Hong Kong, 26 October 2021 — In view of the various challenges as well as the opportunities that Hong Kong is facing which include climate change, scarce land resources, heritage conservation, talent development, an ageing population, and other such issues, the local architectural industry has collaborated with experts from the commercial, arts and design, academic sectors and NGOs, to showcase their social concerns and present a series of creative solutions at the 17th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition. Under the theme ‘Redistribution: Land, People and Environment’, the exhibition helps establish a new paradigm for building Hong Kong as a more liveable city.
Due to the global pandemic, the Venice Architecture Biennale has been postponed from last year and is currently underway in Venice from May to November 2021. Concurrently, organisers also launch the Hong Kong Response Exhibition to showcase the exhibits in a physical format for the first time starting from 20 October 2021 until 15 December 2021, at the City Gallery, with the support of the Planning Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Upon the stabilisation of the pandemic situation in the Territory, the curatorial team decided to launch a physical Hong Kong Response Exhibition for the Hong Kong Collateral Event to showcase the 20 creative exhibits. Donald Choi, Chief Curator, points out that the exhibits developed by 20 participating teams reflect the result of collaboration among the 53 exhibitor units, formed by emerging architects as well as corporate executives, designers, artists, academics and representatives of NGOs. Their common aim is to assemble a diverse array of creative ideas focusing on the redistribution of our critical resources: land, people and environment, to enhance our overall liveability.
Led by Donald Choi, the Curatorial Team has five more members, namely Paul Mui and Benny Lee, Co-founders of BREADstudio; Agnes Hung, Senior Architect at the Inhabit Group; Ka-Sing Yu, Assistant Professor of Practice for the Architectural Conservation Programme at the University of Hong Kong; and Dr. Hoyin Lee, Co-founder of the Architectural Conservation Programme at the University of Hong Kong. — Construction+ Hong Kong
