Kickstarting a series of talks starting with our common ground and synergies between SE Asia pavilions, Hong Kong and Taiwan teams will share their curatorial responses to the Laboratory of the Future theme .

The Hong Kong and Singapore teams will discuss their curatorial responses to the Laboratory of the Future theme - this will kickstart a series of talks starting with our common ground and synergies between SE Asia pavilions.

Curator Bio
‍Melvin Tan Melvin is the President of the Singapore Institute of Architects and the Deputy Managing Director and founding partner of LAUD 

Architects Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based design-centric boutique practice established in 2004.

In 2017, the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore chose Melvin as one of the "20-under-45" recipients, selecting him as one of twenty prominent Singaporean architects under the age of 45. He has served in many capacities such as World Architecture Festival Judge, jury for Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) Design Awards, Housing Development Board Architectural Design Panel and on the Design Singapore Advisory Board. He also sits on the Board of Architects (Singapore) in his capacity as SIA president.

Exhibitors of the Hong Kong Exhibition will share their responses to the curatorial theme followed by discussion with the Curators.

As we embark on a journey to explore the future of Hong Kong, we are confronted with a myriad of challenges. What will become of this highly urbanised and densely populated city in the face of climate change and ecological crises? What if we could transform our high-rise buildings and neighbourhoods into living, breathing ecosystems that harness the power of nature and urban microclimate to create sustainable and liveable spaces? How can we create a sustainable and liveable city that is resilient to the challenges of tomorrow?

This is where transformative architecture comes into play in our quest for a future-ready city. We must harness the power of innovation and collaboration to create a vertical city that is not only decarbonised but also resilient, compact but also liveable, and fit for purpose but also flexible for future changes.

Speaker Bio/
MK Leung is Director of Sustainable Design of Ronald Lu &Partners, and Principal Behaviourist of RLP’s insight partner, Behave. His team has delivered numerous high-profile projects, including CIC Zero Carbon Park, a vertical campus for THEi, Treehouse – the firm’s winning entry in the inauguralAdvancing Net Zero Ideas Competition, and many consultancy studies on low-energy residential building design, infrastructure design and construction under extreme temperatures, sponge city design, and others.   

MK was awarded the Laureate for the SIA-Uniseal G-Architectby the Singapore Institute of Architects in 2014. He has been recognised around the world for his specialised knowledge and integrated skills in sustainable, net-zero building design projects. He served as a Director of the Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) from 2016 to 2021, as well as the Chairman of the HKGBC’s Sustainable Development Committee in 2020 and 2021. He has been an advisor to the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee of the HongKong Institute of Architects since 2021, and a co-opted member of the HKGBC’sSustainable Development Committee, second Vice Chairperson of the BEAM SocietyLimited’s Technical Review Committee, and a member of the Advisory Committee of the GREAT Smart Cities Institute at HKUST since 2022.

Moderator Bio/
Hendrik TIEBEN is an architect and educator devoted to the design of inclusive and healthy cities. He currently serves as the Director of the School of Architecture atThe Chinese University of Hong Kong. Since 2013, he developed a series of place making and community projects in Hong Kong. In parallel, he has been engaged in various international networks, such the Urban Lab+, reflecting on urban environment education in the Global North and South, and theInternational Forum on Urbanism. With the NGO “City Space Architecture” (CSA),he co-organized events at the Habitat III Conference in Quito and the WorldUrban Forums in Kuala Lumpur and Katowice. With Luisa Bravo, the founder ofCSA, he co-initiated the project “2020 – A Year Without Public Space under theCOVID-19 Pandemic,” which brought together 100+ speakers from around the world to exchange their experiences during the spreading health crisis.

Lighting is the essential element in which we perceive space and architecture, at times, it is simply necessary element to function within a space. We understand light as the fourth dimension of architecture – and in time of climate change era, it is an integral part of sustainable building strategy. Matteo Menghini will share ERCO’s Greenology approach which combines ecological responsibility with technological expertise and their strategy for sustainable lighting and its four pillars of Innovation, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.

Speaker Bio/
‍Mr.  Menghini holds the position of the GlobalCluster Manager for Work for ERCO GmbH, responsible for the development of theERCO Work Cluster on a global scale. Being a well-versed marketer, with global sales and business development experience, Mr. Menghini had experience working with the major players of the lighting industry for 22 years prior to joiningERCO in 2018, bringing years of lighting experience to this role. With his extensive knowledge in office buildings and work place lighting, he is often invited as a guest speaker for conferences, seminars, as well as lighting workshops throughout different countries and regions, sharing new trends and insights in workplace strategy and design.Lighting is the essential element in which we perceive space and architecture, at times, it is simply necessary element to function within a space. We understand light as the fourth dimension of architecture – and in time of climate change era, it is an integral part of sustainable building strategy. Matteo Menghini will share ERCO’s Greenology approach which combines ecological responsibility with technological expertise and their strategy for sustainable lighting and its four pillars of Innovation, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.

A panel of international experts discusses Hong Kong's culture and how cities develop as a result of urban regeneration as well as regional and cultural influences in the discussion panel on "Transforming Cultures." We investigate how architecture affects habitation and the way of life in our city, as well as the role that architects seek to transform in the process.
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Speaker Bio/
Rocco Yim was born and educated in Hong Kong, and is currently Principal of Rocco DesignArchitects Associates Ltd. 

Since winning a First Prize Award for the L’Opera de la Bastille international competition in 1983, his works have consistently been awarded oth in Hong Kong and overseas. Recent accolades include ARC ASIA Gold Medals 1994 & 2003, Kenneth F.Brown Award 2007, Chicago Athenaeum Architectural Awards 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2016, WAF category winner 2011, ULI Global Award 2014, German DesignCouncil Iconic Awards 2014 & 2016, the Plan Award 2017, and CTBUHExcellence Award 2023. 

Roccois a regular invited speaker in local and international sumposia, including keynote speakers at WAF 2014 and UIA World Congress 2021. He also held a solo exhibition at the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin in 2013. 

Rocco’s work was published in The City in Architecture in 2002, Being Chinese in Architecture in 2004, Presence in 2012, and ReconnectingCultures in 2013. 

Murray Fraser is Professor of Architecture and Global Culture at the Bartlett School ofArchitecture, University College London, UK. In 2008 his monograph Architecture and the 'Special Relationship' won theRIBA Research Award and CICA Bruno Zevi Book Prize, and his edited book Design Research in Architecture (2013) is now a standard work. He was General Editor of the 21^st Edition of Sir BanisterFletcher’s Global History of Architecture (2020), awarded the SAHGB’sColvin Prize. He is ex-Chair of the Society of Architectural Historians ofGreat Britain, and in 2018 received the RIBA Annie Spink Prize forExcellence in Education. 

PabloCastro, FAAR and FAIA, he is Principal and Co-Founder of Obra Architects, a Rome PrizeFellow, an NYFA Fellow, a Fellow of AIA and an SAH de Montëquin Senior Fellow.He has practiced architecture with a broad social agenda, and his tenure at Obra Architects is responsible for a large body of award-winning projects. This includes six AIA NY Design Awards, the 2008 ID Annual Design Review Award, and two 2004 Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Awards. He was the 2023 SpringVisiting Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of HongKong, and taught a master studio entitled “Diagonal City” with Jennifer Lee. 

Thomas Tsang, FAAR, he is the Program Director for the Master of Architecture and AssociateProfessor at The University of Hong Kong. Founded dehow projects, a design practice that investigates architecture and performance environments, informed by codified conventional practices and resolved by scaffolding experiments drawing broader histories, narratives, and spatial-material traditions. His research project includes Sounding Architecture (2016-), Soundtecture (2019-),Archaeological Performance (2019-), and Prophecy of Furniture (2020-). He has received many honors, including a Marion O. and Maximilian E. Hoffman RomePrize by the American Academy in Rome, Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, MellonVisiting Artist at Wellesley College, among others.

Presenting a series of mini lectures from former and current curators, architects and artists of the Venice Architecture Biennale to discuss the cultural and environmental transformations in the city, and to ask how we can re-awaken the presence of water, ground and landscape as elements held ‘in common’ in our urban imaginaries.  

How do we experience ‘water’ and ‘ground’ and how can the idea of ‘fluid ground’ serve as common thread for experience, understanding and knowledge of place?Our interaction with water and ground form multiple stories, with water as source, sewer, and communication channel, and shared ground driving the process of city transformation. 

In this talk we open a conversation about transformations through water and ground to create new spaces for collective memory and desire. What are water and ground as a material – what does it mean to use it, contaminate it, remediate it? What is fluid ground as an entity – what are its physical and metaphorical boundaries? How do the stories of transformation connect to create space for collective memory and desire, and places for new cultural and environmental imagination? How do the canals of Venice speak from coast line in Europe to the creeks of Manila and the wetlands of Hong Kong? We will gather our discussions in the open space of the Hong Kong Pavilion.
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Speaker Bio/
Urban Radicals (Era Savvides and Nasios Varnavas) is a collaborative architecture and design studio which started out in 2019 with the ambition to form a network of collaborators, to solve problems across contexts and scales. In 2021 UrbanRadicals were selected to design and co-curate the Cyprus Pavilion for the 17^th Venice Architecture Biennale and were awarded Best New Practices 2021 by Archdaily. In 2022 they were selected as 1 of 6 young architects in residence at the Architecture Foundation, London.

JanJongert is a founding partner of Super use Studios, where he develops tools and processes and realises concrete projects that stimulate local exchange and production, as an alternative to transporting raw materials, products and parts all over the world. Jongert is mainly concerned with ‘flows’, both in interiors and in urban areas and in industry. He studies how they progress and builds new cross-connections and shortcuts that provide ecosystems with alternative new value. Currently a senior researcher at Rotterdam University of AppliedSciences, Jongert also teaches system design for various architecture and design master’s degree courses worldwide. 

‍ChoieFunk is a Manila-born designer, educator and community builder. Her wide array of experiences in cultural endeavours, working for poor communities as well as her international travels and relations through a dialogue of life and study have been the basis for a later foray into architecture contextualised in the environments she finds herself in. This has led her to create a manifesto for architecture and design that is relationship-based, highly responsive in its practice that is interdisciplinary, multi-scalar and human-centred, greatly learning from nature.  

‍Sam Domingo is a researcher, theatre practitioner, curator, and artist. Born and raised in the Philippines, she creates literary pieces such as essays, poems and plays, and other creative works that have reached more territories than her two feet. Her writings were featured in various projects and literary journals in Europe, Asia, and Australia, some of which were written for the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art, CorditePoetry Review, Sing Lit Station, and Lampara Publishing. She contributes toCODAME, a US-based NGO that combines art and technology, and Tambisan sa Sining, a cultural group of Filipino artist-activists.  

‍Justin Hui Drawing on his practice in architecture and urbanism, Justin explores themes that engender land development, absence, memory, phenomenology, and globalization. As well as photography, he uses mediums such as archival research, writing, mapping, and found objects. He is a licensed architect who worked at Herzog& de Meuron and Office for Metropolitan Architecture, and holds a B.Archfrom Cornell University. He recently published his first photobook, NewTerritories, with Asia One. He lives and works between Hong Kong and New York.
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Paolo Zaide is an architect, academic and curator and Course Leader forBA Architecture at the University of Westminster. He has taught at several institutions since 2002 including London Metropolitan University, Central SaintMartins, the London School of Architecture and the Bartlett, UCL. He holds aPhD in Architecture and Urban Design from the Royal College of Art (2018), and his research, teaching and design practice focus on climate change and specifically the problem of sea level change in densely crowded cities.

Presenting a series of mini lectures from former and current curators, architects and artists of the Venice Architecture Biennale to discuss the cultural and environmental transformations in the city, and to ask how we can re-awaken the presence of water, ground and landscape as elements held ‘in common’ in our urban imaginaries.  

How do we experience ‘water’ and ‘ground’ and how can the idea of ‘fluid ground’ serve as common thread for experience, understanding and knowledge of place?Our interaction with water and ground form multiple stories, with water as source, sewer, and communication channel, and shared ground driving the process of city transformation. 

In this talk we open a conversation about transformations through water and ground to create new spaces for collective memory and desire. What are water and ground as a material – what does it mean to use it, contaminate it, remediate it? What is fluid ground as an entity – what are its physical and metaphorical boundaries? How do the stories of transformation connect to create space for collective memory and desire, and places for new cultural and environmental imagination? How do the canals of Venice speak from coast line in Europe to the creeks of Manila and the wetlands of Hong Kong? We will gather our discussions in the open space of the Hong Kong Pavilion.
‍
Speaker Bio/
Urban Radicals (Era Savvides and Nasios Varnavas) is a collaborative architecture and design studio which started out in 2019 with the ambition to form a network of collaborators, to solve problems across contexts and scales. In 2021 UrbanRadicals were selected to design and co-curate the Cyprus Pavilion for the 17^th Venice Architecture Biennale and were awarded Best New Practices 2021 by Archdaily. In 2022 they were selected as 1 of 6 young architects in residence at the Architecture Foundation, London.

JanJongert is a founding partner of Super use Studios, where he develops tools and processes and realises concrete projects that stimulate local exchange and production, as an alternative to transporting raw materials, products and parts all over the world. Jongert is mainly concerned with ‘flows’, both in interiors and in urban areas and in industry. He studies how they progress and builds new cross-connections and shortcuts that provide ecosystems with alternative new value. Currently a senior researcher at Rotterdam University of AppliedSciences, Jongert also teaches system design for various architecture and design master’s degree courses worldwide. 

‍ChoieFunk is a Manila-born designer, educator and community builder. Her wide array of experiences in cultural endeavours, working for poor communities as well as her international travels and relations through a dialogue of life and study have been the basis for a later foray into architecture contextualised in the environments she finds herself in. This has led her to create a manifesto for architecture and design that is relationship-based, highly responsive in its practice that is interdisciplinary, multi-scalar and human-centred, greatly learning from nature.  

‍Sam Domingo is a researcher, theatre practitioner, curator, and artist. Born and raised in the Philippines, she creates literary pieces such as essays, poems and plays, and other creative works that have reached more territories than her two feet. Her writings were featured in various projects and literary journals in Europe, Asia, and Australia, some of which were written for the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art, CorditePoetry Review, Sing Lit Station, and Lampara Publishing. She contributes to CODAME, a US-based NGO that combines art and technology, and Tambisan sa Sining, a cultural group of Filipino artist-activists.  

‍Justin Hui Drawing on his practice in architecture and urbanism, Justin explores themes that engender land development, absence, memory, phenomenology, and globalization. As well as photography, he uses mediums such as archival research, writing, mapping, and found objects. He is a licensed architect who worked at Herzog& de Meuron and Office for Metropolitan Architecture, and holds a B.Archfrom Cornell University. He recently published his first photo book, NewTerritories, with Asia One. He lives and works between Hong Kong and New York.
‍
Paolo Zaide is an architect, academic and curator and Course Leader forBA Architecture at the University of Westminster. He has taught at several institutions since 2002 including London Metropolitan University, Central SaintMartins, the London School of Architecture and the Bartlett, UCL. He holds aPhD in Architecture and Urban Design from the Royal College of Art (2018), and his research, teaching and design practice focus on climate change and specifically the problem of sea level change in densely crowded cities.