https://www.scmp.com/rss/324843/feed Oliver Giles is a freelance writer and editor who specialises in covering the arts. Formerly the executive editor of Tatler Hong Kong, he has contributed to publications including CNN, Forbes and Esquire UK. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Oliver Giles Oliver Giles Winnie Wong, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, was on holiday in the summer of 2019 when she received the kind of call historians dream of. “I started screaming,” Wong says, laughing. “My family was like, ‘What?’” On the line was fellow historian Jordan Goodman, who had just visited the Canterbury Cathedral Archives & Library in England. There, he had discovered a trove of documents belonging to John Bradby Blake, an English botanist who worked for the East India Company in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3348746/extraordinary-tale-chinese-british-collaboration-revealed-new-exhibition?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3348746/extraordinary-tale-chinese-british-collaboration-revealed-new-exhibition?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Apr 2026 07:15:08 +0000 Oliver Giles Oliver Giles When Ming Wong was asked to be the 2025 artist in residence at London’s National Gallery, he felt delighted and shocked. “I was really confounded,” he says. “Why did they invite me?” The National Gallery predominantly shows paintings created before 1900, while Wong works mostly with video and performance, sometimes using futuristic imagery borrowed from science fiction. Wong, who was born in Singapore, often makes art exploring Asian cinema, theatre and pop culture. In contrast, the National... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3343859/singaporean-artist-ming-wong-reimagines-saint-and-lgbtq-icon-london-gallery?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3343859/singaporean-artist-ming-wong-reimagines-saint-and-lgbtq-icon-london-gallery?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Feb 2026 07:15:08 +0000 Oliver Giles Oliver Giles Long before she was one of Australia’s most prominent Aboriginal activists and public intellectuals, Marcia Langton was a teenage tourist who fell in love with Hong Kong – so much so that she stayed for six months. Langton arrived in the city in 1971 while she was on a years-long journey around Asia to escape the racism that pervaded her life in her home state of Queensland. The trip transformed her. Unencumbered by the daily discrimination she faced at home, she had the freedom to think about... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3316903/how-prominent-aboriginal-activists-vision-was-shaped-visit-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3316903/how-prominent-aboriginal-activists-vision-was-shaped-visit-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Jul 2025 08:15:08 +0000 Oliver Giles Oliver Giles In 1989, Zhou Xiaoping was a 29-year-old Chinese artist travelling around Australia pursuing his passion for Aboriginal culture. He had explored the desert town of Alice Springs and the tropical Arnhem Land region before he arrived in the coastal resort of Broome. Here, immersed in an environment that felt completely foreign to him, Zhou was shocked to discover a connection to his home country. “I met the Aboriginal songwriter Jimmy Chi,” Zhou says. “Jimmy asked me to say something to him in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3310584/hidden-history-aboriginal-chinese-culture-comes-alive-national-museum-australia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3310584/hidden-history-aboriginal-chinese-culture-comes-alive-national-museum-australia?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 May 2025 23:15:10 +0000 Hongkongers who visit the Biennale of Sydney might be hit with a feeling of déjà vu. The exhibition, titled “Ten Thousand Suns”, has been curated by long-time collaborators Cosmin Costinas, who was executive director and curator of Hong Kong’s Para Site art space between 2011 and 2022, and Inti Guerrero, who contributed to multiple Para Site exhibitions while working elsewhere. In Hong Kong, the pair developed a reputation for producing complex, crowded shows that made surprising connections... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3255542/biennale-sydneys-ten-thousand-suns-celebrates-diversity-and-creates-connections-between-artists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3255542/biennale-sydneys-ten-thousand-suns-celebrates-diversity-and-creates-connections-between-artists?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Mar 2024 03:15:07 +0000 When Mao Yan was a student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, in Beijing, in the late 1980s, he chanced upon a photograph of The Monk by the Sea, a painting by the German artist Caspar David Friedrich from around 1810. Mao marvelled at its moody palette of blues and greys, especially the hazy band where the two colours met on the horizon. He was simultaneously impressed and intimidated, so much so that he promised himself on the spot that he would never make landscape paintings. “That painting... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3252164/chinese-artist-mao-yan-explains-german-landscape-artist-caspar-david-friedrichs-influence-his-style?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3252164/chinese-artist-mao-yan-explains-german-landscape-artist-caspar-david-friedrichs-influence-his-style?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Feb 2024 08:15:15 +0000 In 2023, Taiwanese-Australian ceramicist Ruth Ju-shih Li unveiled her largest work yet: a ceramic sculpture of blooms of flowers 15 metres (49 feet) long and 3 metres wide. The work was the latest iteration of Still Life from a Distant Memory: a Winter Study Before Dawn, a piece she debuted three years earlier. Intricate flower arrangements were balanced on a series of platforms, some of which were connected by tendrils of clay that stretched like vines across the room in a gallery in Canberra,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3250290/why-these-ephemeral-clay-artworks-ceramicist-ruth-ju-shih-li-will-crumble-front-your-eyes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3250290/why-these-ephemeral-clay-artworks-ceramicist-ruth-ju-shih-li-will-crumble-front-your-eyes?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 Feb 2024 03:15:17 +0000 On Friday, December 15 2023, Artspace – a non-profit contemporary art centre in Sydney – will reopen after a three-year-long renovation that has cost more than A$19.2 million (US$12.6 million). The celebrations that evening and the following day will feature live music, DJ sets, a book launch, artist talks and the opening of three exhibitions, including a solo exhibition by the aboriginal artist Jonathan Jones which has been developed with the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. But before that, there... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3244357/sydney-non-profit-contemporary-art-centre-artspace-reopens-after-renovation-its-director-talks-about?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3244357/sydney-non-profit-contemporary-art-centre-artspace-reopens-after-renovation-its-director-talks-about?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Dec 2023 08:15:19 +0000 As a child growing up in Sydney, artist Meng-Yu Yan wanted to fit in. “I wanted to be your classic, white, beachy Aussie person with blonde hair and blue eyes,” says Yan, whose parents immigrated to Australia from China in the 1980s. It was only on a university visit to Tianjin in northeast China that Yan, who identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns they and them, fully embraced their heritage. A non-binary identity is one that is not solely male or female. “My parents are very... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3238869/psychic-scars-how-non-binary-australian-chinese-artist-meng-yu-yans-works-are-often-haunted-ghosts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3238869/psychic-scars-how-non-binary-australian-chinese-artist-meng-yu-yans-works-are-often-haunted-ghosts?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Oct 2023 03:15:18 +0000 One day, in early 2022, Wong Chi-hang was lying in a hospital bed, about to undergo treatment for a rare form of cancer. “I had all kinds of flashbacks, thinking about what I’d done with my life,” says the Hong Kong-based art collector, known to his friends as “B”. “I thought I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I have good friends and family; I’ve enjoyed my life. But one thing that struck my heart was that I have so many resources, I have such a great network, but I hadn’t done anything to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3233096/art-gallery-artist-residencies-restaurant-cancer-made-art-collector-question-his-contribution?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3233096/art-gallery-artist-residencies-restaurant-cancer-made-art-collector-question-his-contribution?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Sep 2023 08:15:17 +0000 As a child, Hong Kong-born artist Scotty So would marvel at the glamorous photos of his grandmother and great-grandmother from the 1950s that hung on the walls of his family home in Lam Tin. He loved their immaculate hair and make-up – and most of all, their cheongsams. He now makes his own cheongsams, which he wears for his drag performances at bars and galleries in Melbourne. After moving to the Australian city in 2018, he has emerged as one of the rising stars of its contemporary art... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3209603/so-ugly-luxury-brands-monogram-fashion-mocked-fake-campaigns-inspired-hong-kong-where-everything?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3209603/so-ugly-luxury-brands-monogram-fashion-mocked-fake-campaigns-inspired-hong-kong-where-everything?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Feb 2023 04:45:09 +0000 In March, an extremely rare violin made some 300 years ago is expected to sell for at least US$10 million at auction. “Nothing like this has come to auction in 30 years,” says Carlos Tomé, director and head of sales at auction house Tarisio, which specialises in rare stringed instruments. Known as the “Baltic”, the instrument was made in Italy around 1731 by Giuseppe “del Gesù” Guarneri. It is being sold by the family of the late Lam Sau-wing, a Chinese-American businessman and philanthropist... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3209882/rarer-stradivarius-1731-violin-set-sell-us10-million-plus-and-late-chinese-american-philanthropist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3209882/rarer-stradivarius-1731-violin-set-sell-us10-million-plus-and-late-chinese-american-philanthropist?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Feb 2023 23:15:12 +0000 At the heart of Ghost 2565, an upcoming art festival in Bangkok, the attraction is nothing as conventional as a drawing, painting or sculpture. Instead, there will be a pop-up kitchen called Wendy’s Wok World. It will be run by in-demand Hong Kong chef Sam Lui, better known by her alter-ego Wendy the “wannabe Wokstar”, an Instagram sensation who is a champion of traditional Chinese wok cooking. This performance-art-meets-restaurant event is just one of dozens of experimental cultural projects on... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3193250/2-contemporary-arts-festivals-thailand-aim-draw-cultural?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3193250/2-contemporary-arts-festivals-thailand-aim-draw-cultural?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Sep 2022 08:00:08 +0000 Artist Oscar Hou Yiming was born and raised in Liverpool, England, but some of his most vivid childhood memories are of visiting his extended family in China’s Guangdong province. “It’s always sunny in my memory. I remember picking fruit with my grandfather, hanging out with my cousins,” he says. Hou, who works under the stylised name “Oscar yi Hou”, is speaking over Zoom from his studio in New York, where he moved in 2017 to study visual art at Columbia University. “I think it’s a very common... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3180592/queer-artist-oscar-yi-hou-blends-asian-and-american-imagery?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3180592/queer-artist-oscar-yi-hou-blends-asian-and-american-imagery?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Jun 2022 09:15:11 +0000 On a bright spring morning in 2021, Daphné Mandel discovered a door to an abandoned mansion in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels area left open. The French artist had planned only to take photos of the crumbling facade of the house but, curious, she ventured inside. There was no sign of life. All that remained was a crystal chandelier, an overpowering smell of mould and, standing alone in the living room, an old music player with a cassette tape of The Merry Widow Waltz on top. “I didn’t find it creepy, I... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3174138/hong-kong-abandoned-buildings-not-seen-artists-photo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3174138/hong-kong-abandoned-buildings-not-seen-artists-photo?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Apr 2022 23:15:16 +0000 After completing a preliminary site visit to a 1,600 sq ft, four-bedroom flat in Pok Fu Lam, Lorène Faure decided to go for a stroll. Just metres from the lobbies of large, luxury developments nearby, she spotted a small waterfall hidden in the shrubbery off the road. It came tumbling through the greenery, then trickled on towards the coast. The waterfall stuck in Faure’s mind. On her next visit to the flat, she showed it to Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui, with whom she runs architecture and interior... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2147203/kid-friendly-hong-kong-flat-was-inspired?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2147203/kid-friendly-hong-kong-flat-was-inspired?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 May 2018 09:45:15 +0000 Tell us about the idea behind the design of 28 Aberdeen St. “The intention of the project was to create an urban oasis. It’s got such a prestigious location, directly across from PMQ, yet once you go up to the apart­ments you’ve got this amazing view, so it’s really a bit of a journey from the busy, active streets into a calm, serene home.” Hong Kong the inspiration behind Bo Innovation’s interior, says designer How did you create that sense of serenity? “We were keen on expressing and exposing... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2143211/how-hong-kong-architect-created-oasis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2143211/how-hong-kong-architect-created-oasis?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Apr 2018 04:30:45 +0000 Snow is the main topic of conversation in Niseko, a ski resort on Japan’s northern Hokkaido island. Skiers and snowboarders travel from around the world to experience the area’s legendary powder, which can lie up to 15 metres deep by the end of winter. But if you listen to foreign property developers and architects discussing Niseko, snow will hardly be mentioned. Instead, they will likely be debating the myriad business opportunities to be had in this booming area. Five of the best Asian... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/interiors-living/article/2142637/how-failing-japanese-ski-resort-became-aspen-asia-luxury?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/interiors-living/article/2142637/how-failing-japanese-ski-resort-became-aspen-asia-luxury?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Apr 2018 03:15:30 +0000 What was your brief for Bo Innovation? “The brief started with going to the restaurant and understanding what [chef Alvin Leung’s self-proclaimed] ‘X-treme Chinese cuisine’ is. After that, we looked at Alvin’s collections. Although Alvin grew up in Canada, he has a lot of emotional attachment to Hong Kong and is always finding inspiration in its history. He has collected posters, postcards, old menus and tableware, lots of which was made in Hong Kong, not to mention objects related to Bruce Lee,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2138463/hong-kong-inspiration-behind-bo-innovations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2138463/hong-kong-inspiration-behind-bo-innovations?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Mar 2018 10:16:02 +0000 What was the brief for the PDT project? “PDT [which stands for ‘please don’t tell’] is a classic brand from New York. It has an iconic entrance – you enter through a phone booth – it has tufted banquettes, taxidermy on the walls and a glossy ceiling in dark wood. We wanted to respect all of that, but we wanted to give a twist to each of the characteristics.” New York hidden bar Please Don’t Tell opening in Hong Kong, and co-founder Jim Meehan’s still pinching himself How does the PDT in Hong... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2137368/how-iconic-new-york-speakeasy-pdt-has-been?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2137368/how-iconic-new-york-speakeasy-pdt-has-been?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Mar 2018 09:03:51 +0000 It’s no surprise that Hong Kong-bred, London-based architect and interior designer Sharon Toong wanted to live in the buzzing Dalston district. Filled with trendy restaurants and bars, the area is so famous as a haunt of young creatives that even hipster magazine Vice dubbed it “London’s coolest hangout”. But the very things about Dalston that appealed to Toong – the creative community and the nightlife – also make it a difficult place in which to live. “It’s busy all the time, day and night,”... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2134899/inside-hong-kong-raised-interior-designers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2134899/inside-hong-kong-raised-interior-designers?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Feb 2018 09:47:42 +0000 How did the PET Lamp project come about? “It started in Colombia in 2011. I was on holiday with friends who were doing a project on plastic bottles in the Amazon River. The problem in those countries is enormous because there’s no infrastructure for recycling. The heavy rains wash all of the plastic waste into the river and then it ends up in the ocean. “They were a group of creative people – an artist, an architect, landscape designers – and they wanted a product designer to [propose] an answer... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2131401/designer-behind-pet-lamp-giving-plastic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2131401/designer-behind-pet-lamp-giving-plastic?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 Feb 2018 04:15:22 +0000 Your first book, Journey By Design, has just come out. Why now? “I’ve been in the business for 14 years and I’ve done a lot of projects, so I had a lot of images, a lot to talk about, a lot to share. Different publishers have approached me over the years to write a book, but you really have to find the right publisher. When Assouline approached me, I thought, ‘OK, it’s time.’” Can you explain the title? “I grew up in the Middle East and have since lived in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2130492/jade-and-cashmere-two-things-draw-british?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2130492/jade-and-cashmere-two-things-draw-british?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jan 2018 07:02:33 +0000 On their first night in their Lamma Island house, French expat Anne Jones and her Australian husband, Stephen, thought a removal man had left a tap on. “We could hear water running but we didn’t know where it was coming from,” Jones recalls. They searched the house, but soon realised it wasn’t a tap after all – it was the sound of the waves lapping against the shore just beneath their window. Hidden in a remote corner of Lamma, the couple’s home is a traditional 2,100 sq ft, three-floor village... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2128451/hong-kong-beach-house-becomes-party-central?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2128451/hong-kong-beach-house-becomes-party-central?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Jan 2018 09:46:18 +0000 Japanese interior designer Koichiro Ikebuchi may have based his studio in Singapore, but he remains deeply inspired by his home country. Whether he is designing hotel rooms in Bangkok or a restaurant in Jakarta, Ikebuchi is known for projects featuring the clean lines, minimalist furniture and natural materials that are associated with Japanese designers. In the clubhouse of the Pavilia Hill residential development in Tin Hau, Hong Kong, which opened in mid-2016, Ikebuchi went so far as to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/interiors-living/article/2126148/how-japan-influenced-nordic-aesthetics-and-vice-versa-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/interiors-living/article/2126148/how-japan-influenced-nordic-aesthetics-and-vice-versa-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 Dec 2017 05:17:43 +0000 The Rockefeller Centre, Palais Bourbon, Burj Khalifa. Built centuries apart in different parts of the world, these architectural icons all have one thing in common: each is named after a patron with deep pockets. As long as architects have been designing buildings, they have needed someone to fund them. The pharaohs supported ancient Egyptian architects, European aristocrats funded Renaissance palaces, and industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie often bankrolled 20th-century skyscrapers. On top... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/interiors-living/article/2124452/architects-realise-their-dreams-thanks-ultra-rich-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/interiors-living/article/2124452/architects-realise-their-dreams-thanks-ultra-rich-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Dec 2017 05:16:26 +0000 It seemed simple on paper. A young couple with two children, a two-year-old and a six-month-old, asked Max Lam Tsz-hong to modern­ise their 1,400 sq ft, three-storey house in Yuen Long. The property didn’t require reconfiguring, just brightening up. So far, so good. But when Lam, of Max Lam Designs, visited the house, he realised it wouldn’t be that easy. “The previous owner had lived in the house for 20 to 30 years,” he says. “Inside, the decor was old-fashioned and it was very, very dark. It... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2123966/how-hong-kong-house-went-dark-and-dingy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2123966/how-hong-kong-house-went-dark-and-dingy?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Dec 2017 09:17:40 +0000 Your pavilion, leong4 ting2, will soon be installed in the piazza of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. What was your brief? “The pavilion is part of an event, ‘Hot is Cool’, hosted by Culture for Tomorrow [a non-profit organisation founded this year by cultural entrepreneur Adrian Cheng Chi-kong]. ‘Hot is Cool’ is all about the relationship between public spaces and communities. Culture for Tomorrow researched social-gathering places in Hong Kong and they suggested that I think about pavilions as... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2122249/public-space-hong-kong-meet-architect?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2122249/public-space-hong-kong-meet-architect?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Nov 2017 06:00:39 +0000 Seven years after Tania Reinert and her husband, Alexandre, moved to Hong Kong from London, they decided it was time for a change. “We lived on Caine Road but I really hated Central,” she says, explaining that their move to Lantau came after a suggestion by Alexandre, who used to visit the island to cycle. “I had never really considered moving here.” Intrigued by the idea, the couple decided to gauge market interest in their Hong Kong Island apartment, which they owned. “Within a week it was... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2121947/hong-kong-couple-swap-urban-living-rural?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2121947/hong-kong-couple-swap-urban-living-rural?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Nov 2017 10:03:49 +0000 Architect Rem Koolhaas is bursting with big ideas. He is the brains behind Beijing’s landmark CCTV Headquarters, Moscow’s 50,000 sq ft Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, the dramatic Seattle Central Library and several other eye-catching projects around the world. But despite the scale of Koolhaas’ ideas, he does not limit himself to designing oversized buildings. He regularly works with his Rotterdam studio, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in the Netherlands, on pint-sized... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/interiors-living/article/2116101/inside-melbournes-new-mpavilion-designed-rem-koolhaas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/interiors-living/article/2116101/inside-melbournes-new-mpavilion-designed-rem-koolhaas?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Oct 2017 23:16:49 +0000 Deposited outside homes and offices, usually during renovations, refuse skips accumulate mounds of unsightly waste and block valuable space at the expense of cars or pedestrians. A group of up-and-coming Hong Kong designers see potential to change that. Hong Kong environment chief allays fears of developing country parks for housing Designers Ffion Zhang, Stephen Ip and Cesar Harada want to transform skips into leafy micro parks. In place of bin bags and construction waste, these skips would be... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2114910/micro-park-ideas-hong-kong-gardens-refuse-skips-pop-chinese-pavilions-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2114910/micro-park-ideas-hong-kong-gardens-refuse-skips-pop-chinese-pavilions-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Oct 2017 10:30:15 +0000 When Peggy Bels first visited this 450 sq ft apartment on Shelley Street, Central, she was underwhelmed. The flat, which she had been tasked with renovating, had been shoddily carved into two bedrooms, a living room and a poky kitchen, none of which capitalised on the striking city views and abundance of natural light. But one feature caught the French interior designer’s eye: the 600 sq ft wraparound terrace. “The terrace is very important,” Bels says. “I wanted to make the terrace part of the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2113815/small-hong-kong-flat-600-sq-ft-terrace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2113815/small-hong-kong-flat-600-sq-ft-terrace?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Oct 2017 09:17:21 +0000 How did you meet? Dr Albert Au Man-hon: “We were secondary-school classmates, so we’ve known each other for nearly 20 years.” What’s the story behind The Habit Furniture? Au: “Glory said he wanted to own a furniture shop and I said, ‘Why don’t we design our own furniture?’” Glory Tam Chi-kiu: “In interior design projects, you some­times cross into furniture design. So I had some experience, but I wanted to do more.” Au: “We had many ideas but we picked this one because my main job is to keep... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2113033/coffee-table-doubles-exercise-bench-fitness?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2113033/coffee-table-doubles-exercise-bench-fitness?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Sep 2017 10:03:55 +0000 Where does your interest in brick­work come from? “It started with the first project that made me move back to Korea, from New York, in 2003. It was called Pixel House; it’s a tiny 89-square-metre, two-storey house – it almost looks like an art gallery. Brick was not fashionable then, but I like it because it ages well and it gives a nice sense of scale. The off-white bricks we use for the White Yard, at Mount Pavilia [in Clear Water Bay, slated to open next March] were made specially for this... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2112047/how-korean-architect-using-brickwork-create?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2112047/how-korean-architect-using-brickwork-create?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Sep 2017 00:15:36 +0000 Tadao Ando is a rock star among architects. Google his name and you’ll see photos of him planting trees with U2 frontman Bono, walking the red carpet with designer Stella McCartney and chatting with fashion legend Giorgio Armani. You will also find thousands of images of the build­ings that made him so famous. Bold, minimalist structures made from enormous slabs of concrete, Ando’s houses, churches and museums have earned him a large and devoted fan base. Among them is Hongkonger Gimmy Fong, who... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2111816/hong-kong-extreme-makeover-has-glass-wall?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2111816/hong-kong-extreme-makeover-has-glass-wall?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Sep 2017 09:19:17 +0000 Educated at Yale and Harvard universities, architect Tommy Pao’s first project since finishing graduate school was the hotel and serviced apartment tower Little Tai Hang. Little Tai Hang consists of a glass skyscraper that rises out of a three-storey brick podium. Why did you design the building in two such distinct parts? “Little Tai Hang is a glass-and-aluminium building in a fairly old neighbourhood. I didn’t want the building to stick out like a sore thumb, so the upper tower portion is... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2107736/little-tai-hang-architect-tommy-pao-what?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2107736/little-tai-hang-architect-tommy-pao-what?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Aug 2017 08:32:32 +0000 All of your designs are focused on bringing plants into urban spaces. What’s unique about your approach to greening? “In Hong Kong, ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ are like gimmicks or selling points. Even when [developers and the government] spend a lot on greening work, most of it is not sustainable. What they are planting I call ornamental plants; they are very pretty but their tolerance for the harsh conditions in the city are not as good as wild plants. This means their lifespan will be much... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2107065/learn-love-weeds-says-landscape-designer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2107065/learn-love-weeds-says-landscape-designer?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Aug 2017 08:33:17 +0000 Many of your furniture pieces, such as the Frame Table, are adaptable. Why? Vincent Lim Chin-hwa: “I grew up in Hong Kong, and when you grow up in an urban landscape such as this, you realise how small spaces can be and how important it is to have pieces that are versatile and flexible.” You just won Maison&Objet’s Rising Asian Talent award. What will you be showing at the Maison&Objet Paris fair next month? Elaine Manzi Lu: “That fair is mostly accessories, so we’re showing table-top products... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2106149/space-saving-furniture-hong-kong-designer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2106149/space-saving-furniture-hong-kong-designer?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Aug 2017 04:15:45 +0000 Interior designers may dream of having a free rein on projects. But as Wesley Liu recently discovered when creating a bachelor pad in Sheung Wan, working without a brief can also be a burden. “There weren’t really any processes of approval,” says Liu, founder of PplusP Designers. “The client just passed the whole project on to me. I didn’t know what he’d think of it.” But the designer need not have worried. “When it was all done,” Liu remembers, laughing, “he came in and was like, ‘Wow!’ It was... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2103996/hong-kong-bachelor-pad-gets-bold-bright-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2103996/hong-kong-bachelor-pad-gets-bold-bright-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Jul 2017 09:16:15 +0000