Designing To Bring Green Smiles to Everyone

Architect Vicky Chan, Avoid Obvious Architects, Hong Kong   What are some of your distinct projects? Some of our on-going non-profit design works are: OneSky, a non-profit educational facility that provides responsive care and early education; K-Farm, the first urban farm in Hong Kong incorporating hydrophonics, aquaphonics and organic farming systems; Walk DVRC, an initiative that envisions a more walkable and liveable Central Business District. These all aim to make impact in the everyday lives of people in the environment towards sustainability. One of the most distinctive projects in Hong Kong we have is the urban farm K-Farm. We are working with ROUGH, a non-profit organization, to fundraise their project and the process has been interesting. Design studios are not normally known to do this as part of a normal project process. I think this opportunity, coupled with the team’s collaborative spirit and brainstorming sessions with the parties involved in these projects, have made this a very fun learning process. We hope to carry what we have learned onto our future projects and in life in general.   How is the World becoming a Global Village? We think globally by learning from the distinctive cultures around the world. Having knowledge of different things help us associate things together that we would not have normally done so and this makes us innovative in thinking. Pairing this with local knowledge, we can come up with creative and unique ideas. Working on various projects around the world needs different sensibilities as every context has its own unique problems that need unique solutions. Globalization has allowed us to work internally and externally with diverse sets of international teams in different cultures. This has allowed us to address various matters in complex environments through collaboration and clear communication with members, clients, and the general public. We try our best to promote sustainable ideas to create happy cities and green buildings that are enjoyable for all while taking care of the environment on a local to global scale.   What is the Future Roadmap for the Company? We are aiming to grow our team to 20 people to remain competitive while still keeping an innovative culture in the studio where everyone still has a high level of involvement in the design process. We would like to commit ourselves more to spreading education about architecture. Hopefully, we can teach and influence future generations to think and move forward into creating a place where sustainability, nurturing the relationship between the living and the environment will be the top priority in their decision-making.   Excerpts from the interview in Realty+ April 2019 issue http://digital.realtyplusmag.com/2139454/Realty-Plus/VOLUME-15-%7C-ISSUE-08-%7C-APRIL-2019#dual/46/1