PolyU Design helps 'rebuild' Bruce Lee’s home in virtual world

Dr Kenny K. N. Chow and Dr Anthony Kong of PolyU Design are teaming up with Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education in a project of 'rebuilding' the late Kung-Fu film legend Bruce Lee's home in the virtual space. The project, organised by the Bruce Lee Club, aims to build a digital recreation of the two-storey house which was demolished in 2019 so that fans around the world would be able to visit it and commemorate the star. Design students will also be invited to contribute to the project. The project is expected to be completed next year. Media coverage: 全球民眾可虛擬作客入巨星之家 李小龍故居元宇宙重現 - Headline Daily (Chinese) Kung fu star Bruce Lee’s last Hong Kong home to be recreated as a digital shrine for fans - SCMP (English) 

Brian Kwok as ‘Persons with Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Arts and Culture’

We feel proud to learn that Associate Professor Mr Brian Kwok was named ‘Persons with Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Arts and Culture’ by The Secretary for Home Affairs' Commendation Scheme. The Scheme is an official recognition granted to citizens for their long-term dedication towards the training and development of youths in uniformed groups, distinguished community services, or support to the promotion of culture and sports. As a key leader of neon sign projects in Hong Kong with significant contributions to various cultural activities including workshops, researches, seminars, publications and exhibitions for general public, Brian has great influence to many people through his work and no doubt well deserves the honour. Congratulations!

Design student and alumnus at Hong Kong Film Award

We are excited to learn that our Outstanding Alumnus Mr Man Lim Chung is nominated for Best Director and Best New Director in the 40th Hong Kong Film Award for his debut work ‘Keep Rolling’. The Award being an annual film awards ceremony celebrating excellence of film industry in Hong Kong and Greater China will be held in the evening of this Sunday (17 July). Earlier in May, Hong Kong Film Award Poster Competition announced winners. Among them our student Lau Ka Yi (Year 1, Digital Media) won First Runner-up with her fantastic design. Congratulations to Mr Man and Ka Yi on the achievements. We wish Mr Man the best of luck and enjoy each moment of the ceremony.

Masters students receiving honourable mention in Student Service Design Challenge 2022 IKEA Service Design Spin-off Challenge in the Barcelona Design Week

Congratulations to Team Kooly on receiving an honourable mention in the Student Service Design Challenge (SSDC) 2022 IKEA Service Design Spin-off Challenge in the Barcelona Design Week. Their project, Furn.up, scored high on the criterion ‘society oriented’ for their inclusive and sustainable service concept, will also be shown in the Dutch Design Week this October. Team Kooly is a multicultural and highly interdisciplinary design team consisting of six master’s students in the Master of Design (MDes) and MSc Multimedia and Entertainment Technology (MSc MET) programmes: Christy Au-Yeung and Zhengtao Ma (MSc MET) and Hyunjin Kang, Justus Bremer, Mengyan Liu, and Xinrui Wang (MDes). The team was formed out of their passion for sustainability and innovative service solutions, and all shared a vision to change the way people live through design. Through their knowledge in the fields of interaction, business and multimedia design, they explored the way of life in Hong Kong not only from an environmental perspective but also from a social perspective, rescuing the power of design in a comprehensive and highly specialised process. Team Kooly: “We formed our team based on the premise of trying to involve students from a variety of different backgrounds. Overall, the main goal for us was to be able to learn from one another and get an understanding of all the different skills designers from different disciplines might have since we all have slightly different work and education backgrounds.” “Multinationality was an important factor for us. Our team includes students from four different regions of the world, one from Hong Kong, three from Mainland China, one from South Korea, and one from Germany. This way, we could also get a lot of different cultural viewpoints into this project, which was an important factor that ensured the success of our project.” The SSDC is initiated by Philips Experience Design and co-organised with service design college in collaboration with IBM, IKEA, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 

Outstanding Student Annette Vong shares her life in a radio programme

Our Outstanding Student Award winner Miss Vong Ka Hei Annette (Environment and Interior Design) shared her life as a design student and a graduate-to-be in the RTHK programme aired last Friday (1 July 2022). Click below link and start listening. RTHK U秀幫 | 1 July 2022 | Language: Putonghua & Cantonese Listen now

'House of Dreams' wins UIA 2030 Award and more international prizes

We are excited to announce that 'House of Dreams' won the UIA 2030 Award co-presented by the International Union of Architects (UIA) and UN-Habitat.  House of Dreams was winner of the UIA 2030's Sustainable Development Goal #11 category. It was recognised for its 'collaborative effort between architect and local community extending through design and construction, in the revitalisation of a historical and cultural site.' The House of Dreams is conducted by Insitu Project, a research platform co-led by Mr Peter Hasdell, Associate Dean of PolyU Design and Mr Kuo Jze Yi of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning in Shenzhen U. The revitalised cave settlement in Zhoushan village in Henan Province, completed in 2020, was co-designed and implemented by Insitu Project together with Liang Jun, the Zhoushan Community Group and Dr Ku Hok Bun from APSS of PolyU.   The 3-year project involved participatory design and construction, social design, and design led social innovation through the alignment of social initiatives with the architectural revitalization of the cave area. The project used a circular material economy approach and was constructed by villagers from recycled construction and household waste. Fostering a bottom-up self-built approach enabled the community to reduce construction costs, increase skills and community pride, at the same time enabling a circular material economy which cleaned up the village as a result. The outcome is uniquely composed of thousands of details, stories and collective memories.    The UIA 2030 Award is another prestigious international award received by the project in addition to other five honours within a year. Other awards include the Human City Design Award, Winner and People’s Choice awards under the Social Good category of Azure Awards 2022, Gold Medal in the Taipei International Design Award 2021, the Architecture MasterPrize (AMP) award in 2021 and a Bronze in the Design Educates Awards 2022. The project was also shortlisted for a Dezeen award, and an Architecture in Development 2021 award.

PolyU Design students to work at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort as competition champions

We are proud to announce that the team formed by our students Kam Long Yin, Mak Ho Lam, Li Ka Man and Yeung Chin Ho has won the Championship at the Disney Imaginations Hong Kong 2022 Design Competition. The team beat over 90 teams to receive the honour and is offered with a 6-to-8-week internship for Walt Disney Imagineering Asia at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.   The Disney Imaginations Hong Kong Design Competition was brought to Hong Kong by Hong Kong Disneyland Resort in 2011, with the continued success in the United States. Students from selected design institutions use their technical, artistic and creative skills to propose concepts for an immersive experience. This is a great opportunity for participants to showcase their talent for integrating innovative and globally diverse ideas with a passion for Disney.  Congratulations to the winners of the Disney Imaginations Hong Kong 2022 Design Competition!  Read more: Students shine with creativity to win work experience at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort (The Standard 17 Jun 2022)

Products made from retired bottle coke trays exhibited at The Mills

Students of Product Design give a second life to the retired bottle trays of coke by turning them into new products like clothing tags for the visually impaired. The design was part of the Sustainable Product Design subject led by Mr Benny Ding Leong. This amazing project is now exhibited at 1/F Atrium, The Mills in ’Coca-Cola’ and the Bottle of Secrets” exhibition from now till end of June. All are welcome. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3Qklvda (English) https://bit.ly/39r5b9R (Chinese)

Daniel Elkin listed among PolyU Young Innovative Researchers 2022

Congratulations to Mr Daniel Elkin, Assistant Professor of PolyU Design on winning PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2022! The Award is received for his research project 'Pedestrian traffic monitoring, 3D stilt house scanning for Tai O Village revitalization'. It is a collaborative initiative of PolyU Design and Department of Applied Social Sciences partnered with the Tai O Village Rural Committee and various community groups to collect pedestrian traffic flow data in Tai O Village in Hong Kong. It monitors pedestrian traffic into the Village using infrared passage gates installed in eight major infrastructure connections.  The inaugural YIRA is established to honour young PolyU researchers under the age of 35 who have demonstrated novelty, contributed to technology advancement, and propelled transformational innovation into solutions for addressing problems in society with a vision for a positive change to the future. With this award, the University not only wishes to recognise the potential innovation, but to encourage and nurture a positive spirit of novelty within PolyU that will benefit the future. This year, the organiser received overwhelming responses with 59 submissions across 22 departments covering all faculties/schools. The YIRA assessment panel, composed of Prof. Jin-Guang Teng (P), Prof. Wing-tak Wong (DP), Dr Miranda Lou (EVP), Prof. Christopher Chao (VPRI) and Prof. Larry Chow (DoRI), has reviewed the submissions, interviewed shortlisted applicants and selected six YIRA awardees. Each awardee will receive research funding support of HK$500,000 and personal cash prize of HK$20,000 as the encouragement for their research novelty and impact.

PolyU Scholars named Best Article Prize in the Urban Studies Journal

Congratulations to Dr Ir Gerhard Bruyns and Darren Nel from PolyU Design, and Dr Christopher Higgins from University of Toronto Scarborough on winning Best Article Prize in the Urban Studies Journal for the article "Urban volumetrics: From vertical to volumetric urbanisation and its extensions to empirical morphological analysis". The prize is given to the authors of what the journal editors consider to be the most innovative and agenda-setting article published in the year. Urban Studies is an international peer-reviewed journal for urban scholarship. It welcomes submissions that further people’s understanding of urban condition and rapid changes taking place in cities and regions across the globe. The article is available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0042098020936970