Game changers
Mark this down as a sign of our times. Since Business of Design Week (BODW) 2022 rolled out on Wednesday — live at Hong Kong’s M+ visual culture museum and across the virtual world — the focus has been on the concept of design as a catalyst for public good.
Perhaps this comes as a result of us all having slowly emerged from periods of pandemic-enforced isolation — times when our thoughts had nowhere else to turn but to our immediate environs and how they help shape our day-to-day existence.
Hence BODW has wisely opted for a theme — “Design for Change” — that hitches itself to the zeitgeist. Accordingly, design leaders taking part in this year’s event are focusing as much on the issues facing design as society in general.
Now in its 20th year, BODW has been recognized in the corridors of power. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu tipped his hat to the event’s relevance in his 2022 Policy Address, declaring it as “among the globally acclaimed platforms for fostering the development of arts, cultural and creative industries”.
The five “pillars” of discussion this year are: Brand Transformation,
Culture and the City, Metaverse and Metaliving, New Urban Models, and Social Design Innovation.
For Eric Yim, chairman of BODW, the event is an opportunity to help people “stay ahead of design and innovation trends” as they make use of “a platform for meaningful collaboration and exchange of ideas”.
“Design is much more than beautification: It shapes users’ experiences, and brings social and economic value,” says Yim. “Our hope is that our 2022 theme will inspire designers to consider their entire process, from cradle to grave, and create products and systems that can be instrumental in fostering a sustainable ecosystem and better livelihood for our people and planet.
“We live in an age of exciting technological innovation, and there’s no better time to start changing our practices for the better.”
Future of homes
Among the panels held so far, Reimagining Our Future Habitats looked at “ways to create livable cities in the past and present” while making projections about the future of housing. Dennis Ho, director and East Asia regional design leader for architecture, urban design and landscape architecture at the global design collective Arup, was among the speakers.
“The topic is very relevant in the transformative period we live in; very much affected by the climate crisis, urban growth and the pandemic,” he says.
“The BODW panel comes from different backgrounds, with unique knowledge and insights into how we may live in the future. This collective discourse is the key to driving a more diverse and enriched approach when designing our future habitats.”
Ho was recently involved in designing the award-winning Taikoo Green Ribbon project, presenting a set of ideas to develop a carbon-neutral commercial tower. He cites this as an example of how environmentally conscious “Design for Change” concepts can be rolled out in real life.
“It’s important that we don’t design our environment only for the present; we need to look one, two or even three decades ahead,” Ho adds. “We need to think broadly but also focus more on human experience, nature and technology. At Arup, we work actively across different disciplines and expertise with a rigorous, holistic approach. Our goal is to shape a better environment and create a much more sustainable, regenerative future.”
Ho’s input into the Hong Kong design landscape extends beyond his work with Arup. He is co-chair of the Education and Continuing Professional Development Committee of the Royal Institute of British Architects Hong Kong Chapter, a council member at the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design, and an academic with ties to some of the city’s leading universities. Ho predicts that change is afoot in the local design world as the city works to become “greener, softer, more human-focused”.
“Hong Kong is a super-highdensity, high-rise waterfront city with very efficient public transport and connectivity,” says Ho. The city’s compactness and density create areas of concern that urban designers like him are trying to address. “Ultimately, we need to create much better green, open spaces and streets, bring nature back into our urban fabric to enhance biodiversity, make our waterfront and natural surroundings more accessible, provide amenities that encourage community engagement, and utilize natural resources to temper our environment and encourage circularity — thereby creating a more-livable environment and better wellbeing for all.”
Sense of place
Nikki Gonnissen was among the keynote speakers at a session called The Masters Roundtable: Design for Change. The co-founder and director of Amsterdam-based multidisciplinary design studio Thonik has collaborated with both M+ and Shanghai’s Power Station of Art. M+’s signature color scheme created by Thonik claimed a Grand Award at the DFA Design for Asia Awards 2022 on Wednesday.
Making “complex information very visible” is her forte — evident in the distinct visual identity created for M+, using “a color palette that contains only mid-tone colors”.
“They reflect Hong Kong’s urban fabric: gray high-rises and colorful, neon, commercial communication,” Gonnissen adds.
In terms of design being used as a force for change, Gonnissen believes that to “set something in motion” is part of a designer’s remit.
“This curious and open mindset is what all designers have in common,” she says. “They think in change, they think in possibilities. Good design is about a better world. The world faces a number of complex issues: climate change, great economic and social inequality, housing shortages, the transition to renewable energy, education systems. These complex problems and stalled systems have no simple solutions.”
However, she hastens to add, the creativity of designers can help bring about “the major culture change that’s needed”.
Multidisciplinary designer and artist Lo Chi-wing — named DFA World’s Outstanding Chinese Designer 2015 — was also part of The Masters Roundtable: Design for Change discussion. The renowned creator seemed to sum up the general mood of the event with a call to designers across all spheres to focus on how their work can make a difference.
“One of the rising hurdles for sustainability is design itself,” says Lo. “If design is for the sake of being different, being colorful or for the pleasure to shock; if it is for a joke, a trick, a shallow motif; if it is not for the love of humanity; if it does not illuminate our eye nor nourish our soul — then we should never design.”
Design leaders renew their commitment to serve as catalysts for public good at Business of Design Week’s ongoing edition. Mathew Scott reports.