to start anew.' However, the new beginning wasn't so promising. Chau's father had owned a few fast-food outlets in Mong Kok and Kowloon Tong; in New York he worked in other people's restaurants... https://www.scmp.com/article/703850/long-distance-call?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/703850/long-distance-call?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:00:00 +0000 COUNTRY BOY I come from a country with incredibly luscious rainforest. Growing up, it was very beach-and-mountain for the first 19 years of my life. I've always relied on nature for inspiration, bringing the outside in, and a lot of my designs are flower driven. My childhood was poor, poor, poor. My parents always hoped to send me to America, though I was not that great in school. At 19, they just shipped me off to New York to be with my sister; but it was very modest, basic. NEW KID IN TOWN It... https://www.scmp.com/article/702608/preston-bailey?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/702608/preston-bailey?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:00:00 +0000 SELF DISCOVERY The moment I realised that I was gay was when I was watching a TV advertisement about men's body building. I was 10. [At school] we were encouraged to keep a diary to improve our English and hand it in, and I talked about it in my journal. My teacher said it was just a phase, which was OK; I do believe that sexuality is at least a little mutable. I did mind later on though; my school was a Christian mission school - they had an 'ex-gay' speaker come to speak to us. Luckily it... https://www.scmp.com/article/701735/ng-yi-sheng?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/701735/ng-yi-sheng?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:00:00 +0000 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... https://www.scmp.com/article/699510/think-again?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/699510/think-again?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000 With its traditional craft culture, bohemian cafes and misty valley vistas, Ubud in Bali seems custom-made for its twin industries of art and tourism: travellers here have been feeling the pull of poetry and drama for decades. This tradition is now official, bottled, capped and priced each October as the Ubud Writers' and Readers' Festival. For four days every year many of the town's museums, restaurants, bars and yoga studios play host to wordsmiths and their fans as they grapple with literary... https://www.scmp.com/article/696983/between-lines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/696983/between-lines?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000 Who? Alexi Robinson tends to explore notions of memory and place with her interiors, architecture and exhibition spaces. Based in London with British design titan Tom Dixon, she has set up a four-person studio in Hong Kong, where her latest project, for the Press Room Group (PRG), recently opened. Where did it all begin? 'I can sum it up in one word: art,' says Robinson. 'Looking back, I gravitated towards it in school but I remember a lot of conflict; do I go down that route or try a... https://www.scmp.com/article/695008/alexi-robinson?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/695008/alexi-robinson?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000 REBEL WITH APPLAUSE I was recognised by the United Nations [Development Programme] as one of 12 'outstanding young architects' in China in 1999. The public liked my projects, I am proud of my designs and I enjoyed the freedom of creativity. But I didn't really care about the comments from government officers or clients. What they were concerned with were their own interests. I refused to go with their ways. In the 1980s and 90s, you could never be happy being an architect or property... https://www.scmp.com/article/694997/chen-jiagang?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/694997/chen-jiagang?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000 RIGHTEOUS SON I've been involved in a lot of issues where there's been conflict; lots of protests in the days of [the] Vietnam [war], when I was a student. Then I got involved with [Australian] aboriginal land rights in a very high-profile case; a group of stockmen from the Gurindji people went on strike for the first time. Large cattle bases were owned by foreign interests and these people had been basically working for nothing. Finally, they just decided that they wanted their land back.... https://www.scmp.com/article/692284/dr-philip-nitschke?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/692284/dr-philip-nitschke?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:00:00 +0000 Whether your desk was made from the wing of a B-25 bomber or your carpet once touched the lips of hundreds as plastic bottles, eco-friendly design these days is anything but dull. The trend for reusing, restoring and reincarnating things to keep them out of landfills has given designers a playing field limited only by the imagination - and design fans the chance to hone their creative urges. The 'found object' approach emerged in art towards the beginning of the last century, but came later in... https://www.scmp.com/article/687686/scrap-mettle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/687686/scrap-mettle?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:00:00 +0000 Moving flats or refurbishing can be the perfect time to rethink your relationship with the planet. Hong Kong might not be known for its eco-credentials, but most of the products homeowners need for a greener household are available locally - some more readily than others. A few of the city's designers agreed to point the way. But remember there are two types of environmental virtue. Living sustainably means insulating your house well, reducing energy consumption and generally aiming for the... https://www.scmp.com/article/687013/green-house-effects?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/687013/green-house-effects?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:00:00 +0000