13:00–13:20

Screening: Episodes of ‘When in doubt, take a walk’

13:20–13:30

Introduction by Ikko Yokoyama (Lead Curator of Design and Architecture, M+) and Marisa Yiu (Co-founder and Executive Director of Design Trust)

13:30–13:55

Fan Lok Yi & Sampson Wong x Marisa Yiu: Reflecting on Urban Research in Hong Kong

13:55–14:20

Thomas Daniell x Tatjana Crossley: Blank Slates from Macau to Japan

14:20–14:45

Hugh Davies x Peter Nelson: The Virtual Geographies of Hong Kong

14:45–15:10

Fan Ling x Calvin Wong: The Creativity of Machine Intelligence

15:10–15:30

Reflections with HK-based interlocutors, moderated by Sunny Cheung (Curator of Design and Architecture, M+)

15:30-15:45

Screening: Born at Night, Space Caviar (Joseph Grima, Martina Muzi)

15:45–16:10

Juliana Kei & Daniel Cooper x Charles Lai: Inventing Hong Kong’s Modernity through Exhibiting ‘Traditions’

16:10–16:35

Oliver Elser x Bob Pang: The Comeback of Brutalism

16:35–17:00

Joseph Grima x Siu King Chung: Design Beyond ‘Authorship’?

17:00–17:25

Yasmin Tri Aryani x John Lin: The Future of Tradition

17:25–17:45

Reflections with HK-based interlocutors, moderated by Shirley Surya (Curator of Design and Architecture, M+)

Fan Lok Yi (2018 M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow) is a curator and artist based in Hong Kong. Fascinated by untamed urban nature and unintended use of space, Fan works to reveal the connections between urban space, history, and the environment through research and collaborative artistic processes.

Sampson Wong (2018 M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow) is a Hong Kong–based artist, independent curator, and academic. His research and creative interests include urban theory and contemporary urbanism, socially engaged art, art and the public sphere, creative activism, Hong Kong studies, and urban nature.

Marisa Yiu is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Design Trust. She has been instrumental in curating the Design Trust Futures Studio programme, which led to the conceptualisation and realisation of two micro-parks in Tsuen Wan and Yau Tsim Mong in 2021. She is also a Founding Partner of ESKYIU, an architectural design and research studio in Hong Kong.

Thomas Daniell (2017 M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow) is Professor at the Department of Architecture of Graduate School of Engineering in Kyoto University. Previously, he was Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Saint Joseph in Macau, where he headed the launch of the first architecture school in the city. His research on traditional and contemporary Japanese architecture has been widely published.

Tatjana Crossley is Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture at Chinese University of Hong Kong and Co-founder of architectural and research practice ArchiTAG. Her practice explores technological aspects of design to propose new modes of perceiving and fabricating our environments.

Hugh Davies (2018 M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow) is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and investigator based in Melbourne. His research explores technology histories, screen practices, and expansive games and has published widely on digital culture, contemporary art, and mixed reality games.

Peter Nelson is an art historian, game scholar, and visual artist working at the intersection of computer games and landscape studies. He is Assistant Professor at the Academy of Visual Arts and Augmented Creativity Lab at Hong Kong Baptist University and Vice President of Chinese Digital Games Research Association.

Fan Ling (2015 M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow) is a Shanghai—based architect, designer, and urban entrepreneur whose work involves AI Design and organisational intelligence. He is Co-founder of Tezign Tech & Design, a start-up bridging design and technology companies, and Founding Director of the Design & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Tongji University in Shanghai.

Calvin Wong is Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is currently with the endowed professorship title as Cheng Yik Hung Professor in Fashion. He is also the CEO and Centre Director of Laboratory for Artificial intelligence in Design (AiDLab), a lab jointly established by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and The Royal College of Art. His research actively enquires the application of artificial intelligence and computer vision in the fashion and textile industry.

Juliana Kei (2016 M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow) is Lecturer at the School of Architecture at the University of Liverpool and Co-founder of Hong Kong Design History Network (HKDH Net). As part of HKDH Net, she co-curated the Hong Kong Pavilion in London Design Biennale in 2021. Her research interest includes post-war architecture in the UK and material culture and design history in Hong Kong.

Daniel Cooper (2016 M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow) is a user experience researcher based in New York. His research explores the role that science and technology have had in changing conceptions of architectural practices in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, revolving around historiographic methods that subtly negotiate objects and people.

Charles Lai is an architectural historian and Co-founder of aona architects. His research explores the history of modern architecture in Hong Kong and East and Southeast Asia, and the conservation of historical built heritages. He writes extensively on social media and is co-author of The Lost Modern–25 modernist buildings in Hong Kong (Humming Publishing, 2021). Lai is also the recipient of Design Trust Feature Grant for his research project on the legacy of Hong Kong architect Tao Ho.

Oliver Elser (2019 M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow) is Curator at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in Frankfurt, where his work focuses on postmodernity, architecture models in the twentieth century, and Brutalism. His project SOS Brutalism maps the global surge of Brutalist architecture from the 1950s to 70s.

Bob Pang is Director and Co-founder of AaaM Architects. Pang led a team of researchers to investigate the history and aesthetics of Brutalist structures in Hong Kong, culminating with an 2021 exhibition titled BRUTAL!–Unknown Brutalism Architecture in Hong Kong, a research and exhibition project supported by Design Trust Seed Grant.

Joseph Grima (2016 M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow) is an architect, curator, writer, and researcher based in Milan. He is Co-founder of Space Caviar and Creative Director of Design Academy of Eindhoven, where he launched the GEO-DESIGN research and exhibition series interrogating issues such as authorship in design and architectural production, and the social, economic, and geopolitical forces that are shaping design today. He was Director of Italy’s first design museum Triennale Museo del Design Italiano.

Siu King Chung is an art and design commentator, installation artist, and independent curator. He is actively involved in arts policy and art/design curriculum development in Hong Kong. He is Associate Professor at the School of Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he launched the Social Design (BA) programme. He co-founded the Designs You Don’t Know What to Do With Association, a design community that challenges the conventional set of design thinking.

Yasmin Tri Aryani (2019 M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow) is a Jakarta—based independent researcher and graphic recorder. Her research focuses on the ways in which traditional architecture has been used to represent national identity since colonial government times.  She graduated with a MA degree in Design Curating and Writing at Design Academy Eindhoven, where her project Mapping the Way Home: The Role of Architecture in Constructing Contested Notions of Identity in Indonesia was nominated for the Gijs Bakker award.

John Lin is Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture at University of Hong Kong. He is Co-founder of Rural Urban Framework (RUF), a research and design platform dedicated to developing sustainable prototypes for rapidly urbanising areas. RUF has been working with non-profit organisations in China and has built over fifteen projects, including schools, community centres, and houses in various villages. Lin also received Design Trust Feature Grant with Joshua Bolchover in 2020 for their research project 'Split Lives: Stories from the Underground House'.