Replace or Reclaim?

William is an award-winning design architect with over 15 years of professional experience accumulated in China, UK, Middle East and SE Asia. He has been in leading design roles in numerous high-profile projects of a diverse spectrum, including mixed-use projects, office tower, hospitality, cultural and masterplanning.

William studied Architecture at University of Westminster, London where he obtained Distinction and won the Evolo Skyscraper Awards.He has extensive knowledge on commercial sector with particular interest on sustainable and facade design; which was underlined during his apprenticeship at Foster+Partners, where he was an architect on Masdar Institute, creating a prototypical and sustainable project powered entirely by solar energy.

His design approach emphasizes contextualism, in reference to historical and cultural value; and integrating innovative sustainable design to create unique tectonic quality.

Prior to joining Oval Partnership, his works covers several award winning mixed-use developments including – Masdar Institute and Masdar City Masterplan in Abu Dhabi; VietinBank Business Centre in Hanoi; Shanghai Hongqiao Paradise Walk, Xiamen and Suzhou Paradise Walk for Longfor Group; Riverside 66 and Spring City 66 for Hang Lung Properties. He was also design lead and acted as project in charge of other high-profile mixed-use, commercial and hospitality projects including the recent completed projects IM Shanghai, Zhengding Li Mixed-use Development and Hebei Grand Hotel Anyue in Shijiazhuang.

William is an ardent community participant, he is appointed as Honorary Treasurer and Committee Member of RIBA Hong Kong Chapter, to advice on the formulation of strategic development, business planning and operation budget. He actively help curating and organizing local chapter events such as Detour RIBA Talk, Open House Tours and recently the World Children Day.

Howard Chung is the Design Principal of HIR Studio. Graduated from the Delft University of Technology, Howard is a Dutch registered architect with 13 years of experience. Prior to founding HIR Studio, he was design architect at Foster + Partners and Adjaye Associates in London, with a strong background in design and architecture, from planning and design to completion. The experiences from international practices have instilled him with valuable knowledge and honed his design skills.

He co-founded the HIR studio with Irene Cheng, aspiring to create designs that are innovative, artistic, and sensual with local characters.
His recent works include recycling Hong Kong plastic waste into public furniture for the Sha Tin Town Hall, engaging the public for the design of the Hong Kong Public Libraries interior revamps, and interactive public installation such as the Curious Horn, a Public Art Installation at the Pacific Place. His talents are recognized by awards such as the Perspective Magazine 40 under 40 award and was featured in several media such as the South China Morning Post and Construction+ Magazine.

Suzanne studied at The University of Nottingham in the UK with Bachelor and Master Degrees in Architecture. She joined Arup London after graduating in 2006, where she was one of the Lead Architects for BSkyB Headquarter in London, winner of the RIBA London Sustainability Award. She was also involved in several other award winning projects including Plantation Place, Battersea Power Station Regeneration, and King Abdullah Sport City in Saudi Arabia.

After relocated to Shanghai in year 2011, Suzanne was co-leading the Shanghai Arup Associates’ multidisciplinary design team for 5 years. She delivered several key projects including the winning scheme of Shanghai Loop footbridge, the Chengdu New Airport short-listed scheme and the New Film Soundstage in Taiwan. She also led the Arup Associates’ Team on the RIBA Shanghai Window Projects for two years in a row.

Suzanne is an ARB registered architect and has over 12 years international experience delivering world-class and award winning projects in the UK, China, South East Asia and the Middle East. She has diverse range of project experience across a variety of sectors at different scale with particular skill on technically driven typologies including Science & Industry, Media Broadcasting and Aviation.

Suzanne moved back to Hong Kong in 2017, co-founded O&O Studio with Eric Chan in 2018, and was awarded China Interior Design 40UNDER40 (HK) Award 2020-2021.
O&O’s work have been widely featured on international press including Wallpaper*, DesiDaily, designboom, Architizer, et cetera. In a short four years time, O&O has already received over 20 international design awards. Siu Kai Fong, a community engaging public space art installation project, designed by O&O Studio in collaboration with REhyphenation, has recently been awarded DFA Design For Asia Awards 2022 Bronze Winner under Spatial Category.

Graduated from the Msc. International Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, Crystal is a licentiate member of the Royal Town Planning Institute. With her vision to empower bottom-up placemaking initiatives and cross-sectoral collaboration, Crystal joined Very Hong Kong in 2018 to launch the “CollaborateHK” platform. Over the years, she has led the team to support over 100 community groups to co-design neighbourhood improvement projects on vacant land across the city. The team’s latest capacity-building programme, “Space+”, offers NGOs a complete placemaking curriculum and opportunities to practice public space curation from theory to practice.

Prior to joining Very Hong Kong, Crystal was affiliated with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in New York, then the CUHK Institute of Future Cities as she settled back in town. She has assisted various government departments to coordinate planning feasibility studies’ public consultation programmes.

黃卓健畢業於香港中文大學藝術系及香港大學建築系，於2019 年創立環保創企 香港木庫。Ricci 對環境保護的熱情和經驗為他帶來回收木材的獨特視野，將「R3- ReCycle，ReDesign，ReLink」的願景帶給了香港大眾。Ricci致力創作多元化公共藝術裝置，曾設計過百項公共及商業室內設計項目，包括房屋委員會安泰村設計公共藝術裝置《擁抱我房》、西貢鹽田梓藝術節創作的戶外藝術座椅《流波‧行雲》《樟木情》, 「非凡！屯門」戶外藝術裝置《屯門孖住座》以及今年為東涌Citygate Outlet 所創作的十米長藝術座椅《木 . 聞》。

Christine Lew is a multidisciplinary designer currently based in Hong Kong. She has a background in women’s wear design and pursued further studies and is a M.A Material Futures graduate from Central Saint Martins.

She now works as a Material Designer and is also Co-Founder of Studio Florian and Christine. Current design works involve research at the intersection of sustainable materials, heritage craft and design-led social innovation.

Wai Tang is the Founding Partner of QUAD studio. Established in 2017 together with Charles Ho and Kelvin Chu, QUAD studio is a group of architects and designers with a mission to make a difference by rethinking the idea.

Wai previously worked at Aedas as an Executive Director and has over 25 years of experience in practicing architecture. Wai was at Aedas for 13.5 years and ran a very talented team of 35 staff from 2011 to 2017 focusing on both Local and International Architectural Projects of all scales.

Born in Hong Kong in 1970 and moved to the UK in 1972. In 1989, Wai Tang studied at the Birmingham School of Architecture before moving to London in 1993 to attend MA/PG Dip at the University of Westminster where he was mentored by David Greene of Archigram and received the RIBA Silver Medal Runner Up award for best national diploma project in 1995.

He believes that creative world is evolving where designers are becoming more of a polymath. Designers are not one person doing many things rather we are many people focused on one thing resulting to an enriched design solution to our clients.

In 2019, Wai was honoured to be elected as a Fellow Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects. Currently, Wai is a part of the Westminster Alumni Advisory Group in Hong Kong, speaking in events hosted by RIBA Hong Kong Chapter, being Guest Critic at the Architecture Department of HKU space and leading a group of talented individuals in designing cutting edge architecture in and around Greater China.